Clockwork AE
by Tiggipi
Summary: Zian is the young heir to his father's company, living out his bland day-to-day life the way his father wishes. On a day off work Zian buys a copy of Second Life out of boredom. Little does he know just how much the game will change his life—ALT END—M/M
1. The Day Off

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** This is an alternate ending/version of _Clockwork_. Not only have several people told me they would have preferred a different pairing in the end, but I was also asked to write an a.e. (I was actually writing this beforehand, but I wouldn't have uploaded it. Good thing I was asked. Thank you, **Tearless Wish**. :P)_

_If you haven't already read the original, it doesn't really matter in regard to reading this story. I won't be leaving anything out that's needed to understand what's going on._

_And just to make things fresh and interesting, I have also given this a new back-story alongside the new ending._

…_I feel like I'm writing a fanfic of my fanfic. xP_

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><p><em>"Zian, take the day off."<em>

A day off from work. I could hardly believe those words had come from my father's mouth. I had a somewhat difficult time processing them, as though my father had spoken in a different language I'd never heard before. It wasn't even the weekend and I was allowed a day off. The fear that my employees would cause a disaster in my absence faded somewhat as I rolled those two words around in my mind, contemplating them thoroughly as if they were some sort of philosophical musing.

Day off.

Once I thought about it, I realized I hadn't had a day off in a very long time. In fact, I'd never had one throughout the two years that I'd been a part of the work force. Perhaps my father was becoming more sentimental later in his life, he decided to allow me more time to myself rather than working me to the bone every single day.

As if. The thought of my father being sentimental made me want to laugh at its absurdity. Anyway, he wasn't particularly old at the somewhat seasoned age of forty-seven, so senility was also ruled out immediately.

He would never give me a holiday out of fatherly kindness. All his life, he'd ceaselessly worked himself as hard as he could, and thus he naturally expected those around him to do the same. I had gotten used to it over the years, I supposed. After my older brother left the house over a decade ago when he and I were still in our teens, all of my father's hopes of a son succeeding him were relocated to me. Having work as my entire life had become normal since then. I had nothing better to do, anyway.

But when faced with the opportunity to spend an entire day however I wanted, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. All of my friends were at work and there was nothing at home I would have deemed "entertaining"; I found television programs to be idiotic and I'd never wasted my time on them; I could have done my work at home through my computer, but it was my day off—not a day to do work; and I highly doubted the house staff would keep me company, not that I would have wanted them to in the first place. They always treated me as though my father, who upheld strict hierarchical rules, would dismember them if they so much as made eye contact with me, and I had long-since become disinterested with the prospect of their companionship.

Standing in the center of the perfectly polished floor, I slowly turned around and visually searched my tidy office for something to do. There were hundreds upon hundreds of books written of many topics and genres neatly stacked on shelves built into the glossy, paneled walls of the spacious room, but I had never been one for reading as a pass-time. The books were my brother's. Ones he'd left behind when he'd moved out. They were there simply because I didn't want to get rid of them, not because I was interested at all in reading what they contained. Perhaps they held a hope that he would come back someday, if only to reclaim his own property and leave again.

My eyes landed on my desk, then slid to the old external hard drive I'd placed next to my computer tower several days ago to remind myself to buy a new one. Smiling slightly in bemusement at my strange need for a justifiable reason to leave the house, I took a moment to write down my computer information on a small scrap of paper, grabbed a gray pea coat off the wall peg near the door and slipped into it, scooped up my car keys, then hurried downstairs.

The fact that the maids were bidding me farewell with clasped hands and respectfully inclined heads barely registered in my mind as I left. They treated themselves as tools and pieces of the house rather than human beings. I played along, as I always had. A part of me was thankful they left me alone. I'd had quite enough of people fussing over me during my childhood.

Twenty minutes later as I entered the overly air-conditioned electronics store, I felt somewhat breathless as I looked over the interior, blinking my eyes in the odd dimness after the bright summer sunshine I'd just been comfortably basking in outside. I walked quietly toward the computer section, stepping carefully to avoid attracting unwanted attention to myself.

My first day off was making me feel jumpy. I was filled with the slight tension of excitement one gets when they are somewhere they aren't supposed to be. A tiny part of my mind was half-expecting my father to leap out at me from between the rows of shelved electronics and demand I explain myself to him for not coming into work that morning. Not that he would ever do something so rambunctious. He had a respectable image to uphold as company president, after all.

The computer hard drives were disappointingly easy to find. I bent down, looked over the information on the paper I'd brought, slipped a drive that was compatible with my computer off the shelf, then straightened with a sigh. There must have been something else to do in the store other than pick up that box, buy it and leave. Even staring at the display of computer mice seemed more appealing than going home after such a short and uneventful outing.

I wandered down the aisle, looking here and there in slight boredom. My footsteps paused as I reached the end of the row. To my left was a neat line of laptops; something I didn't need to look at, since my own computer, and laptop as well, were both nearly brand new.

Instead, I turned to my right and walked toward a very eye-catching aisle. It wasn't difficult to guess what this section of the store was dedicated to, since no matter where I looked, hovering in the air were larger-than-life holograms of characters I'd never seen before from video games I'd only heard of in passing, if at all. I felt somewhat hesitant to continue as nearly everyone walking about in that area seemed to be in their teens. Not that I was much older at the blossoming age of twenty-four, but I still felt a bit out of place and disconnected from their youthful liveliness I'd long-since been forced to abandon.

Deciding I was over-thinking things, I ignored my discomfort and strode up to the flashiest display there was. It didn't take me long to move on after looking over the abnormally muscular man donning thick, spiky armor, holding an enormous blood-covered hammer in one hand and a battered shield in the other. If anything, that disgusting display made me want to buy whatever game it was even less than I did initially, which was not at all.

My fingers clasped the thin hard drive box a bit tighter and I determinedly forced my gaze to stay straight ahead when I hurried past a violently pink-colored section filled with giggling teenage girls. I wondered if their vision would be okay after looking at all of that for so long. Even simply seeing that horrid color out of the corner of my eyes for a only few seconds, everything seemed to have a slightly green tint afterward.

As my interest in the store was beginning to sink to a dangerously low level, I paused and looked back the way I'd come. I'd passed a very out-of-place, calm-looking set of shelves between the numerous ostentatious game exhibits.

Without turning my head too much, so I didn't have to see that blindingly pink place again, I stepped back and curiously ran my eyes over the large screen placed above the display. A lovely, sunny field with a few odd-looking people walking through the long grass faded out and was replaced with a dreary-looking cliff with several ugly monsters crawling about. That scene was soon exchanged for a brief glimpse of the inside of a lively, torch-lit tavern, filled with people drinking and eating at wooden tables.

I watched as the picture changed several more times, each showing a different place, then the screen faded to black. The name _Second Life_ appeared a moment later in large, white letters, with a short description of the virtual reality game underneath.

While the slide show of in-game clips resumed, I glanced down with slight intrigue at the stacks of boxes, large ones labeled with _Gaming Helmet + Second Life Game Cartridge_ on my left, much smaller ones labeled with only _Second Life Game Cartridge_ on my right. I had almost no experience when it came to games of any sort. The one instance when I'd played a video game when I was younger was very abrupt and short-lived. In fact, I doubted the occasion could have even been labeled as a gaming experience. Only moments after I'd turned on the game, it had been immediately snatched away and disposed of by one of my guardians, because it was apparently taking time from "more important things." As such, I'd never gotten the opportunity to play another. But this game, _Second Life_, seemed quite a bit more inviting than the others on sale. Perhaps it could relieve my boredom.

I hesitantly reached out and pulled one of the larger boxes off its shelf, my heart pounding as I imagined what my father would say if he saw me picking it up. Feeling a bit rebellious, I quickly wrapped an arm around the bulky package and glanced cautiously around the aisle as if someone was going to take it away from me.

No one was paying me any attention, aside from the normal amount of brief looks, and I mentally slapped myself for being so ridiculously self-conscious. Where had my normally calm and bland demeanor gone? Never had something evoked such a bizarre mood in me, as though I was about to partake in some guilty pleasure I hadn't known I had a weakness toward.

Gripping both of the boxes tighter, I smiled faintly while I walked to the checkout, once again feeling as if I was doing something I shouldn't. As I put the boxes down on the counter beside the cash register, I tried to shake off my cautiousness. After all, it was my day off and I was allowed to do as I pleased. But I still knew my father would not be happy with me at all if he found out I'd spent my day playing games rather than doing something he would deem productive. I could clearly hear his quiet, monotonous voice in my head as if he was right there beside me telling me what a waste it was.

_"What a waste."_

I'd heard those words before on more than one occasion. They were usually spoken in hindsight over my brother's departure. As much as I loved my brother, sometimes I couldn't help but agree with my father's disappointed words. After all, my brother was a very talented person. One my father's company could have used and benefited from greatly. But they were stuck with the insignificant me instead. What a waste.

With a polite nod of thanks to the cashier, I left the store after paying and glanced down at the bags in my hands. My mood, which had been soured with my thoughts of the past, was lifted a bit as the _Second Life_ box invitingly stared up at me.

Rummaging around in the pocket of my casual black slacks, I pulled out my car keys and sighed while I unlocked my car, watching the little distortions in the air from heat roiling off the black paint. Though I was anxious to return home and try the game, I was somewhat annoyed with myself for not having the foresight to wonder just how I was supposed to get back into my room without anyone noticing what I was carrying. I doubted any of the staff at home would inform my father I was playing games, if only to avoid getting themselves into trouble for bringing up such _terrible_ news, but I doubted even more that he was going to allow a day to pass by without keeping tabs on my actions.

I was starting to wish I'd gone into work, even without being required to do so. Or read one of those books in my office, regardless of how I thought they were boring. What good was having a day off if I was continually second-guessing my behavior?

Shaking my head as I set my purchases on the passenger seat, I reluctantly started my car and turned on the radio to a nice classical station in an attempt to distract myself. I'd gotten far too serious about everything. My brother's somewhat thoughtless, impulsive behavior was starting to sound very nice in comparison to my sheltered, narrow world.

Quickly pushing those feelings out of my head, I pulled away from the electronics store and joined the sparse late morning traffic on the road. My father and my responsibilities were much more important to me than such frivolous things, and I wasn't particularly discontent with my life, anyway.

My father had been abandoned by one son. I wasn't about to become the second.

Still, it was very nerve-wracking as I finally made it home after driving around quite a bit in an attempt to calm myself down. I'd finally decided to simply walk in with my bags in hand. After all, they weren't see-through and it wouldn't be strange of me to have bought something from that store; I often upgraded my computer equipment.

I made sure the top of the bag was closed, then I stepped up to the enormous front door, through which an obscenely obese elephant could probably fit. After allowing myself only a moment to slip into my usual persona of the obedient, reserved young master of the household, I entered the house.

As always, the prim maids seemed to know exactly when I was about to come in. One of them shut the door behind me and I strode past their neat rows as they greeted me with the usual welcomes, sounding like robots programmed with one or two lines of speech. Then again, that also applied to me. I said, "Yes, father," so often, it had nearly become a reflex.

"Zhu Ren."

I reluctantly paused in my ascent of the steep staircase and slowly turned around at the quiet call from one of the younger butlers. His down-turned eyes made me want to slap him upside the head so he'd finally look at me. The whole house staff probably knew all of the rooms' floors' appearances better than they knew mine.

"What is it?" I asked, frowning at him for the interruption.

"Lunch shall be ready shortly," he informed, dipping his head even further.

I nodded vaguely at his words, not that he could see my response while he stared at his feet, and glanced up the stairs where my refuge awaited. "I am feeling rather tired. I will eat in my room."

"Yes, of course. I will have a tray brought to you, Zhu Ren."

He turned away as I resumed my climb and hurried to my room, not feeling tired at all. I'd used that excuse countless times in the past, usually to avoid having to eat alone in the huge dining hall. But no one ever questioned my hesitancy to dine in there. No one, aside from my father, ever questioned me on anything. The house staff was composed of mindless drones, wordlessly carrying out whatever order I gave. It was endlessly irritating. Efficient, yes. But irritating. Mostly because every time I looked at them, I was reminded of myself and how I unquestioningly did everything my father asked of me.

No free-will whatsoever.

But perhaps it was simply easier to live that way.

I sighed with relief as I shut my office door behind myself and slipped off my coat, neatly hanging it up on its carved wall peg. It seemed that I'd managed to smuggle my waste of time into the house without anyone knowing. Though it'd had an awkward start, I was very much enjoying my day off. I felt as though I'd gone back to my childhood years when my brother and I did all sorts of sneaky things together simply to see whether or not we would get caught. Though those days had come to an abrupt end when we did indeed get caught. Punishment had of course followed.

With the _Second Life_ box hidden away in one of my desk drawers, I seated myself on my wheeled office chair and began transferring the files from my old hard drive to the new one. A very boring task. One I was very happy to interrupt as lunch was brought in to me shortly after I'd begun working.

I silently watched as the maid carefully set the tray of food down on the small table near the sunny window beside my desk, then proceeded to bow herself out of the room. "Do not call me for dinner," I ordered before she could leave. She nearly looked at me. Nearly. Her efforts made me inwardly roll my eyes.

"Yes, Zhu Ren."

I stood once she was gone and locked the door. Lunch forgotten, I retrieved the _Second Life_ box and went into my bedroom. I sat myself on the soft cushions of my small sofa and carefully pulled the tape off the box. It made a very loud tearing noise and I froze, wondering if anyone else had heard it.

Several minutes passed and no one knocked on my office door, so I nervously went back to what I'd been doing. The top opened by itself once it wasn't held together any longer and I reached inside. My hand closed around a thin book and I pulled it out, briefly looking over the cover.

"User manual," I mumbled to myself and set it to one side. Putting my hand in the box again, I pulled out a small, cardboard package and a transparent plastic bag full of wires. I glanced into the box, then set it on the floor as I saw it was empty.

The second box opened to reveal a strange-looking contraption. A quick look through the manual told me that it was the game helmet. I critically ran my eyes over it. It didn't look very comfortable, especially since I was supposed to sleep in it. I would have to be very careful about the position I slept in so I didn't get impressions of the plastic all over my face.

After I skimmed the rest of the manual to get a basic grasp on how to work everything, I stood up, headset in hand. It was barely midday, but I was itching to try it out regardless of the time.

I allowed myself a few minutes to change into my pajamas and close my thick curtains to darken the room, then I settled down atop my bed. I held the headset in my hands for a moment and simply stared at it. I'd never thought about it before, but the idea of becoming someone else, in a game or not, was rather intriguing. But I was still struggling with how my father would react if he found out what I was doing. Regardless of my age, he was still very controlling and expected the very best from me. This would only be seen by him as an unwanted distraction.

Deciding I would only play the game every once and a while to keep it out of the way of my real responsibilities, I plugged the headset into a power outlet by my bed, inserted the game cartridge, then slipped the device over my head. With one more moment of hesitation, I laid down and closed my eyes.

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><p><em>"Zhu Ren" is the equivalent of "master." A thank you goes to wintercrystal for supplying the correct term. :)<br>_


	2. Messy Beginnings

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note –** I purposefully skipped over walking through the character creation process. You all know how it goes…_

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><p>I deeply breathed in the warm, fresh air of <em>Second Life<em> and curiously looked at my surroundings. This game was so detailed, it made me feel somewhat overwhelmed as I took a few steps forward from where I'd appeared in the courtyard of a small village. The cobblestone street was so solid under my light boots, the sun so bright above me, the blue clothing I wore so soft against my skin. Virtual reality was so unexpectedly, well, real. Quite different from the hand-held game I'd played so many years ago. And quite different from the real world, oddly enough. It was slightly inconceivable that I was actually sleeping in my bedroom rather than walking down a road.

The character design process I'd just finished with had gone very slowly, because I'd been feeling very indecisive for the first time in a long while. Usually if I had to make a decision about something, I based my choice on whatever it was my father would have chosen. But, since this all had nothing whatsoever to do with him, I'd made everything unnecessarily difficult for myself in my exhilaration.

I'd eventually chosen to be an angel from the celestial race, simply because I liked the idea of having wings. However, once I'd entered the game world itself, I wasn't quite sure where those magnificent wings had gone. They weren't on my back any longer, aside from a few lines of tiny black feathers running across my skin, which all together were hardly enough for a small bird to use to fly, much less an entire man. But my light-weight newbie clothing did have intentional holes positioned at my shoulders where my wings were supposed to be protruding.

Perhaps I should have asked more questions to the man who helped me make my character. Then again, he might not have answered me even if I'd asked. I'd spent the majority of the time with him in that large checkered room making my character's sleek black hair grow and shrink, because it was oddly entertaining to watch.

He'd eventually yelled at me to hurry up and make my choice, though his reaction had only made me want to continue, since his irritation was even more amusing than the hair. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to me as if I was a normal human rather than the son of a prominent figure in society. Not even my friends talked to me like that.

After I'd stopped tormenting the poor man, I'd quickly corrected my character's hair length, making it fall nearly to his waist in straight, shiny black torrents, shimmering with a slight blue tint in the bright light. Quite some time later, I'd decided on deep gold eyes and a creamy complexion that went nicely with his pale blue clothing. Although the man had made many unwanted suggestions along the way about how to make myself "extra super handsome for the ladies," I'd politely refused all of his offers of special additives and beautifying, since I couldn't care less if I was popular. Not that I wanted to be ugly, if only to drive people away; to a certain extent I did have vanity in regard to my appearance. But I had no interest in attracting and associating with people who were only interested in my looks, much like those only getting close to me for my elevated social status. Such shallow people weren't worth my time.

The man assisting me had heaved a long, relieved sigh once I was done and asked me in a very annoyed tone what I wanted to name myself.

In contrast to the rest of the needlessly lengthy creation process, it hadn't been difficult at all to think up a name. As I'd run my eyes over the bright, pure-looking angel, my mind had wandered back to when my older brother had talked to me of the things he'd read about in his large collection of books. For some time, he'd been fixated on Greek mythology.

"Aeolus," I'd chosen after a brief moment's thought. The Greek king in control of the winds. It had sounded very fitting for the angel that had been standing in front of me, who looked as though he would be able to manipulate the air as easily as he could fly through it. But I hadn't had long to marvel over his impressiveness, as the man helping me—probably in a want to get rid of me—had abruptly shoved me off to the Central Continent without asking me beforehand where I wanted to go. Not that I'd had an opinion on the matter…

There I found myself, wandering down a tidy, shop-lined street, wondering what to do first. I felt slightly lost, having no definite plans to follow. Every single one of my days up until then had been so carefully organized and planned, the release from my boundaries was both refreshing and somewhat frightening.

I paused in my slow steps and frowned at myself. I was once again taking everything too seriously. This was a game. I didn't need a schedule or any orders to act on.

Fixing that thought in my head, I proceeded down the street once more, admiring my surroundings—small shops and houses dotting the roadside, other people chatting to one another as they went about their business, little patches of lovely-smelling flowers and leafy trees here and there, tiny insects buzzing about. Oddly normal things, yet they all looked so interesting.

I took my time appreciating the quaint scene unfolding before me, and then continued on my way. The lively village was very tiny and it didn't take me long to reach the edge. My eyes widened with unexpected surprise as I stepped out onto the rough dirt path and looked about the grassy stretches of land that went in every direction. The knowledge that I was inside a game was steadily fading the more time I spent in it. This was an entire world separate from the one I'd been living in.

"A second _l__ife_, hm?" I murmured under my breath, smiling in suppressed excitement as I took in the sight. No wonder so many people played games.

After walking down the path for a few minutes, my attention was completely captured by a round, colorful thing enthusiastically bouncing about on a small knoll beside a nearby a lake, glittering in the sunlight. I slowly moved closer, curious as to what the blob was, since I'd never seen anything like it before. Given that this was the first time I'd played a game, for all I knew they were a common sight in the world of games, but they were very unique to me.

I stopped a meter or so away from it and watched as it hopped around. There were several others—all the same acidic green hue—surrounding the hill as well, none of them seeming to notice my presence, and I stared at them in bemusement. They reminded me slightly of children's gummy snacks, only much larger and alive. I doubted they tasted anything like the snacks, though. Not that I was going to test one out to see.

Carefully picking up a long tree branch that had been laying by my feet, I crouched in the grass and waited until the nearest creature was facing me. When it turned, I quickly stabbed the stick into its wide, tooth-filled mouth and lifted it into the air, inspecting it as closely as I dared.

"Who in the world designed the monsters to look like this?" I asked myself in disbelief as the blob wriggled around on the stick. I hoped the other monsters were more imposing than that bulbous…thing.

"These look anything but threatening."

I wasn't very surprised as a thick, green ooze started rolling down my stick from where I'd poked the blob. Before the goo could touch my hand I dropped the stick on the ground, feeling somewhat disgusted. The whatever-it-was made a gurgling growl and began hopping toward me with what I supposed was an angry expression on its little face, flecks of goo flying out of its wounded mouth. I kicked it away when it got too close and watched it fall down the side of the hill. It landed upside down and began rolling to and fro, unable to right itself.

Unwilling to get my nice white boots dirty by stomping the pathetic creature to death, I searched around myself for a moment. My eyes landed on a large rock poking out of the grass and I hurried to it. With some difficulty I lifted it in the air and cautiously stepped over to the indignantly snarling blob. I dropped the rock on top of it, causing it to pop with a loud, wet noise. I watched in horror as pieces of the monster's gooey innards landed on my precious boots. I'd been so careful to keep myself clean, yet that stupid thing had ruined all my efforts in one tiny moment.

I jumped violently and was startled out of my anger as a voice suddenly rang through the air. **"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED FLESH-EATING SLIME! EXPERIENCE +25! ITEM GAINED: NEWBIE POUCH! NEW SKILLS LEARNED: SWIFT STAB, EVASIVE KICK, BOULDER CRUSH!"**

That game voice was definitely going to get on my nerves in a very short amount of time, I thought, clutching at my chest as I breathed shakily after the moment of fright at not having any idea who was screaming at me so obnoxiously.

**"ADVICE FOR NEWBIES: TO VIEW YOUR STATISTICS, SAY THE WORD 'SYSTEM'!"**

Not particularly caring what my stats were at the moment, I gingerly plucked the small pouch out of the slime's remains and grimaced as my fingers slipped through green goop, which had the consistency and stickiness of tree sap.

"Oh, wonderful. Now it is on my hands, too," I mumbled to myself as I opened the pouch and looked inside, hoping there was a handkerchief or something else I could clean myself off with. Disappointment turned the corners of my mouth further downward as I pulled out a small glass bottle of some blue liquid I couldn't identify, a few silver coins, a white cloak I doubted was meant for hand-wiping, and a short dagger resting in a prettily decorated little sheath. I returned everything to the pouch and securely tied it onto my belt, sighing as I rubbed the goop off my hands, onto a patch of grass.

My hands didn't stay clean for long as I picked up the boulder. It parted with the late slime in a mess of goo and squelchy noises. I then proceeded to vent all my anger toward the imbecile of a monster for having soiled my boots as I hurried around the hill, squashing the rest of them one after the other.

Standing a few meters away from the slimes as I threw the rock proved to be a much cleaner method of killing them than my new dagger would have been. It was extremely tiring, repeatedly tossing the heavy boulder about, but I much preferred that to getting slime all over myself, so I persisted. And I had short breaks to pick up loot then and again when I'd killed all of the blobs and had to wait for new ones to appear, so it wasn't overwhelmingly exhausting.

A few hours later, I dropped the rock a final time and the system informed me that I had reached level ten at last. Smiling with relief through my heavy breathing and aching muscles, I remembered reading in the game manual that level ten was what I needed to get a job. No more squishing slimes for experience. What a wonderful thought it was. And a strange one, at that.

I hurried away from the messy hill, hoping to never see another flesh-eating slime again, and stopped just outside the western entrance to the celestial newbie village. "System," I said at last, then flinched with surprise when a large screen abruptly appeared in mid-air before my eyes. I gave a brief glance to my own picture, and then ran my eyes down the list of statistics.

Having no idea what the little numbers and words meant, I closed the system window and entered the village again, rearranging my hair neatly over one shoulder and feeling relieved that none of the revolting goo had gotten in it. If it had, I doubted even the best shampoos would have been able to get it clean again.

Entering the center of the village where the market was located, I stood to one side and silently ran my eyes over the people milling about. There were several shops located on the edges of the open area, all with hanging signs swaying about in the breeze attached to their fronts. Each had a small wooden relief on it, depicting an object of focus that was sold in the shop.

I halted my eyes on the shop with a sword sign. There was a rather burly, rugged man out front, speaking energetically to the people standing beside him. He must have been the person one went to for a warrior class change. I definitely didn't want to be a warrior, since they fought in close combat with their opponents. I'd already had quite enough of being near monsters and getting their insides all over myself.

Looking to the next building, I immediately rejected going there. It was a magic shop, judging by the staff on the sign and the bizarre-looking man in bright blue robes standing outside chatting with the nearby players. Magic wasn't very appealing to me either, though more so than being a warrior. Carrying a staff around with me wherever I went seemed like it would be irritating and inconvenient. Plus being a magician didn't sound very stealthy. All of the bright flashing spells—not to mention the billowing robes, which I assumed came with the job—would be very eye-catching. I didn't want to be eye-catching, especially not when aggressive monsters were involved.

An archery shop was the next in line. My eyes widened slightly in interest. My brother and I practiced archery some during our high school years, along with a great deal of useless other things I'd probably never do again, like play the piano.

I had experience with archery, enjoyed it, was skilled at it, and it was a long-distance kind of combat. It seemed like an all-around good choice.

Ignoring the other shops I hadn't taken into consideration, I hurried across the square, weaving between the people walking about, then stopped in front of the archery master. He was tall, thin and had short-cropped, leaf-colored hair and sharp eyes of the same color that looked as though they could see for miles. A rather menacing-looking person, overall.

He silently stared at me with a cold look. I stared back, trying very hard not to blink, and waited for him to speak. He tightened his grip on the very large crossbow he held in his hands, but I kept my eyes fixated on his. A smile suddenly broke out onto his face and I felt slightly confused at the complete turn-around. He slapped a long-fingered, calloused hand on my shoulder a few times and chuckled deeply. "Well, it looks like you have the focus it takes to be an archer."

My face felt a bit warm as a small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I hadn't been expecting a compliment from the fierce-looking NPC. If anything, I thought perhaps he was going to shoot me full of crossbow bolts for staring at him. I wondered if all the other job masters tested their customers in some way, or if he'd just been bored.

"You seem kinda weak, though," he continued after a moment, once again slapping my shoulder and watching my knees buckle under the impact.

I was annoyed that he wouldn't stop hitting me, but more so that it was obvious to anyone who saw me that I was a newbie; I was wearing _newbie_ clothes, and also we were in a _newbie _village. Of course I was weak. What was he expecting?

"I only just started playing," I slowly explained, wondering why I had to explain it in the first place, especially to a NPC of all people. Wasn't that sort of information coded into the program?

He nodded, then took his hand back, much to my relief. "But what about your skill points? You woulda gained some from fighting up to level ten."

"Oh," I breathed in realization, refraining from rubbing my sore and most likely bruised shoulder. "Yes, I…did not know what to use those on…"

"As an archer, you'll wanna keep up your agility and physique," he started, thumping himself on the chest. I was glad it wasn't me. "Dexterity's very important, 'cause you have to keep out of your opponents' reach n' stuff," he told me with a nod.

I wordlessly nodded back in solemn agreement, having no idea what he was saying and not knowing how to respond. It sounded like he knew what he was talking about, whatever was going on.

He suddenly grabbed my upper arms and turned me around. "Hm, black wings?" He took hold of my hands and stretched them out to each side, tugging on them gently. "Impressive span, by the looks of it. At least four, maybe even five meters from tip-to-tip."

"Oh?" I said quietly with a bewildered look over my shoulder as he began prodding my lightly feathered skin through the holes in the back of my shirt. His fingers felt ticklish against my sensitive shoulder blades, but I forced myself to stay still.

With a noise of confirmation—whatever it was he was confirming, I didn't know—he turned me back around. I didn't bother to get comfortable in my position, just in case he was going to do something weird again.

He took a deep breath and began, "Strength is important, so your wings can support your weight and you don't strain any muscles. If you'd chosen the guardial race, you woulda needed a lot more. However, since you're an angel and of a light build, it's fine to use a bit fewer points on strength. So, go with about a third or fourth of your skill points for strength every level-up until you don't get tired anymore when flying, and after that it'll just be your own choice whether you wanna make it higher or not. Seems like you shouldn't have any problems there.

"As for agility—" he paused to refill his lungs, "—you'll need a lot, lot,_ lot_ for aerial combat. Some mobs and players out there use long-range as well as close-range attacks, so at times you'll have to be both on offensive and defensive while fighting, and that can get kinda confusing while you're flying around. Plus it's crucial to up your stamina so you can fly for long stretches of time, whether for battle or for travel. Use the majority of your points for agility and stamina every level up—a half, or even two-thirds until you get to the point where you aren't having any trouble with evasive techniques.

"Use the rest on whatever you want; it's all very preference-based. A few points here and there on your mana wouldn't be too bad, since special attacks often use magic, even if you're not a magician. All those little skills might come in handy at some point, so ignore them or don't. Whatever you wanna do," he finally ended, sounding a bit winded after such a long lecture.

"I see…" I whispered faintly, once again feeling overwhelmed by new information. The game's complexity was starting to come into perspective. Those things about flying hadn't even crossed my mind. After all, birds and whatnot seemed to have no problems whatsoever flying, why would I? I could understand why strength was of more importance to the guardials of the celestial race, though. I had immediately turned down that choice as it had looked like a hideous, giant gorilla with wings. Not at all nice to look at.

Before the man could start talking again, I quickly opened the system window and had him walk me through the use of my accumulated skill points, since he seemed like the most qualified person to ask. After a few moments, I was out of points and leveled up.

"Great!" he exclaimed loudly and raised a hand. I hastily stepped to one side before he had a chance to pummel my poor arm again and he shot me an amused look. "Learn quickly, don'cha?"

I sent him a quick, polite smile in return, though I wasn't feeling at all amused by his rough treatment. He may have only been playing with me, but it still hurt. My pale blue newbie armor, which was far too thin and flimsy to actually have many defensive capabilities, was doing a very disappointing job keeping me protected.

"May I change my class now?" I inquired somewhat eagerly. I hadn't used a bow in years and holding one again sounded very appealing. Especially since my weapon of choice had just been a large, goo-covered rock. A bow sounded much nicer.

And much more effective, for that matter.

"Nope," the archery master immediately denied, shaking his head in refusal and dashing my hopes to pieces.

My eyes widened slightly and I stared at him for a moment, confused. "And why not?"

"Because you hafta bring me ten eagle feathers," he informed, waving one of his thin fingers. "Every job master requires their customers to complete a little quest for a class change!"

"Where are the eagles?" I asked, feeling annoyed that I had to do something else. I wanted to go explore, not stand about in this newbie village, since the game world was so huge and there were so many other places to see.

"In the little forest, just outside the north gate," he answered, pointing a hand to my right.

"Thank you." I quickly nodded at him, hurried away through the irritatingly dense crowd of newbies, and headed for the forest to which he'd directed me, attempting to beat down my rising excitement. I hadn't seen the eagles yet, but they sounded more challenging than those ridiculous blobs I'd been squishing.

Running to the little wooded area full of tall, pale birch trees, I craned my neck back, searching the thick branches, but then glanced regretfully toward the village gate. In the onslaught of gamer jargon and arm slapping, I'd forgotten to ask the archery master how to use my wings. I didn't suppose it would be hard to figure it out on my own how to make them sprout, but it was still nice to have someone else to ask such questions. Someone who actually knew what they were doing. There were a few other newbies nearby in the trees and on the ground, probably other soon-to-be-archers, but I didn't want to ask them.

Sighing, I turned back to the tree I was standing beside, grabbed a low-hanging branch, and proceeded to climb. Once I reached the nest I'd been aiming for, I peered over the edge and was very startled to find myself nose-to-beak with a thoroughly annoyed-looking eagle.

Trying not to feel as scared as I wanted to, I cautiously reached out a hand toward it. It let out a loud squawk as its head darted forward and pecked my palm almost faster than I could see. Glaring at the bird, I punched the side of its head, and then rubbed at the small cut its beak had made in my skin. It hurt, but it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as something like that would have in real life, I realized with a smirk. This was going to be easy.

Reaching toward the eagle again, my fear gone, I swiftly grabbed it by the throat and squeezed as hard as I could. Its wings and legs waved wildly, beating me upside the head and giving me several gashes on my arms, but I persisted, using my other arm to shield my face from its frantic attacks. I gave one last squeeze, twisted, and felt its neck snap. The eagle went limp in my hand and I cautiously peeked at it over my elbow.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED EAGLE! EXPERIENCE +50! QUEST ITEM RECEIVED: EAGLE FEATHER! NEW SKILL LEARNED: STRANGULATION!"**

I felt slightly sorry for killing the poor bird in such a manner, but smiled as I tucked the newly-acquired feather and the other loot safely into my pouch, then proceeded to eagerly stare at the empty nest, waiting for a new one to spawn. I could have simply moved somewhere else, but I didn't feel like climbing down the tree. Anyway, staying in one spot allowed my scratches time to heal before the next fight came around.

It only took me half an hour longer to strangle nine more eagles to death, and I was back in front of the willowy archery master, covered in wounds and feeling very proud of myself. I thrust the feathers at him before he had a chance to start another staring match. "May I change my class _now_?"

"Sure," he said, smiling happily at me as he took the feathers. He then dismissively waved his hand at me as the game yelled my job had been changed. "There you go, you're now an archer. Your new weapon is in your pouch!"

I nodded at him in thanks, and quickly stepped away from the shop to allow the next person in line to speak to him. Leaving the village again by the northern gate, so I didn't have to go past the annoying hill of slimes, I walked for several minutes until I was out of sight of the eagle-filled birches.

I finally stopped underneath a tall pine tree beside the dirt path and flipped open the pouch on my belt. Inserting my hand, I felt around for a moment. My fingers brushed against the loot I'd crammed inside while killing slimes and eagles, and that cloak, and that bottle, and then they bumped against something thin and smooth I couldn't recall storing. Wrapping my hand around it, I tugged on the end, and began removing it from my pouch, slowly so it didn't catch on anything else inside.

The bow just kept coming and coming. It nearly looked as though it was going to be too big to manage. When the end finally left the pouch, I continued to stare downward, wondering just how the giant bow had managed to fit in there. From the outside the little leather bag looked to be barely able to hold a handful of loot, much less a longbow that was nearly as tall as I.

Closing the pouch, I decided I wasn't going to dwell on such mysterious things as I assumed there were going to be many more equally not-so-understandable occurrences. I weighed the bow in my hand. It was nearly a hundred and fifty centimeters long, made of a gray-colored wood, and was very light as if the limb was hollow. Ideal for carrying while flying, since it would probably not add any weight.

I experimentally drew the string and found the bow to be extremely flexible and sturdy. I carefully bent it back as far as I could. The bow contorted obediently, without cracking or seeming to be strained. I let it snap back to its original shape and smiled.

This was definitely going to be fun.

* * *

><p><em>Initially, Aeolus was a warrior with a guan dao as a weapon, but I changed him to an archer. This way, he can fight from a tree, or the air, or wherever else. It's more fitting of his quiet, stand-offish nature, than to be in the middle of the fray, slicing and dicing his opponents.<em>

_And his race at first was an aasimar (from the celestial race, but actually a human-based creature), but I figured that would make him look too much like Wicked with the silver hair and gold eyes aasimars have, so I switched him to the angel race, keeping the gold eyes and changing his hair to black. _

_Plus the one time I've seen Second Life characters with wings was during the first chapter of the manhua when Lan was choosing her race. I can't recall seeing anyone in-game with them. Doll is also an angel yet she doesn't have wings for some reason or another (I've always wondered why…) but I wanted Aeolus to have them—because they're symbolic, and because I think wings are cool. xD And because I feel like they'll get in the way sometimes, they're retractable. Might as well go all-out, right?_


	3. Meeting Dib

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** "Jingli" is the equivalent of "Manager," which is Zian's position at work._

* * *

><p><em>"Jingli?"<em>

_I glanced upward from the papers on my desk and halted my fountain pen mid-signature. The bright face of my newest employee grinned expectantly at me from the open gap of my office door. It was an expression I was not at all used to seeing yet, since most of the people at work either seemed to see me as an annoyance or an object of fear._

_"What is it?"_

_"I have today's report for you!" he explained quickly, waving a small stack of papers in the air. Something else to read. Just what I needed, I sarcastically thought._

_"Thank you," I said, patting my right hand on top of my desk, "put it here, please."_

_"Yes, Jingli." He hurried forward to obey._

_I returned my attention to writing the rest of my signature, then shifted the paper out of the way. Afterward, I looked up in confusion. He was still there, staring at me with a small smile. "What is it?" I repeated quietly._

_His mouth dropped open a bit and he looked slightly embarrassed. "O-oh!" He chuckled, clasping his hands together. "I just…You're looking so lively these days, it's nice!"_

Hours later and I was still hearing the words he audaciously blurted out at me. In some ways, that sentence was even more surprising than my father randomly telling me to take a day off. And not surprising in a good way. It was the kind of surprised feeling one gets when they flush a public toilet without knowing that it's backed up and everything overflows all over the floor for everyone to see. Yes, I was surprised.

Lively? Me? Never before had someone used that word to describe me. I didn't even know the man very well; he'd only been hired around four months ago. How could he tell the difference? Certainly, I hadn't been feeling very stressed since my secretly-very-eventful day off, but going so far as to say "lively"? Had I been? Just how lively could I be, sitting in an office, reading and signing papers all day long?

I hadn't known my behavior had noticeably changed since before. Change was not what I wanted. In fact, it was something I didn't want at all. If something changed, my father would definitely see it. His damn superior perception was always so annoying.

I doubted I'd be able to pass my mood off as enthusiasm for my work. It wouldn't take him long to discover the source of my relief, and that was a very terrifying thought. I didn't want it taken away from me. I'd grown rather attached to my _Second Life_ character over the past month since I'd bought the game. He was another me, for goodness sake. How could I not feel fond of him?

Logging into _Second Life_ each night was like taking a deep breath of fresh air after being under dark, murky water for an entire day. The game world had shown me just how small my own life was in comparison. I supposed that to the outside world my real life seemed wonderful. I used to think the same. After all, my father was rich and he had given me the position of manager in the Accounting department of his company directly after I'd graduated from an exclusive business school.

I had the world at my feet.

And my arms held fast in shackles.

My extraordinary life. My life as his loyal tool, doing whatever he asked, whenever he asked. Led in circles, around and around. Like clockwork I was always moving, but never going anywhere. Simply frozen in place.

"Lively?" I murmured to myself, almost scoffing at the word, and contemplatively drew my eyebrows together. "I will have to be more careful from now on."

For the moment, I set those thoughts aside and tapped the heel of my boot against the rock I was standing on. My prey, the giant, slimy orange slug not far below me, turned its large, tentacle-like eyes upward. They lazily waved around for a moment, searching for the source of the vibrations in the ground.

I carefully drew my bow back, aiming for each stalk poking out of the fat creature's head. With two soft whistles, a pair of arrows were loosed and they flew side-by-side through the air and hit their respective targets.

The slug gave a shriek of pain and lifted its front end into the air, swaying this way and that, looking for me. I calmly stayed in the shadow of the rocky outcropping I was standing underneath and shot several more arrows at its exposed belly, lowering its health to a fatal level.

As it furiously turned in my direction, acidic spittle flying out of its mouth and melting the ground nearby, I took a deep breath and readied myself. "Piercing Tempest," I named quietly, releasing my arrow. The nearly-overwhelming force of the wind created by my finishing move made my long, black hair blow backward.

When I'd first learned that attack, I'd fallen out of the tree I'd been in. It was a very ungraceful and humiliating moment for an angel such as myself and I'd been extremely glad that no one else had been around to watch. Fortunately for me, there'd been a large bush underneath my perch. Unfortunately for me, there were also several wolves I'd been shooting, and I hadn't quite gotten the hang of using my wings. Not that I would have been able to use them in that particular situation; I'd been laying on my back, tangled in branches and getting gnawed on by mobs. Since then, I'd been much more cautious when using that particular attack.

I quickly blinked my slightly dried-out eyes as I watched the brightly glowing arrow shoot swiftly through the air and bury itself deep inside the creature's mouth. With a gush of dark blood and I didn't want to know what else, the slug collapsed, part of its head blasted off by the impact of the arrow. Though it was rather disgusting to see, I was very satisfied with my training on the slugs. Not only were they slow to move about and relied on light to find their targets, their squashy bodies were ideal for peppering with arrows. Plus my windy attacks dried them out, impairing their movement capabilities.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED POISONOUS SLUG! EXPERIENCE +200!"**

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled at the overly enthusiastic game as I rolled my eyes and quickly unstrung my longbow, tucking it safely away in the quiver set between my shoulder blades. Stepping off the cliff, I unfurled my wings and easily lowered myself down to the filthy, slug-corpse-covered ground. Covering my mouth and nose with one hand, so I didn't breathe in the putrid fumes roiling up from the dead slug, I quickly picked up the loot it had dropped and the few arrows that were still usable.

Walking several steps away to a patch of cleaner air, I looked over my new items—twenty copper and five silver coins, a small ring, a thick belt, and a bottle of poison. I carefully tucked everything into my pouch and frowned. I was out of inventory space. I'd been able to prolong my stay somewhat, wearing some of the loot and using other things, but I'd exhausted my options.

"How bothersome." With a sigh, I quickly lifted myself into the air again and flew out of the damp chasm I'd been training in for the past week. Adjusting my course to the nearby Sun City, I watched the green land scroll by in a blur underneath me. Killing monsters was oddly satisfying and very nice for stress relief, but I found flying to be much more rejuvenating than watching slug heads explode.

Raising my gaze, I watched a large flock of birds soar past over a wooded area near the city gates. Letting out another sigh, I smiled happily as the strong wind flew past in gusts and I stilled my wings, letting myself lazily glide along on a warm draft. I loved it up there in the sky. I felt so free. So limitless. A feeling I'd never had before.

Half an hour later, I was leaving the city again, having sold all the loot I didn't want. Other than replenishing my potions and arrows, I'd also bought myself a larger pouch so I could train for longer spans of time.

Feeling slightly bored of killing slugs at the dreary cliffs, I decided to go to the woods for a change of scenery. Following the path that flock of birds had taken earlier, I searched the leafy ceiling of the dense forest for an opening I could go through.

A faint scream from below made me halt. I listened closely, turning myself around. For a moment, I couldn't tell which direction the sound had come from, but then another scream came from my right, closer than the first.

I flew toward the area and dropped myself into a tree. Retracting my wings so they wouldn't get tangled, I deftly slid through the thick branches until I was able to clearly see the shadowy ground. My eyes widened slightly as I watched a tiny boy run through the underbrush, grass and moss at the base of my tree. He was followed closely by four very angry-looking bears.

Not pausing to think, I ran to the end of the branch, pulling my bow out of the quiver and stringing it. I jumped off the bough and opened my wings again, ignoring the pain as they snagged on several tree branches during my descent. Nocking an arrow, I dived toward the bear closest to the fleeing boy and let it fly. The head of the arrow buried itself in the bear's left foreleg and the monster stumbled. A second bear tripped over the fallen, but the other two simply sidestepped the collision. The boy fearfully glanced behind himself as he heard the crash and his progress slowed.

"Keep running!" I yelled at him and his mouth dropped open slightly as he looked up at me in bewilderment. He hurriedly turned back around and resumed his escape. I beat my wings furiously to get ahead of them, feeling thankful that the enormous, mossy trees actually weren't very close together, though their height and width had given the wood a very pressing look when viewing it from the top.

Giving one last burst of speed, I darted through the tree trunks and twisted around in mid-air as I folded my wings close to myself. I shot the third bear through the eye while I fell to the ground and landed heavily in the grass, cramming my bow into its quiver while I had the chance. When the boy made to run past me, I grabbed him around the middle and launched us both into the air before the last bear could catch up. Holding him close, I burst through the leafy ceiling of the forest and flew over the trees for nearly ten minutes to get us to safety, then finally set us down on a thick branch as gently as I could in my exhaustion.

The boy shakily clutched at my arm and glanced about the ground below us as if convinced the bears had followed us all the way there. I patted his thin back and leaned against the tree trunk. "They will not catch up," I wheezed at him, trying to sound convincing through my gasps for air. The muscles in my back and shoulders were burning from carrying the weight of another person, even if he was very small.

After a moment of silence, I carefully raised a hand and pushed his short and curly blond hair away from his bloody forehead, revealing a long, thin gash stretching from the left side of his hairline to the top of his right eye. "Do you need–"

My hand was slapped away before I could say or do anything else. He unexpectedly glared at me while he wiped away the blood. "What'd you grab me for?"

I stared at him in shock. Whatever I'd been expecting as a response, it hadn't been one of anger. If anything, the boy should have been thanking me for rescuing him from getting torn to smithereens at the claws and teeth of four merciless bears.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I had the situation under control!" he corrected sharply and frowned as he stood up and began to brush leaves and twigs out of his messy hair.

"Well, that is not what it looked like to me," I said quietly, feeling completely bewildered as he planted his booted feet as far apart as he could on the wide branch and crossed his arms.

"Well!" he echoed, raising a pale eyebrow at me and smirking, "maybe you shoulda watched for a bit longer! I coulda taken all four of them down, no problem at all!"

I refrained from smirking back as I ran my eyes over his more-than-lacking stature. He looked like he was barely eighty centimeters tall, if even that. I was sitting down and he still had to look up to meet my eyes. And the fact that he appeared to be only a few years old wasn't helping him seem very impressive.

"I apologize for my mistake. Will you allow me to take you back so you can finish your fight?"

Terror flashed through his bright blue eyes and he glanced downward again. "No!" he refused firmly, sticking his chin out further. "They probably ran off from fear and stuff…" he added in a mumble, his stern look faltering somewhat, but he quickly regained it, ending with a huffy addition of "So don't bother! They're gone!"

"Ah, yes. I am sure they are. You are so terribly frightening, after all," I remarked sarcastically as I stood and shook out my sore wings in preparation to take off and purposefully leave him there on top of that tree. "Goodbye."

"WAIT!" he hastily screamed and tightly wrapped his little arms around my leg. I looked down in bemusement at his worried expression. I was very much starting to wish I'd gone back to the slugs rather than coming here, regardless of how he would probably be dead now if I had. He would have respawned in Sun City, anyway, so it wasn't like it would have been too terrible an end. Then again, even if the pain was thirty percent of that in real life, getting eaten alive by bears still seemed…not very nice.

"Yes?"

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere else," I told him evasively, not actually knowing where I was headed.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, though no words came out. Taking a deep breath, he steadily tightened his grip around my leg. I winced slightly at how strong he was. It felt as though all of the blood to my foot was getting cut off.

"M-may…" he finally said, and then gulped.

"Hm?" I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to keep myself from forcefully yanking my poor leg out of his clutches and instead settled for light wiggles, all of which he ignored.

"May I come with you?" he anxiously blurted.

Both of my eyebrows shot upward at the unexpected request, since he'd been acting so superior a moment ago. His very unbelievable impressiveness was replaced with a pleading and rather tearful stare—even his lower lip was quivering. The sight was unwantedly heart-wrenching and I was abruptly filled with the urge to comfort him.

But why in the world would he want to come with me?

I forced my mouth to close and looked away from his pathetic face, toward the countless leafy tree branches surrounding us, giving the somewhat stuffy air a green hue. I'd never thought of playing the game with someone else. After all, I was doing just fine on my own and preferred to keep to myself. Plus being by myself would lower the risk of having _Second Life_ discovered by my father. But this boy…I doubted he was an acquaintance of my father.

Glancing down at him out of the corner of my eye, I attempted to come to a decision. He was starting to look extremely panicky at my lack of response. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding once and hoping I wasn't going to regret this. "Yes, you may."

His face brightened immediately as I spoke and he smiled for the first time. The excited, childish expression nearly made me smile as well, but I kept my face blank. He looked so cute, I involuntarily relaxed in his still-very-tight grip. His abrupt changes in mood were not only confusing, but they were also weirdly infectious.

"Really?" he asked happily, leaning backward, but not letting me go just yet. "You don't mind?"

"I suppose not." I shook my head at him and drew my wings against my back so they would stop twitching. My cheeks started burning at his extreme enthusiasm over my agreement. Was it really necessary for him to look so gleeful over something so small?

He finally unwrapped his arms and took my hand, energetically shaking it up and down. "Great! I've been wanting a teammate!" He smiled at me again. I nodded awkwardly, not really knowing what to say in response. "What's your name?" he curiously inquired after a moment.

"…Aeolus," I answered hesitantly. It was getting harder and harder to look at his shiny expression. I could nearly feel the hyper energy spilling out of him as he squeezed my hand. No one had ever treated me in such a friendly manner before, and I was positive no one would have ever yelled at me like that. My mind flickered to my friends in real life. They were all so quiet and reserved toward me, I'd always thought it was normal for friends to behave so distantly. But this boy was acting so familiar and close, even though we'd only just met. It was bizarre, but made me feel a bit happy.

"O-oh," he breathed, looking impressed at my name. "That sounds so…so, um." He paused and gave me a complicated expression. "Confusing. Say it again?"

"Aeolus," I repeated and frowned at him in sudden annoyance. It was only three syllables long, how difficult could it be to remember?

With a nod, he said it to himself several times under his breath as if trying to figure out how to pronounce it. Afterward, he looked back up at me and grinned. "I'm Dib! Nice to meet you!" Without warning, he suddenly jumped into the air and hit my back with what felt like all of his strength.

I nearly fell off the branch, but managed to catch myself at the last moment by grabbing the rough tree trunk. It was a complete mystery as to why people kept feeling it necessary to slap me all of the time.

Heart pounding, I straightened and let go of the tree. "Likewise…"

* * *

><p><em>Thus enters my second OC, Dib. The one who has the capabilities to balance out (and overwhelm) Aeolus' awkward silence with large amounts of unneeded chatter. xD<em>

_Race: Halfling_  
><em>Class: Warrior, focuses on strength and agility<em>  
><em>Weapon: Dual short swords (narrow-bladed scimitars)<br>Curly blond hair, bright blue eyes, around 2½ft tall, thin and light-weight silver armor, large, pointy ears…_


	4. Hawks and Flowers

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>I watched in silence as Dib peeked over the edge of the tree branch, staring at the bears ambling about on the dimly-lit, mossy ground below us. He'd been like that for quite some time and I wasn't sure what he was doing. With how excited he'd been about continuing on his bear-hunt after I'd rescued him a little while ago, his current behavior was very unexpected. Maybe he needed to plan out a strategy in his mind or something, but in the time he'd spent thus far observing the bears, I could have killed who knew how many.<p>

Whatever he was doing, I was getting extremely bored after having idly sat on that branch for so long, so he could do whatever all by himself.

Giving the boy one last incurious glance, I quickly stood and pulled my bow out. He looked up at me in surprise as I tugged lightly on the bowstring, leaning over the edge of the branch to search for a target. "What are you doing?" His high voice came out as a cautious whisper.

Wasn't it obvious?

"Training," I answered at once, raising an eyebrow as he also scrambled to his feet. Jumping off the branch, I landed on a lower one to get a clear shot at the ground. I let my knees relax as Dib clumsily fell beside me, almost tipping off the bough as it swayed up and down.

He tightly wrapped his arms around my leg to steady himself. "Don't leave me here!" he exclaimed indignantly.

Removing an arrow from my quiver, my eyes narrowed slightly at his words. What was I supposed to do when all he did was stare at the ground? I came here to train, not to waste my time watching potential prey wander about.

"I do not understand why _you_ are in the tree in the first place," I said quietly, pushing him away from myself in annoyance.

"B-because you're up here, duh!" he grumbled, reluctantly letting my leg go and instead grabbing the branch.

Not seeing what that had to do with anything, I wordlessly slipped onto the branch below us and strung my arrow as I walked away from the trunk and closer to one of the bears. I was an archer, of course I'd be on a perch somewhere. But since he was a warrior, how in the world was he supposed to fight from all the way up here? I doubted he was planning on throwing his swords at whatever he was going to fight.

I shot a glare over my shoulder when he suddenly jumped onto my branch again, breaking my concentration and aim. "Wait for me!" he yelled, completely ruining our cover. He had been so quiet when we were further away from the monsters, yet now that we were close enough to engage in battle, it seemed that he had decided to throw away all of his previous caution.

With a tired sigh, I watched as the bear I was aiming for looked up at us and snarled, loping over to the tree trunk. Dib suddenly yelled in fright and grabbed me again as the bear began to climb. I quickly shot my arrow into the bear's shoulder in an attempt to hinder its climbing abilities, but it didn't work very well.

"Let go of me!" I snapped, briefly glowering down at Dib while I pulled out another arrow and drew it back. It buried itself into the tree trunk as Dib threw me off balance, nearly making me fall.

"But the bear is coming!" he wailed, holding on all the tighter when the bear let out another growl. For the second time that night, my abused leg was starting to go numb in his grip.

"Go and kill it, then! You have _swords_! Two of them!" I yelled, yanking on the back of his top in an effort to detach him. He wildly shook his head, wrapping his legs around mine as well in a complete and utter refusal to cooperate.

For the moment, I gave up on trying to pry him off and instead focused on the bear.

Drawing back a third arrow, I shot at the monster's head. I swore silently as the arrow planted itself in the tree like the second had. The bear clambered up the last meter and grabbed the branch we were on. Its angry roaring as it hefted itself upward was soon joined with Dib's ear-splitting screams of terror.

Starting to feel somewhat afraid, I awkwardly stepped backward and reached for a fourth arrow. My eyes widened as a loud crack snapped through the close air and I suddenly found myself falling to the ground with Dib, the broken tree branch and the bear. Pulling out my wings, I flapped them as hard as I could to keep Dib and I from joining the bear's descent. The branch and the bear landed on the ground with heavy thuds and crashes. After it had recovered slightly from the fall, the monster slowly got to its feet, staring at us as I lifted us safely to another tree nearby.

Feeling extremely angry over the stupid situation, I shot several arrows at the bear's scruffy, upturned face, mostly missing in my heated attacks, but a few did deeply bury themselves in the bear itself, and it roared in pain as it finally collapsed, its skull not unlike a pincushion at that point.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED FOREST BEAR! EXPERIENCE +150! NEW SKILL LEARNED: FURIOUS VOLLEY!"**

Breathing heavily, I unstrung my bow and put it in my quiver. Dib was still hanging on, not seeming to realize the fight was over. "Let me go," I ordered quietly, forcing my voice to remain steady. When Dib didn't respond, I roughly grabbed both of his arms and yanked them off my leg, having to use all of my strength to do so. "I _said_ LET ME GO!" I bellowed in his face as I bent down to try to remove the rest of him as well.

He blinked slowly, looking shocked at my anger, but finally obeyed.

Without another glance at him, I jumped off the branch and lowered myself to the mossy ground to pick up the loot. I tugged my arrows out of the bear's head and clenched my jaw to bite back the rest of the anger that was threatening to leak out. Why in the world had Dib done that? Looking for teammates, my ass. More like looking for a shield. I'd almost died because he'd acted so stupidly. It was just a NPC. It wasn't a _real_ bear. There was nothing at all to be afraid of if he just attacked the damn thing. He was a complete hindrance.

Cramming the loot into my pouch, I watched impatiently as Dib slowly climbed down from the high perch until he was low enough to jump to the ground. He landed lightly in the sparse grass and I walked past him toward the edge of the wood rather than going to look for another bear.

Small footsteps crunching over the fallen leaves and sticks told me he was still following, regardless of my outburst. I glanced at him over my shoulder. He silently wiped the tear tracks off his face, though new ones appeared, and sniffed slightly as he stumbled along, trying to match my much longer stride.

As we left the forest, I halted and knelt down in front of him. Rummaging around in my pouch for a moment, I pulled out a handkerchief and tugged his hands away from his reddening eyes. Feeling guilty for losing my temper—he _was_ just a child, I reminded myself—I carefully wiped the cloth over his face and brushed his curly hair away from his forehead. "We should find something easier to train on," I suggested quietly, patting his flushed cheek.

He stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly hugged me, crying even harder. My eyebrows lowered in bewilderment and I glanced at the side of his head, wishing yet again that he would let me go. "I'm sorry," he sobbed, nearly choking me with the death grip he had on my neck.

Leaning backward in an attempt to get away from him, I glanced around awkwardly, feeling glad that no other players were in the near vicinity. Rather than releasing me, Dib simply leaned forward to continue the hug, ignoring my escape efforts.

Starting to get annoyed again, I tugged on the back of his armor to make him let me go, but he wouldn't budge. Why did he feel the need to stick to me all of the time? Were all children so clingy? I certainly never had been. I didn't want to think about what would have happened to me if I'd dared to act childish around my father or the numerous house staff who had attended to me every day. They definitely would have given me a sound beating for behaving in such an improper manner.

Dib gave me a soggy smile when he finally let me go after several minutes of crying all over the place. "Thanks."

"For what?" I asked, wiping his tears off my hair and shoulder with the damp handkerchief while quickly standing up to avoid getting strangle-hugged again.

"I thought you were going to leave," he answered, sniffing one last time and beaming up at me.

I gave him a blank look before putting my handkerchief back in my pouch and turning away. Leaving him did seem like it would be less of a bother to me, but I wasn't going to just go. I'd already agreed to train with him, after all. I wasn't going to go back on my word.

"And why would I do that?"

He hurried forward and fell into step beside me. "'Cause you were so mad!"

Of course I was mad. I doubted anyone else would have had a different reaction to getting grabbed by some strange, screaming kid, and then almost getting killed by a puny bear as a result of said kid's refusal to cooperate.

Why would he even play _Second Life_ if he was so terrified of fighting? He could have at least picked a different class. One that kept him out of harm's way, like a priest or something. But, since he seemed so young, perhaps he had simply made the choice of warrior because it sounded like it would be exciting. I supposed not many children had much foresight.

"Where are we going?" Dib inquired, glancing around the field.

"Nowhere in particular," I said vaguely, wondering what else there was around to kill. I didn't want to take him to those slugs I'd been training on. Simple bears were bad enough, so who knew what would happen if poison was put into the situation. He'd probably get melted.

I quickly directed my steps toward one of the sparser sections of the forest where I remembered there were hawks and hoped those would be easy enough, since they were rather small and low leveled.

"Your name is hard to remember," Dib suddenly announced, tapping his chin with one finger. He glanced up at me, but I stayed silent, not knowing what to say to him, since I saw nothing difficult about it at all. "Do you have a nickname or something?"

"No."

"May I give you one? I promise it won't be weird! I'll think up a good one!" His blue eyes were shining with hope and eagerness as he skipped sideways through the grass to be able to face me while we walked.

"I do not care," I conceded in exasperation, making him look somewhat annoyed at my lack of enthusiasm.

"Okay, then…" he muttered cautiously, looking away and falling silent, much to my relief. Several minutes passed and we finally entered into the hawk territory in the more open and airy section of the forest. The trees here were much thinner and scraggly than the immense sizes of the full, leafy ones near the bears.

"Why are you so quiet?" Dib asked, drawing out a twinge of irritation in me. I'd been getting comfortable with the lack of conversation.

"There is nothing to say," I explained at once, pointlessly hoping that he would read between the lines and stop talking, though I knew he definitely wouldn't.

Surprise popped onto his face and he quirked a golden eyebrow. "Yes, there is! There's _plenty_ to say! Lots and lots!" he retorted. I questioningly glanced at him and kept my mouth tightly shut. No response came to mind, proving my point.

He waved a hand at the sky. "You could say what a nice day it is. It's so sunny and warm."

"That is obvious. There is no need to point it out," I digressed flatly, scanning the trees for any nearby hawk nests we could attack. A moment hadn't gone by that the weather wasn't nice in _Second Life_. I saw no worth in talking about the weather unless it had something to do with training. Like if it was windy in some area or another, I'd need to have more reserve stamina potions to make up for getting blown off course or something along those lines. Why would I compliment the weather if it had nothing to do with anything?

Anyway, we were near _Sun_ City. What was he expecting of the weather? Blizzards?

Dib shrugged. "You could say whatever you're thinking, then. That's what I always do. It gives lots of topics for conversation, saying things that randomly pop into your head. What're you thinking about right now?"

"My thoughts are not interesting enough to talk about," I answered with finality, stopping under a nested tree and tilting my head back to watch the adult hawks swooping around.

"You won't know 'til you say them," he insisted. "Go ahead!"

Sighing, I pulled out my bow and an arrow. Why was he being so annoying? I didn't want to talk and that was that. If he felt the need to blabber about things, he could go right ahead, so long as it didn't hinder my training any further than it was already being hindered.

Ignoring his continued questions, I shot a hawk through the wing and it fell to the dusty ground with a squawk. Dib shrieked in surprise and quickly hid behind my leg, finally ceasing in his non-stop chatter. I stepped away from him and waved a hand at the struggling bird. "I will bring a few down for you," I offered before taking off and landing on a tree branch high above the ground.

"No, come back! COME BA-A-A-ACK! _NOW_!" he screamed, grabbing the tree and shaking it as if he was trying to make me fall out.

Glaring down at him, I wrapped my free arm around the thin trunk as the tree and I wildly swayed back and forth through the air. "Stop that!"

"DON'T LEAVE ME DOWN HERE!" he yelled, glancing fearfully over his shoulder at the hawk, which was sitting on the ground and looking confused after its long fall, not even facing him, much less attempting to attack him. "TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

I lifted myself off the branch and settled in a different tree instead, only to fly off again as Dib ran after me. "Just kill the bird!" I snapped down at him.

"NO! IT'S TOO SCARY!" he cried, shaking his head and leaving the fallen hawk by itself as he tore through the trees.

Turning myself around, I quickly flew back to the poor hawk and dropped to the ground beside it. It may have only been a NPC, but I didn't like the thought of leaving it there to suffer with my arrow poking out of its wing.

It clicked its beak together angrily and shuffled toward me, dragging its wounded wing across the sporadic patches of prickly grass. Pulling out an arrow, I shot it through the chest at close range as it lunged forward, and then swung my bow at it, knocking it to one side. It fell to the ground in a daze and I stomped on its head, easily squishing it underfoot. I winced at the sickening crunch noise its skull made and I was once again filled with absolute hatred for such disgusting close-combat situations. I would never understand why anyone would want to be a warrior.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED HAWK! EXPERIENCE +100! NEW SKILL LEARNED: SKULL CRUSH!"**

Dib's head popped out from behind one of the nearby tree trunks a moment later, not that hiding had done him much good, since the trees were hardly bigger around than flag poles. He shot me a relieved smile and hurried over as I started plucking the hawk's soft brown feathers I could use to fletch more arrows with later. Dib put one hand on my shoulder and breathed an airy sigh. "Thanks for killing it! Did you see the way it was looking at me? It looked like it was about to peck my eyeballs out and then eat them! Really scary. You're so brave."

Shaking his hand off after I'd collected all of the loot, I stood up and walked away from him. Trying not to feel irritated as he immediately chased after me, I searched the air for another hawk. "Dib."

"Yeah?"

"Please, tell me something you are actually able to train on," I requested quietly. "I am not going to continue to waste my arrows on hawks if you are just going to run away every time I bring one down for you."

"W-well, that one was so huge, s'why I didn't wanna fight it," Dib grumbled, crossing his arms. "Get me a smaller one!"

Launching myself off the ground, I flew toward a nest and landed on the branch beside it. Trying to drown out Dib's renewed yelling at my desertion, I killed the mother hawk and tipped the nest over. All of the baby hawks that had been sitting inside fell to the ground, screeching loudly.

Dib gave them one look, then promptly ran the other way.

Glowering at his retreating back, I flew toward him. "What is wrong _this_ time‽"

"There's too many, of course! How d'you expect me to fight so many all at once? Stupid!" he yelled, giving me an indignant frown as I landed in front of him to stop his retreat. I glanced in disbelief toward the three baby birds laying on the ground, then looked back at Dib. He kept his arms crossed stubbornly. Striding over to the chirping monsters, I picked one up by the neck and angrily threw it at Dib, probably half-killing it in the process.

"There you go. One tiny bird," I huffed.

Dib stared fearfully down at the completely helpless hawk for a moment, then slowly drew one of his swords. Closing his eyes, he quickly stabbed it in the bird's general direction, missing by quite a distance.

I didn't bother to watch whatever ridiculous thing he did next and instead bent down to pick up a second bird. Tossing it by a different tree, I left the third where it was and took off again to find a hawk for myself to kill. One that was actually worth killing. The urge to leave Dib there and go train on my own was starting to grow, but I quickly beat it down. I'd promised to train with him. My dissatisfaction with how things were going was my own fault, since I'd agreed without being aware of his complete and total lack of even the tiniest shred of courage.

But he really didn't have to be _that_ scared of them…

"Al!"

…since they were just baby birds, barely the size of a house cat or a puppy. One of them didn't even have any feathers yet. Not scary at all, I thought, rolling my eyes as I slowly drew my bow back to shoot an adult hawk out of one of the spindly trees several meters away. Very ugly—a little funny-looking, really—but not scary in the slightest.

"Al! C'mere!"

I paused and looked down in bewilderment. Dib was waving one of his bloodied swords at me. Glancing toward where I'd left him, I saw the chopped-up corpses of the baby hawks littering the messy ground. So he'd actually managed to kill them. I wondered how much experience he'd gained. Probably as much as a flesh-eating slime gave.

Exasperatedly shaking my head at how ridiculous this all was, I turned my attention back to the hawk and carefully aimed.

"A-A-A-AL! STOP IGNORING ME AND COME HERE!"

Lowering my bow, I blinked slowly, trying to gather up the last shreds of my patience while his screaming echoed around me. I apparently wasn't allowed any time to myself now that he was here. And what in the world did he just call me?

I reluctantly let myself down to the ground while he ran up, looking extremely pleased with himself as he importantly puffed up his chest, hands on both hips and nose in the air. "I killed them all, though it was so-o-o scary!" he pointlessly told me after I silently stared at him for a long moment. What, was he expecting me to praise him for accomplishing something so small?

Apparently he had been, judging by the way his face fell when I still didn't say anything. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me toward another tree. "Do it again!" he ordered, looking very sulky.

Sighing in resignation, I flew upward and repeated the nest-tipping process. Under his firm and absolute command, we continued that for several boring hours. But I supposed that it wasn't a complete waste of time on my part, since I discovered many of the nests had little treasures—coins, pieces of jewelry, precious stones, even a few small weapons here and there—stashed inside amongst the feathers and twigs. It definitely wasn't anywhere near as good of training as I'd done on my own, but the extra loot helped somewhat. However, I let Dib have the majority of whatever I found, since the baby hawks barely dropped anything, aside from their corpses, which weren't particularly useful, unless one was perhaps attempting to bait some other sort of prey.

I was also able to make quite a few arrows while I waited for Dib to finish killing each batch of hawks I supplied for him, thus saving me a lot of money I'd be using for archery supplies on my next trip to the city.

Still, I was wishing I was on my own. Being around another person for so long was exhausting.

Leaning against the thin trunk of one of the trees, I watched Dib furiously hack at one of the tiny hawks, blood disgustingly spraying all over the place—how did that itty bitty bird contain so much blood, anyway…?—and wondered if he would mind if I logged out of the game early. Waking up didn't really seem like it would be a very good way to recharge myself, since waking up meant I had to get ready for work, but I didn't want to be here any longer.

Dib romped up to me a moment later and smiled happily as he sheathed his swords. "Let's go to the city! My pouch is full!"

So much for logging out early.

Putting away my knife and the unfinished arrow I was holding, I nodded at him and slowly unfolded myself from my seat in the grass. He hurried off ahead of me, frequently pausing in his steps to stare at me while I followed after, as if he was making sure I wasn't attempting to escape.

I watched in silence as he bounded through the grass, purposefully looped around trees, crouched down to look at things that caught his attention on the ground. It was quite easy to get mad at him for being so annoying, but moments like this where he was simply behaving like a playful child made me smile slightly. He was very cute when he wasn't acting so obnoxious.

Once we left the tree line, I looked around, feeling a bit disoriented. We were on the opposite side of the forest from Sun City.

Glancing over my shoulder, I frowned. I definitely didn't want to walk all the way around the extensive forest yet again and I certainly didn't want to go through it, since those bears—and probably other equally _terrible_ things—were inside. Nor did I particularly want to carry Dib, but since flying to the city seemed like the quickest method to get there…

"Dib," I called, extending my wings and stretching them out to their full span, shaking them slightly to limber myself up.

Dib looked up at me from the patch of colorful wildflowers he was sitting in. "What?"

"Come here, please," I asked, withdrawing a stamina potion from my pouch and taking a long drink. He quickly stood up, tightly clutching a fistful of flowers, and ran up to me as I knelt in the grass, pulling my hair over one shoulder. "I want to fly to the city, so I would like to carry you if you do not mind."

He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, but nodded without a word and clambered onto my back, firmly hooking his knees under my wing joints and tightly gripping my shoulders while I stood. I cautiously beat my wings for a moment, experimentally lifting us a couple meters off the ground to make sure he wouldn't slip off. When he didn't move, I raised us up over the trees and shot off in the direction of the city, flying much easier now that I wasn't attempting to awkwardly hold him in my arms, as I had been earlier.

An hour later, I stared down at the map of the continent I had spread across the grass in front of myself and scratched my chin for a moment before using my quill pen to ink in a little note on the far side of the forest where Dib and I had been killing hawks. Trying to find training spots was an extremely difficult task, though it had never been before. Every new option I thought up seemed to be a bad one in regard to Dib and his cowardice. Moments ago I had discovered that asking him for input was useless; everything was a good choice in his opinion.

A light tugging on my hair drew away my concentration from the map. I questioningly glanced back at Dib, wondering what he was doing. He waved a blue flower at me and smiled brightly. My eyes widened and I quickly ran a hand through my hair, pulling out a small, pink flower. I frowned down at the little blossom, threw it away, then undid the braid he'd been making while I wasn't paying attention. "Why are you putting plants in my hair?"

"They aren't _plants_!" Dib retorted, gathering my hair together again. "They're _flowers_!"

"Flowers _are_ plants. I do not want leaves tangled in my hair, so please, stop."

"It'll look pretty when I'm finished! And I'm not tangling it, so quit your complaining!"

"I do not want to be pretty!"

"Too bad, 'cause you're gonna be pretty whether you want to or not! You're already pretty and girly, even without flowers adding to your looks, anyway, so just let me do your hair!"

Feeling slightly offended at his remark that I was like a girl, I stood up, snatched my map off of the ground and quickly rolled it around itself, squashing it back into my pouch. Dib stared up at me in disappointment, many brightly colored flowers still clutched in his hand. Wordlessly turning away, I pulled my hair over my shoulder and ran my fingers through it a few times to make sure there was nothing else stuck in it.

Dib tugged on my arm's bracer and I reluctantly looked down at him. "C'mere," he said, waving a hand at me. I gave a suspicious glance to his fingers, making sure he wasn't holding the flowers anymore, and then crouched down in front of him, satisfied that he wasn't going to try anything again.

"You've got a petal here," he explained, smirking slightly as he raised a hand toward my ear.

He slowly removed a purple petal from my hair, then I quickly stood up again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he responded, sounding annoyed that his doll had been taken away. Dropping the petal to the grass, he walked along beside me, frowning slightly. "You're so mean, Al," he muttered under his breath. "They were just flowers…Wasn't like I was trying to put dirty plant roots in. Geeze. So mean."

"I was not trying to be mean. I asked you to stop and you refused. What was I supposed to do?"

"You coulda let me finish doing your hair," he suggested, glancing up at me in a hopeful way as if I'd let him try again. "It's so long and nice, you could do so many things with it. It's kinda a shame to just have it plain."

"I am satisfied with my hair as it is. I do not want decorations," I told him, letting my hair fall down my back again. Dib made a grumbly noise in return and crossed his arms in a pout. I gave him an amused glance and patted his curly head for a moment. "But thank you for the thought."

He looked embarrassed and nodded silently. "Mm," he finally mumbled, grabbing my hand off his head and pulling me forward. For once I didn't try to take my hand back from his clutches, but instead let him hold it as we walked on.


	5. His Manipulation

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** In case you all forgot, "Zhu Ren" is the equivalent of "Master."_

* * *

><p>The front door was flung open from the inside before I could even lift my hand to open it myself, making me sigh in exasperation. I stepped inside, ignoring the maids' repetitive greetings, and handed off my jacket and work bag without a fuss. If I had too much to do at the office every day, it was the complete opposite at home. Everyone always seemed to be under the impression that I required assistance with every single little tiny thing.<p>

Before I could escape upstairs after my retreating belongings, a butler stepped forward and gestured toward the door across the entryway. "Dinner has been prepared in the dining hall, Zhu Ren."

Refraining from grimacing at the fact that I apparently was required to eat in there—meaning my father would be eating at home—a rare occurrence—I stepped past him. Straightening my tie and vest, I anxiously glanced back at the man while he followed along behind. "Is my father home?"

"No, Zhu Ren, but he should be on his way."

Relaxing slightly at the news, I quickened my pace and went to the dining hall, hoping to be able to eat fast enough that I'd finish before he arrived. The enormous double doors were opened for me when I approached, causing me to glare with irritation while I strode inside and walked along the row of empty chairs lining the long wooden table placed in the center of the huge room. I sat myself in my usual place at the left of the head of the table where my father was always seated whenever he decided to have his meals in the dining hall, though he usually ate somewhere else before coming home.

My eyes glanced upward while I waited for the food and I stared at the chair directly across from me. The seat at my father's right. My older brother's seat. Although I'd been named my father's heir, he made sure to keep me in my "proper place." And it definitely wasn't there. But the reserved seat was always empty.

Gaze dropping to the table, I watched as several maids placed more than several dishes in front of me. Reluctantly picking up the provided chopsticks, I poked them into the nearest bowl of whatever while the maids left again without a word.

I managed to choke down three tasteless mouthfuls before my father arrived. His intimidating presence dimmed the room. Hastily setting down my chopsticks, I stood and inclined my head to him while he dismissively brushed past me to sit in his own chair. I slowly lowered myself down once he was settled and nervously took my chopsticks in hand, but didn't move to eat anything else.

He took a long drink out of his glass of ice water, then started on his own meal. After a careful chewing and swallowing, he glanced in my direction. "Did you finish all of your work?"

Damn. I'd been hoping he was going to give me the silent treatment. He often did, but there were infrequent, unfortunate moments where he actually deemed me worthy of his attention. And this definitely wasn't a topic I wanted to discuss, least of all with him.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly shook my head and hoped he wasn't going to be too angry with me. "Nearly all, but–"

"Nearly?" he repeated, frowning in annoyance. "And why only nearly?"

"The printer…" I slowly explained, "it jammed when–"

"And you did not think to use a different one?" he scoffed. "Or to have it fixed? Why did you not call for repairs?"

"The printers on the nearby floors were in use at that time. And I _did_ call to have repairs done, but–"

His fist came slamming down on the tabletop, causing me to flinch and shut my mouth. When he got mad, he wouldn't calm down no matter what I said, so it was always best to simply stay silent and let him do what he wanted. My fear of him ran deep, so I doubted I would be able to say anything, even if I tried.

"I do not want to hear your useless excuses. I only want results. If there is a problem, then fix it." He gave me a disgusted look and stood up. "You are completely incompetent, to the point of not even being able to properly print the papers you need. If my son was here, he would have far exceeded my expectations. You do nothing but disappoint me over and over," he murmured angrily, striding away from the table. I quietly watched while he left the room, ordering his food to be brought to his office, and then I looked down at the chopsticks I was still tightly gripping. One was snapped in half.

Sighing, I threw the ruined utensils onto the table and stood up, hurrying out of the dining hall, up the stairs and into my own rooms, locking the door behind myself. After a quick shower, I slipped into bed and crammed my _Second Life_ helmet over my eyes, glaring at the inside of the goggles before turning on the device and escaping from the house mentally, if not physically.

The swamp Dib and I had been training in for the past few days appeared before me. I set a hand on the somewhat slimy top of the dead tree's branch I was sitting on and stared angrily into the foggy air. Why the hell was a broken printer my fault? It wasn't like I broke it. And why did he feel the need to compare me to my brother every single damn day? I wasn't him, so why did he expect me to be?

I jumped out of the tree and landed in the muddy grass, striding along the bank of the swamp's greenish, foul-smelling water. Pausing beside another tree, I rubbed my face for a moment and took a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. Nothing good was going to come from constantly losing my temper, so I just had to–

Without warning, something dropped out of the tree and landed on my shoulders, causing me to fall over and land heavily on the damp ground. Furiously whipping my dagger out, I roughly grabbed the skinny throat of whatever the thing was and drew my blade back, turning to see what had attacked.

"A-A-A-AH! AL, DON'T KILL ME!" Dib yelled, holding up his hands to shield his face.

Eyes widening in shock at what I'd almost done, I let him go and shakily put my dagger back in its sheath on my belt. He gave me a relieved smile, rubbing his neck, but the grin slipped off when I glared at him. "Do not do that again!" I snapped, getting to my feet and stomping away. What would have happened if I'd stabbed without looking first? I would have killed him. That brat, why'd he have to pick that moment to jump on me?

He dashed after me, grabbing my hand and yanking on it. "I'm sorry, Al! I didn't mean to scare you! Well, actually I did! But not so badly! Al!"

"Stop yelling," I hissed, pulling my hand out of his grasp. "You will attract monsters."

"FORGIVE ME AND I'LL BE QUIETER!" he screamed, grabbing my leg and nearly tripping me when I started to walk away from him again.

"Fine! I forgive you, so shut up!" Attempting to ignore how he was happily rubbing his face on my knee, I continued on my way, dragging my captured leg along behind myself. I glanced down at him in annoyance when he started giggling about something. "What?"

"It's fun," he replied with a bright smile, hugging my leg even tighter than before. "Getting you to carry me along like this…He-he."

I swung my leg up into the air in front of myself and forcefully removed him, dropping him to the ground afterward. He frowned in disappointment, but then smiled again, enthusiastically unsheathing both of his small scimitars. "Stay here! I'll go pull some alligators!"

Raising an eyebrow, I pulled out my bow. "I could–" I started, but he ran away before I had a chance to finish. He quickly disappeared amongst the reeds and dead trees. Rolling my eyes, I extended my wings and lifted myself into the tree he'd been lurking in. Why would _he_ go willingly pull a monster? Wasn't that usually something long-ranged attackers were better at? I could have done it for him just fine…

_"You are completely incompetent."_

Groaning, I flopped down on the tree branch and buried my face in my arms. No one ever saw me as being useful for anything. Not even for shooting a damn monster. If I couldn't even do something so trivial, what was the point of being here? It was always so much easier to be by myself. Then I didn't have anyone to be disappointed in me.

"Get away! No-o-o-o…! Al, save me-e-e-e!"

Raising my head, I stared in the direction Dib had gone and listened in confusion to his faint yells, which were mixing with a great deal of loud crashing noises. Something very big was coming this way. Something much bigger than an alligator. What in the world did he pull?

**"Dib,"** I said in bewilderment over the team channel, **"I thought you were going to attack an alligator…What is that thing?"**

**"SAVE ME!"**

Standing, I stepped to the edge of the branch and slowly put my bow away, waiting for Dib to come into sight through the thick fog. Whatever was chasing him appeared before he did. A greenish-brown, scaly back rose and fell while the monster tromped along. The ridged lines of bumps running down its length were nearly as high as the trees that were getting knocked out of the way. A rippling bellow tore through the air and my eyes widened in surprise. It really was an alligator. It sounded like one, anyway.

An alligator bigger than a bus.

Just perfect.

**"AL! DON'T JUST WATCH! HELP ME, YOU JERK!"** Dib ordered, finally popping out from underneath a mossy, rotting log and scurrying in my direction.

**"Must I remind you yet again that you have swords?"** I asked. **"Why do you not attack it?"**

**"TOO SCARY!"**

Oh. The usual reason.

I frowned in annoyance when nearly a dozen normal-sized alligators slipped over the moist ground after him, as well as the dinosaur-sized one. How were we supposed to fight all of these at once? And how'd he manage to get so many in such a short time? More importantly, _why_ did he get so many?

**"STARE AT THEM LATER! SAVE ME FIRST!"**

Sighing, I lowered myself to the ground, watching while the ridiculous boy raced over the muddy grass, an army of growling alligators right behind. I picked him up once he got to me, then took off into the air, leaving the stampeding monsters far behind in a matter of moments. Dib buried his dirty face in my neck, breathing heavily and trembling in fright. Ten minutes later, we reached the edge of the swamp and I landed on the ground, retracting my wings as I went.

Dib suddenly punched my chest several times and angrily glared up at me, tears gathering at the corners of his bright blue eyes. "You jerk! Just standing there while I was about to get eaten! Why didn't you come when I called the first time? I already said I was sorry for jumping on you, but then you almost let me die! Were you getting revenge‽"

"I apologize for my slow reaction. It was not my intention to let them harm you," I replied quietly, setting him in the grass and walking off in the direction of Sun City. He was the one who put himself in danger. Why was I getting blamed for the outcome? Should I have stopped him and told him to let me pull the monsters instead? I really hadn't tried to change his mind, even though I knew perfectly well how he would handle it. And then I did simply watch, putting him in even more danger…Thinking of it that way, I supposed it really was my fault.

Why did I always do things wrong?

Dib shot me another dark look before falling into step beside me, pointedly staring in the other direction. "Why'd you do it?"

"You run away from practically anything that moves, while screaming at me to save you," I muttered. "How was I supposed to know that you were actually in danger this time?"

"The hugemungular alligator mighta been a clue!" he snapped, aiming a kick at the back of my ankle. "Next time I call you, you'd better come save me! And all the times after that! Got it‽"

"Got it…" I echoed tiredly, then fell silent while he grumbled things at me under his breath. I stared down at the ground while we walked, feeling thoroughly depressed and wishing for what wasn't the first or last time that I could just be alone for a while. His shouting hadn't made my already-horrible mood any better at all.

Several minutes passed before Dib finally looked at me again. "Al, are you crying?" He grabbed my hand and pulled hard on it, making me stop. One day he was going to pull my poor arm off with all the forceful yanking. Didn't he know how to control that absurd strength of his?

"I am not." I attempted to take my hand back, but he held on, dangling in the air when I lifted my arm up. I shook him back and forth a little, wishing he would let go.

His eyes widened slightly while he swung to and fro. "You really aren't! I thought you were!"

"Why would I cry?" I grumbled, waving my arm up and down in an effort to dislodge him. As if I'd get all weepy just because some kid scolded me. All that would accomplish would be embarrassing myself.

"Stop!" Dib snapped, swinging his legs up to wrap them around my arm as well, then stared at me around his elbow. "You looked really sad, s'why I thought you were, stupid. I didn't mean to get so mad at you. I'm sorry for yelling."

"It was justified. You do not have to apologize." I dropped my arm to my side and continued onward to the city, ignoring Dib's yells of surprise at suddenly going upside down. Rather than slipping off like I'd been hoping, he hooked his boots over my shoulder, still determinedly grasping my arm. Sighing, I paused again and glanced down at his increasingly reddening face. "Would you please let go?"

"Don't wanna." He let out a small giggle, then smiled up at me. "But all the blood is rushing to my head and it hurts. Carry me the right way."

Frowning, I grabbed one of his feet and yanked him off, holding him up in front of myself. "Why should I? Are you not capable of walking on your own?"

"Come on, Al!" he whined, stretching his arms out to me. "Ple-e-e-ease? Carry me! I'm tired after running away from the alligators!" A loud growling noise suddenly tore through the air and his already very flushed face went slightly more red. "And I'm super hungry. I wanna go get food in the city. I already ate everything I bought last time we were there. Flying is faster, right? So carry me!"

Inwardly rolling my eyes, I finally turned him right side up and let him climb onto my back. After an hour of flying, I landed on the sloping roof of one of the castle-like buildings in Sun City, staring down at the lively marketplace beneath us. "What do you want to eat?" I asked over my shoulder.

Dib hefted himself up higher, sitting on my shoulders and looking this way and that. "I want a cheeseburger," he replied. "Where do you s'pose they sell them?"

Disbelief at his choice made me glance up at him. "You want a what?"

"A cheeseburger!" he repeated eagerly, bouncing up and down. Where was he expecting to find something like that in a game like this? It wasn't like fast food restaurants had been included in the city. At least, I'd never seen one. Not that I'd been looking…Who would want to eat something gross like that, anyway?

"Dib, I do not think we will find somewhere that sells that sort of food."

"Well, we'll just have to make one ourselves!" he declared, cheerily slapping the side of my head. "Shouldn't be too difficult, huh? Fly down there. I see food shops on the northern side."

He excitedly directed me to a butcher's shop and dashed inside the moment I set him on the ground. I quietly stepped into the shop after him, glancing about the quiet interior. It looked like any other in-game shop. Wood floor, brightly lit room with large, glass windows across the front, and a long counter that separated the NPC shopkeepers with the front of the shop where players stood. On the wall behind the counter was shelf after shelf of meat cuts, raw on the left, cooked on the right.

Once another player left after buying what looked disgustingly like a dinosaur leg—they had quite the wide selection of meat here—Dib gave me a sly grin while he walked toward the apron-clad shopkeeper. **"Leave the haggling to me! I've got a charisma-boosting special skill for this sort of thing!"** He turned to the butcher and smiled sweetly, batting his long eyelashes and standing on his tip-toes so he'd be able to see over the counter. "Hello, sir!"

The NPC's hard face suddenly went lax and flushed at the cutesy sight. I wandered off to one side and leaned against the wall, leaving Dib to butter the man up. "H-hello there, little boy. What would you like to buy?"

Dib's eyes drifted over to the raw meat side of the wall, then he increased the intensity of his gleefulness. "One large, raw beef steak, please!" I was relieved that his choice wasn't as adventurous as that other person's.

"That'll be twenty silver."

When the butcher carefully set the wrapped-up meat on the counter in front of Dib, the boy's happy smile faltered. He blinked slowly, tilting his head to one side and sticking his bottom lip out ever-so-slightly. I felt my own face start to heat up at how incredibly adorable he was looking at that moment, but then I paused, realization dawning. Did he just say that was a special skill? That look? He'd directed it at me several days ago when he'd asked to train with me. He couldn't have…That brat.

Staring earnestly up at the NPC, Dib tearfully asked, "Could you lower the price a teeny tiny bit? Pretty please? Just a little?"

"W-well, I…I, um," the shopkeeper muttered. The stuck-out lip trembled and Dib's eyes suddenly started to water. The woeful expression was obviously working and it took only a second to break through the last shreds of the poor NPC's defenses. "Well, okay," he said, chuckling and scratching at his blushing cheek. I watched with a mixture of amusement and annoyance while the shopkeeper handed over not one, but two steaks for the measly price of five silver coins. He fondly patted Dib on the head afterward. "Come back soon!"

Dib sent him another bright smile. "Sure will! Thanks!" he chirped. The moment Dib and I left the shop, he switched back to his normal self, giggling mischievously and handing the steaks to me. "So easy…Let's go to the bakery next!"

Thus I observed from a distance while Dib practically robbed the baker for a bag of wheat buns, then proceeded to use his cuteness overload on the owner of a dairy barn to get a slab of cheese, and also on a farmer on the outskirts of Sun City, finishing off our trip with a completely free basket of fresh vegetables.

I sat myself down on the springy grass and watched while Dib pulled a large skillet—something I was not at all surprised to discover he owned—out of his pouch and set it over the fire I'd just built in a small patch of maple trees close to his last victim's farm. He turned and expectantly held out his hands to me. I passed him the steaks. He sliced one in half, sliced a half into halves, put both pieces in his pan, and then shoved the rest of the meat into his pouch, glancing at me in confusion. "What're you looking so mad for?"

Attempting to wipe the frown off my face, I stared at the crackling fire and shook my head while he began to chop up a huge tomato. "Nothing." Had he really forced me to train with him? It wasn't like he was using that special skill on me constantly, so I supposed at that moment I was there on my own free will.

But why would he be so adamant about training with me of all people? He could have used that move on someone else, if protection really had been his goal. Then again, after leaving the celestial newbie village, I hadn't seen many other people who could fly. Perhaps that made him think using me as an escape route was a better choice than someone who was earth-bound. In that case, he really had simply chosen me because he wanted a shield. Well, it wasn't really surprising. It wasn't like I had any other redeeming qualities.

Dib's eyes narrowed and he set down the veggies and his knife. Standing up, he planted himself directly in front of me and crossed his arms. "Tell me why you're mad! Is it 'cause I tricked the NPCs? It's not like selling us stuff for cheap will do them any harm, there'll be plenty more customers who'll buy for higher prices, you know."

Leaning backward, I returned his annoyed stare. "I am not mad." Especially about something like that. Saving money was a good thing and I couldn't have cared less about the profit gained by the NPCs' sales. Anyway, I was more along the lines of disappointed.

"Then what's this‽" Dib demanded, stabbing a finger at my drawn-together eyebrows. "If you're not mad, don't look like that!"

Not wanting to ask him if he was just using me, I quickly thought up some other reason and mumbled, "It is just stress from real life."

He looked somewhat surprised. "Oh, I see. Did something happen? Family stuff? Work stuff? Women stuff? Dib is here to listen and give advice!" With a bright smile, he stared at me as if he expected me to confide in him just like that. What in the world would such a young child know about problems with work or women? It wasn't either of those, anyway, and I wasn't about to go rambling on about my father to anyone, especially not to someone I just met less than a week ago.

He waited a moment longer for my explanation, then let out a long sigh, turning away when I didn't say anything. "Fine, then. Don't tell me, you jerk," he grumbled, going back to his cooking. "Told you to say whatever you're thinking, but you still don't say anything…" He suddenly pointed his knife at me. "By the way, stop talking like that!"

"Talking like what?" I questioned in confusion.

"All polite-like! It's so stiff and proper!" He slowly ate a piece of the tomato he'd been slicing, then frowned again. "And it sounds so condescending sometimes. Hurts my feelings…" he muttered, returning his focus to the sizzling steaks.

I watched him flip the meat, wondering if he was just trying to manipulate me again. However, at that moment his melancholy looked genuine, not like the childish pleading that he'd been using. "I apologize for giving you the wrong impression," I replied. "I am not trying to be condescending. This is simply how I speak and always has been. I mean nothing by it."

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to loosen up a bit, would it?" he offered, raising an eyebrow. "It's not like I'm gonna get annoyed if you're crude." When he busied himself with the bread, I smiled and shook my head, laughing faintly at the thought. I was plenty crude in my head, but never aloud. Not once had I ever let myself be anything but polite, if only with my words. On the other hand, my tone sometimes did get a bit impertinent.

Dib abruptly looked back up at me, eyes going very wide. "WHOA!" he yelled, pointing his knife at me again. "You just laughed!"

I immediately stopped, fixing my face back into annoyance and feeling embarrassed at his reaction. "What, am I not allowed?"

"Stupid, I didn't say that! But I just…I mean, it's been almost a week since we've met and you haven't laughed once. 'Til now, anyway." Smiling, he picked up the bread he'd dropped and went back to slicing it in half. "You should more often, it's nice."

If he was going to react like that every time, I definitely wasn't going to. What was he getting all worked up over it for? Even I found things funny from time to time. What was so surprising about something so insignificant?

Something vaguely resembling a hamburger was suddenly thrust under my nose. "You don't have to be that guarded about laughing, geeze. Just a suggestion." Dib clicked his tongue and frowned, roughly pushing the hamburger against my closed mouth. "Hurry up and take it!"

I reluctantly obeyed, then he flopped down on the grass beside me, picking up the second. It was heavily piled with what looked like the majority of the cheese he'd bought. After taking an enormous bite, he stared hard at me while he chewed, eyes darting between the burger in my hand and my face. "Eat!" he commanded.

"I'm not hungry. I don't want it," I said, looking around for a place to put the food down. I'd thought he'd bought and cooked it all for himself.

Dib's overly-chubby face—his cheeks were crammed full of the cheeseburger—took on a sad turn yet again, eyes filling with tears while he chewed and swallowed. "You don't want it?" he whined. "I made it just for you! YOU'RE SO MEAN! YOU HATE MY COOKING! YOU WON'T EVEN TRY IT! JERK!"

I almost apologized, but then realized what he was doing. Glaring at him, I snapped, "I'm not going to fall for that look again, you faker."

His shift from hysterics to normalcy was unnaturally quick. "Darn. You noticed," he pouted, looking very sullen that his acting had been discovered. Gnawing on an edge of the steak, he glanced at me again. "But really, I want you to eat it. So you'd better. Right now."

"I said that I don't want it," I reminded, holding it out to him.

"Eat it," he growled threateningly.

"I don't want it."

"It's not like I poisoned it, you know."

"I still don't want it."

"Eat it!" He waited to see if I would agree, then kicked his legs at me and screamed, "EAT IT!" over and over. He threw temper tantrums over the weirdest things.

Sighing, I nodded once in surrender. "Fine."

"Yay!" he cheered, switching his focus back to his own burger and tearing into it. I watched for a moment, then took a small bite out of mine, staring into the dying fire. Without my noticing, my mood had lifted quite a bit. Although I was still curious as to why Dib had chosen me as his teammate, I supposed I was okay with simply enjoying his very strange company.


	6. Given Relief

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note –**__ Just to form a little time line for clarification: this takes place during volume three of the manhua (or volume two of the novels, if you prefer) when the Grand Melee is coming up, two months after the events of this story's first two chapters, and about three weeks after the previous chapter._

* * *

><p>"Do we really have to do this?" I inquired hesitantly, looking about myself at the uncomfortably crowded Adventurers' Guild in Star City. I hadn't ever really taken into consideration just how many people played <em>Second Life<em>. It was starting to look like the entire human race—and several other species, besides—was attempting to squash itself into that guild hall. It had been bad enough in Sun City and there were far less people than were walking around in this one place alone. It was stifling with all of the players pressing in from all sides. I'd never been claustrophobic, but I was starting to understand the feelings of the people who suffered from it.

"'Course we've gotta! Why're you so scared? Sheesh," Dib said excitedly, bouncing his heels off my chest and patting his little hands on the top of my head as he looked at our surroundings. When we'd arrived, I'd picked him up and let him sit on my shoulders for fear of the tiny boy getting trampled underfoot amidst the people. I doubted anyone would notice him getting flattened with all the noise and bustling players.

"I'm not particularly scared…" I muttered, feeling somewhat sullen at his lack of sympathy, and grabbed his ankles so he'd stop kicking me. "I just don't like getting jostled."

"Don't worry! I'll protect you!" he answered in a gallant tone that didn't match his cutesy appearance at all. I wasn't convinced by his assuring words. Especially since at that very moment I was the one protecting him. Yet again.

"What are we even looking for?" I asked, frowning at the mass of faces swarming in front of me. In an effort to get out of the worst of the crowds, I edged toward the sides of the large hall rather than near the middle where Dib had told me to stand. I breathed much easier once I wasn't getting compressed by the mob of people.

"I to-o-old you!" Dib sounded impatient as if I'd asked him several times already, though I hadn't. "We're here for teammates!"

"That is so vague," I grumbled with annoyance. There were as many choices for teammates in this place as there were grains of sand on a beach. I had no idea where we should even start. There were many others also looking for teammates, but with so many people talking all at once, I could barely distinguish one voice from another. The hall wasn't even organized into sections, so team recruiters, traders, questers, and whoever else were all simply mixed together, forming one huge chaotic mess.

"Why do we need more, anyway? I think we're fine with just us."

Dib put his hands on my forehead and forcefully tilted my head back. I stared up at him blankly as his pale eyebrows lowered. He poked my forehead repeatedly and finally answered commandingly, "We need more 'cause _I said_ we need more."

With a resigned sigh, I shifted Dib into a more comfortable position on my shoulders and tried to look around properly, wondering just when it had been that I'd started giving in so easily to that little boy's requests and orders.

"Well, we should narrow down our choices," I reluctantly began.

"Good idea!" Dib pointlessly agreed.

I ignored his sarcastic tone and was silent for a moment to see if he had any opinion on the matter. He didn't say anything further, and instead began using the top of my head as an armrest. I cleared my throat and tried to organize a plan. "Since I'm an archer, long-range attackers aren't really crucial–"

"A magician of some sort wouldn't be too bad, though," Dib cut in.

I nodded and continued, "And you're a warrior, so we've got that covered…" Not that he was much of a useful warrior, seeing as how he ran away in a panic nearly every time we fought something.

I hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "A priest? Or a magician? Or–"

"Or whoever we want," he ended for me.

"Oh, thank you for the input. You're so helpful." I inadvertently rolled my eyes at his lacking contributions to our dilemma. I'd finally gotten a friend who had experience with games and he had turned out to be completely and hopelessly flippant.

"I know," he concurred with a giggle.

I shook my head slightly, and he slipped his arms off while I twisted about to look at him in slight annoyance. "_You_ are the one who wanted to come here. Would you please quit being so blasé about this? I thought you had some sort of person in mind."

Dib silently stared at me for a moment and then sighed. "Okay, fine. Let's leave for now and think about it for a while." I narrowed my eyes at him as he spoke and he cautiously leaned away. "W-what?"

"Did you really force me to spend nearly a week flying from Sun City to here simply to stand around in this guild, without giving any thought to teammate choices beforehand…?"

His eyes widened and an innocent look settled on his face. He stared at some spot on the opposite side of the hall and shrugged a tiny bit. "Maybe," he muttered almost inaudibly.

Upon hearing Dib's answer, I abruptly turned around and briskly walked toward the lofty archway that was the exit. Dib suddenly gripped either side of my head, as he'd almost fallen off my shoulders when I moved. "Wait! It's not like I didn't give it _any_ thought!"

"Stop lying! You just said that you hadn't!" I snapped, hurrying outside as fast as I could, though it wasn't very fast due to the large number of people going in and out of the guild.

"I didn't mean it! And I said 'maybe'!" he whined and tugged lightly on my earring as if he thought that would turn me around. The action only made me more annoyed, since I felt like he was treating my earring like a cow's nose ring.

"Come on, Al," he pleaded.

"I'm not going back in there." I ignored the pathetic whimpering noises he was sending at me. "Not until we've given some serious thought—Awning!" I abruptly warned him as I walked past a shop entrance. Dib quickly ducked down to avoid hitting his head as I walked underneath the colorful cloth waving in the cool, night breeze, and I continued, "Given thought as to what sort of teammate we want to find. I don't want to stand in there for any longer than is necessary."

"Think first, teammate later," he clarified.

"Exactly," I affirmed with a nod. He had finally seen what I was trying to tell him. Whether or not the impulsive boy would follow my suggestion was another matter.

As we got further from the Adventurers' Guild, the crowd thinned somewhat. I stopped outside one of the larger taverns in Star City, because Dib's stomach had been making extremely loud noises right next to my ears, and gently lowered Dib to the cobblestone street. We walked inside the brightly-lit restaurant and I was very happy to see it was relatively empty. There were only a few people here and there, aside from what looked like an entire team seated near one of the large front windows.

I slipped my quiver over my head and leaned it against an empty table as Dib and I quickly sat down. A neatly-dressed NPC waitress handed us menus a few moments later. I nodded at her in thanks, but didn't open it. Running my finger along the edge of the thick paper, I watched as Dib disappeared behind his. "May I ask why you are so determined to get us new teammates?"

"It'll be good for you. Since you're so quiet all the time, more friends would be nice," he answered without looking away from the menu. "Oh! They have pie! Al, they have pie! Let's get one! I want blueberry!"

"Yeah…" I agreed absently and glanced at the team seated by the window, laughing and chattering animatedly to one another. Having more people around did look like it would be a bit fun, but that thought didn't make me any more social than I already was. And Dib was already quite a handful. I doubted I'd be able to take on several more people at the same time.

I looked back to Dib and frowned as I noticed he was staring at me, almost hopefully. "I suppose you're right about the teammates," I commented slowly, then let out a long sigh. Getting corrected was not something I was very enthusiastic about becoming familiar with. But I knew Dib only had good intentions, though he went about it all in a very annoying way.

He shot me a knowing smile and waved over the waitress. I finally opened my own menu and ran my eyes down the lengthy list of dishes. I wasn't feeling hungry at all, as always, after our pointless trip to the guild. I wondered if we would be able to find suitable teammates without having to go back to that hot and smelly guild hall. After all, there were no rules—none I was aware of, anyway—that stated one had to be inside the Adventurers' Guild to recruit people. Dib and I had been teammates—only by word of mouth, since we weren't officially registered—for near a month now, and we'd had no problems at all.

"Hey, Al," Dib whispered to me around the corner of his menu a few minutes later.

I stopped vacantly staring at the pictures of food and looked around the edge of my own menu, wondering why he was suddenly being so secretive. "What is it?"

"That warrior over there has been staring at you the whole time we've been here. It's creeping me out," he continued quietly, his words edged with concern. His eyes glanced toward the team sitting by the window.

I waited a few moments, and then sent a subtle look in their direction. The person in question, a dark elf with long silver hair, was indeed staring at me, with what looked like a very angry, and somewhat confused expression. One of his teammates also seemed to be giving me an abnormal amount of attention, though much less than the other, around the edge of the decorative fan that he was waving about, making his brown hair flutter to and fro in the slight breeze.

My eyes widened in surprise and I looked back at Dib. "Wh-why…?"

"What's the point in asking me?" Dib snorted. "Do you know him?"

I shook my head. "I've never seen him before, that I can recall. Anyway–" I started, but froze as the whole team suddenly stood up and began filing past us, heading toward the door. I was feeling relieved at their departure until the dark elf stopped beside our table and looked down at me with his mouth open slightly. Hiding behind my menu definitely wasn't going to work anymore, so I instead leaned back in my chair and cautiously stared up at him, waiting for him to say something.

"Are," the person began, but paused as if he was unsure of how to continue. He questioningly glanced at Dib, and then back at me. His pale eyes narrowed as he tapped one hand on the hilt of the rapier hanging off his belt, looking as if he was contemplating stabbing me. "May I have your name?" he finally asked, sounding very suspicious about something.

"And why would you want that?" I inquired in return.

His expression soured at my reluctance to cooperate and one corner of his mouth turned downward. He glanced toward the door and shifted restlessly where he stood. "I didn't mean to seem nosy," he said at last and smiled politely at me. "You just look a lot like…someone I know. Sorry to disturb you."

Before I had a chance to ask him who it was that I looked like, he shot Dib and I a swift goodbye and hurried outside to join his waiting team. He'd said "someone" with a level of animosity I'd only ever encountered when dealing with my father. But the idea of someone he knew that looked like me made me extremely curious. I wondered if I should dare to get my hopes up. Was it just a coincidence? Or…

"Al?" Dib called quietly. I turned to looked back at him. He was worriedly glancing between me and the door. "You okay?"

"Yes," I muttered, nodding slightly. I pushed the menu away from myself as the waitress finally reappeared, carrying a giant pie for Dib. My mouth dropped open in disbelief as he picked up his fork and proceeded to eat. The pie was easily several times bigger than his entire head.

The waitress cleared her throat impatiently and I realized I hadn't ordered anything yet. I held out my menu for her to take. "I would like a glass of water and two slices of honey bread, please."

She nodded and snatched the menu away from me, spinning on her heel and hurrying off toward the kitchens. With a raised eyebrow, Dib looked up as he popped a giant forkful of blueberry pie into his mouth. He chewed silently for a moment, and then pointed the fork at me. "Ish tat relly all you're eatin'?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I reproved, watching in disgust as little pieces of the dessert flew out of his mouth and landed on the once-clean tablecloth. I felt like I was dining with a toddler who had no manners whatsoever. Several weeks ago, I'd been rather surprised to find out his real age. Regardless of his misleading looks and behavior, he was twenty-four, the same age as me. Then again, his childishness wasn't constant, so I supposed it wasn't really such an odd thing to be told.

"Yes, it's all. I'm not hungry."

"You're–" he said thickly, and then paused for a long moment to swallow his mouthful. I wondered if he had actually listened to my words, or if it was just difficult to talk around the pie. Probably the latter.

"You're going to regret it later, after flying for a while," he finally continued.

"That's why I got _two_ pieces of bread," I answered blandly. "One for now and one for later whenever I want it. Anyway, I restocked on stamina potions when we stopped at the shop earlier. I'll be fine."

He let out a long sigh and stabbed his fork into the top of the pie's crust. "You're the only person I've heard of who lives off _potions_. How do you even do that? Don't you get hungry, not eating anything for days on end?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't. And potions are more space efficient; I can carry many more bottles than I can meals. They are also faster for restoring my stats, since I can easily drink them while flying and fighting. Plus I weigh less after drinking potions instead of eating food, which in turn uses less stamina."

"But," he said hurriedly as if trying to figure out some way to convince me. He didn't seem to notice that he was pulverizing his pie with repeated stabs. "But eating is fun! Especially when you're with other people! You get to bond! Or something…"

"Well, I wouldn't know," I murmured quietly, wishing he would hurry up and finish his food, so we could leave. Other than the infrequent moments when Dib had forced me to eat things just because he was also eating, I hadn't had a proper meal with another person since long before my brother left home. Not that I'd told Dib about that. Or anything else about my real life, for that matter. I was somewhat afraid of what his reaction might be. Afraid that he would start distancing himself from me like everyone else did. A part of me knew that Dib wasn't the sort of person who would do things like that, but I was still feeling very hesitant to tell him such things. I'd only known him for a month, after all.

Eating was such an inconvenient task, anyway. There were so many other things I could be doing with my time rather than sitting at a table for however long it took me to clean off my plate. I always found some way to eat my meals while working and ate only what was necessary, which was very little, if anything at all. Usually I skipped them all together.

Dib finally stopped smashing his pie and sent me a small, wondering smile. "You sure are weird."

Pressing my lips together, I looked at him blankly for a moment, wondering if he was making fun of me. I dropped my eyes to stare at the table top instead, feeling slightly angry and hurt at his words.

So what if I was weird? He also was hardly what most people would consider to be normal. Anyway, I was who I was. I couldn't help it. Why did people always want me to be something I wasn't? Like my father wanting me to be more like my genius of a brother, when I really was quite average. I was extremely tired of getting compared to other people.

"But weird in a _good_ way," Dib hastily added a moment later as he looked me over. I glanced up at him in disbelief. He smiled widely and pushed his empty pie dish to one side. Surprise threaded through my dark mood as I wondered just when it had been that he'd eaten the rest.

"How is being weird good?" I asked dubiously, attempting to remove the pie from my mind.

"It makes things interesting!" he answered at once. "If you were normal and if I was normal, everything we did would be so normal, it would be boring. And anyway, what's normal for one person isn't the same as what's normal for someone else. So you could say we really are _normal_," he finished, sliding his chair away from the small table as the waitress finally walked up with my order.

I stared at my food for a moment after she'd set it down on top of the white tablecloth and took away Dib's empty pie dish, and I then looked back up at Dib, feeling somewhat dazed. I'd never seen things in that way before. Not once had I thought perhaps it was okay to simply be me, since everyone else around me seemed to think that I alone was insufficient.

Laughing lightly, I leaned back in my chair and smiled faintly at Dib as he stood up in preparation to leave. "Your logic is bizarre," I muttered while I wrapped up my slices of bread in a clean handkerchief, slid the bundle into my pouch to save for later, and quickly drank down my glass of cold water.

Dib shot me a falsely offended look as I stood up and handed him the money for my food. I pulled my quiver back over my head and watched with amusement as he huffily stomped to the counter to pay. Afterward, he hurried back and we stepped outside onto the star-lit street. It felt much more chilly out here than it had earlier, now that we'd been sitting in the warm tavern for so long. I deeply breathed in the cold air, and then looked down at Dib. He smirked and patted my leg. "Okay, let's go train."

I crouched down beside him. Shoving my quiver to one side, he seated himself on my back and I slowly released my wings. Glancing about myself to make sure there was no one nearby so I could take off, I quickly began to beat my wings and lifted us both into the air. Dib tightened his hold on my shoulders as we flew over the dark city. I felt much lighter after our conversation. Having a real friend was very nice after being alone for so many years.

"Dib," I called back after a few minutes of silence.

"What is it‽" he asked loudly, nearly yelling so I could hear him over the wind whistling past us.

"Thanks."

He laughed and pressed a warm hand on my back as we left the city walls behind. "Anytime."


	7. Abandonment

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note –** A thank you goes to Tearless Wish for helping expand a portion of this chapter :)_

* * *

><p>The cold wind rushed past my ears in forceful gusts, making it very difficult for me to hear Dib's yelled instructions as he directed me over the grassy hills several hours worth of travel north of Star City. Wild boars of a wide variety of sizes, ranging from nearly as big as hippos to as small as puppies, were scampering—if whatever they were doing could be counted as "scampering"—across the ground blurring past underneath us. They looked nearly identical to their real-life counterparts, except these had enormous spikes jutting out from the backs of their necks and several of the larger ones were breathing fire.<p>

Yes, completely normal.

Dipping one wing, I circled around behind the monsters and steadied myself as Dib carefully slipped off my right shoulder, and I refrained from wincing as he accidentally pulled my hair on the way down. Gripping the studded shoulder guard on my leather vest, he slowly lowered himself underneath me and I took hold of the back of his armored top. Swinging freely through the dusky air, he unsheathed both of his short swords from his belt and clutched them tightly in his hands.

I hoped this wasn't a bad idea. No, forget hoping. I knew this was a bad idea and I wasn't going to be pointlessly optimistic. But Dib, brimming with confidence from some unknown source, had insisted. It seemed every time we started a new training session, he would completely forget how frightened he'd been the last time, and would then come up with some new, daring plan to kill whatever mobs we were aiming for. So far, none of his brilliant ideas had worked. He was persistent, at least.

"Ready‽" I yelled down at Dib as I swooped toward one of the smallest boars in a hope that it would be less of a challenge. It began squealing as it saw us coming and took off over the top of one of the hills, separating itself from the rest of the mobs in its fright. I smirked at its retreating back. Even a boar knew when it was at a disadvantage and it was just a NPC. Yet Dib—a real human—couldn't seem to get it through his head that some attack methods simply weren't a good idea. Not in his case, anyway.

"Ready!" Dib confirmed. I could feel his body stiffen up in preparation. Sending the back of his curly head one more worried glance, I reluctantly let go of his top and off he flew.

Or fell.

Pulling out my bow as fast as I could, I strung it and whipped out an arrow, but didn't move to shoot, because Dib had scolded me several times in the past for unwantedly "interfering" in his fights. Though moments later he would usually cry for help and hide behind me.

Dib continued to fall toward the terrified boar, screaming the whole way. If anything, the vocal additions to his descent only heightened the boar's fear and it began zig-zagging through the long grass as if it couldn't decide in its panic which direction it wanted to run. Somehow, Dib managed to land on top of it and knocked it off its hooves. He went silent and simply laid there, unmoving, on top of the twitching animal.

For a very long, horrifying moment, I thought I'd killed him. Fear filled me as I quickly landed and ran over to him, vaguely remembering to stick my bow and arrow back into my quiver. I nearly tripped over my own feet in my hurry to get to him, but I avoided falling down by flying over the last stretch of ground.

"Dib‽" I yelled and dropped to my knees in the grass. I frantically yanked him off the half-dead boar and flipped him over. Sighing, I inspected him for injuries, my fear quickly disappearing, though my heart continued to pound in my chest. Except for being bruised a little, he was fine, and I was infinitely thankful that he'd somehow managed to avoid getting impaled on the boar's neck-spikes.

"Dib?" I quietly called again. He didn't respond, so I gently shook him, feeling annoyed at how his grand idea of being a "missile" had turned out. He'd been so confident that he would be able to take on any monster with this new tactic, and now, one boar later, he'd fainted in a very creepy-looking way with his eyes still open. It was a mystery to me as to how he'd managed to get to level forty-two while having no courage whatsoever against monsters.

Ignoring the guilt welling up, I slapped him across the face in an attempt to make him come to his senses.

"OUCH!" he yelled, squeezing his eyes shut and wildly waving his arms and legs at me as if he was trying to ward off attacks. "DON'T EAT ME! GO AWAY! A-A-AH! AL, SAVE ME! N-O-O-O!"

"Dib, stop!" I snapped at him, dodging his fists as he swung them around. I quickly grabbed his wrists and attempted to still his hands, using my weight to pin him to the ground. My efforts didn't do much, since he was far stronger than me, but I did manage to slightly hinder his movements.

After a minute of struggling, it seemed that he noticed he wasn't getting eaten and his eyes finally opened. "Al?" he asked, blearily blinking up at me and taking deep breaths to calm himself. I nodded down at him and cautiously let his hands go. Slowly turning his head, he looked toward the still-kicking boar laying beside us with his swords poking out of its back.

Dib was quiet for a moment, and then suddenly began to laugh. "Al!"

"W-what?" I looked down at him in confusion as he punched my knee in his mirth and continued laughing. There didn't seem to be anything funny about our situation. If anything, I'd thought he was going to burst into tears from the terrifying fall.

My eyes widened in concern as he did indeed start crying, but only because he was laughing so much. I hadn't thought I'd hit him _that_ hard.

Several minutes later, he gave a shuddering gasp and stood up as he wiped his face off, still chuckling slightly. I stayed seated in the grass and watched as he stepped over to the boar, yanking his swords out of its spine. It gave a snarling grunt and he quickly cut its throat, making it fall silent.

"Al!" he suddenly yelled, spinning on his heels and putting both hands on his hips.

"What?" I repeated, feeling somewhat startled at his intensity.

"My plan worked!" he declared triumphantly, looking like he'd just discovered something fantastic.

"Oh," I said with a slight nod. "Yes, I suppose it did."

His ecstatic face faded away as I stood up and walked past him to crouch next to the boar's corpse. I quickly began to break off the sharp, gray spikes from its neck—some for selling at the shops in town, and also some for making more arrowheads—and slipped them into a cloth bag hanging on my belt next to my pouch.

After a moment of silence, Dib sighed and started to help me strip the corpse for loot. "It sure takes a lot to get you excited about something, huh?" he muttered sullenly. "Not even a 'Good job, Dib!' or 'Oh boy, the boar is dead!' or anything…"

"Good job, Dib. Oh boy, the boar is dead," I echoed monotonously, bending over the boar's head and attempting to snap off its tusks, too. It was just a dead boar and a tiny one, at that. What was there to get excited over? I'd been killing mobs for months and not once did I feel excited over defeating them. A bit proud of myself at first, but that quickly disappeared. Killing monsters was just something that everyone did, not anything to get all riled up over.

"Wow, that was so heart-felt," Dib grumbled sardonically and wiped the blood off his swords onto the dark grass before returning them to their sheaths. I glanced up at him in confusion as I put the tusks into the cloth bag and tied it shut. Without looking at me, he flipped the boar over and started picking up the items it had dropped. "Would it kill you to sound at least a little interested in what we're doing?"

"I am interested in it," I said quietly, not knowing why he was suddenly so annoyed. I flinched as he abruptly thrust half the coins and a small roll of cloth at me, and I shakily took them from him, putting them away in my pouch.

"It doesn't sound like that to me," he replied with a frown, stashing away his share of the loot, and then crossing his arms. "You always seem so bored, no matter what we're doing."

I dropped my eyes and stared at the blood-splattered ground. "I _am_ interested in it. Now that we've found a way you can train, we will be able to find out quicker what sort of teammates we want to look for, like you wanted. And we will also get experience faster as we get used to fighting like this."

"That's all? You just like the technical stuff?" he asked after I finished.

"What do you mean?" I looked up again and he stared at me with a hurt expression. Having backup with me while I trained was, at times, helpful. Why wouldn't I like it?

He sighed as if I was purposefully trying to be dense, stepped over to me and leaned on my shoulder, playing with a handful of my hair as he slowly replied, "I suppose you could say that you're having a lot of fun training with _me_, like I am with you, regardless of whether or not the training itself is actually doing us any good…"

I opened my mouth to respond, finally seeing what he was talking about, but I didn't know what to say, so I closed it again. I'd never been in this kind of situation before. Then again, I hadn't been in a lot of situations before that I somehow found myself meandering through when I was with Dib.

Was I supposed to console him in some way? I wasn't even quite sure just what kind of mood he was in. I thought he'd known that I liked training with him simply because it was him. If I didn't like him, I probably would have left him back when we were in Sun City. And then I'd still be sitting all alone in my little crevice, shooting at poisonous slugs. I was endlessly thankful to him for pulling me out of the slump I hadn't known I'd been in.

When I didn't say anything, he gave me a disappointed glance and slowly walked a few steps away. With his back to me, he said quietly, "If I'm bothering you and you'd rather go back to playing alone, then I'll leave. There's no point in us being teammates if we're not both enjoying being around one another."

My eyes widened in shock. That wasn't what I wanted at all. Dib was the only person I had anymore. My brother had left me, my father was anything but fatherly, and my friends were all…whatever they were. The thought of Dib abandoning me filled me with dread.

I desperately tried to think of something convincing to say to make him stay, but my mind was drawing a blank, as always. He peeked at me out of the corner of his eye. "That's not…" I sighed and bit my lip. Why did this have to be so difficult? How did the situation even turn into something so awkward? Only a few minutes ago, we'd been getting along just fine. Or so I'd thought.

Falling backward out of my crouching position, I sat down on the grass and ran a hand through my hair. I pleadingly looked at him and he finally turned around. "Please, I don't want you to go."

He didn't move for a moment, but then suddenly beamed and walked back over to stand in front of me. Without any warning, he punched my jaw. "That's for scaring me, idiot!" he yelled as I picked myself up from where I'd fallen over and straightened out my aching wings in annoyance, having landed on top of them. He gleefully smiled at my indignant expression as I rubbed the stinging spot where he'd hit me. "I don't want to go, either. I'm glad we finally agree."

I stared at him in embarrassment, and then nodded. "I'm sorry," I muttered quietly, "that I'm not very expressive. It's just how I've always behaved." How I'd always been told to behave. How I'd always seen my father behave.

He shrugged, the playful grin he'd been wearing slowly fading into a much more serious look. "I won't say 'It's fine,' since it's not. I can't read your mind, you know. All I can ever see is your constantly disinterested outward appearance. You barely ever show anything, unless you're mad…Trying to figure you out all the time is really hard." He patted one hand on my cheek. "You don't have to hold back so much, okay? Feel free to let your emotions out. Good _and_ bad. And not just in your behavior, but in words, too. I've told you before to just say whatever you think."

I dropped my eyes to the ground again and stared at the grass poking up between my boots. Letting my emotions out was a frightening thought. All throughout my childhood, I'd been told by not only my father, but also my tutors and other guardians that I wasn't supposed to allow my emotions to be seen. They were simply a form of weakness, according to all of those adults. I hadn't needed them. They weren't important. Where was their place in the world of business? All I'd been told I needed was a ruthless countenance and mindset.

I wasn't genuinely ruthless in the slightest—it was endlessly exhausting, pretending to be so stern every single day at the office and even at home—and now here was a person right in front of me who was contradicting everything that I'd been taught, telling me it was okay to simply speak my mind. To be honest. To not hide anything.

To be myself.

But, I thought, looking back up to meet Dib's eyes, what would happen if I really did let go of my forced self-disciplines? I couldn't imagine behaving like myself in real life. My father would be furious. There was no use for _me_. He only wanted his _heir_. However, as long as I kept up the charade in real life so he would be satisfied with me…perhaps it wouldn't be so terrible to relax in-game, where he didn't exist.

Smiling faintly at Dib, I finally replied, "I'll try."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet, laughing. "Well, I'm not expecting you to improve right away. But with time and effort, I'm sure you'll pull it off just fine," he replied airily as I neatly folded my wings against my back. I felt as though my eyes had cleared slightly as I looked down at his bright face. He always seemed to know just what to say.

Suddenly feeling a bit curious, I had a small, wondering thought. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the answer I was going to get, but decided to ask, "If I had said I wanted to be alone, would you really have left?"

He scoffed slightly at my question and smirked, shaking his head. "No way. If you ever try to leave, I'll chase you all over the place."

I gave him a blank look, wondering if he was joking, but he looked serious. "Why?"

With a sudden gasp, he anxiously waved his hand. "Don't misunderstand! I'm not stalking you or anything!"

"I didn't think that," I said, feeling somewhat amused. "I meant…well, why did you want to be my teammate? You were so forceful about it, but it's not like I'm a terribly exciting person to be around…I'm kind of boring, I suppose. There's a lot of other people who play this game, of course…a lot who're much better at socializing than I am. I'm just curious as to why you picked me so spontaneously," I mumbled, looking away with renewed embarrassment.

"You're like a puzzle box!" Dib answered and my eyes widened in surprise. He chose me because I was a puzzle? What in the world did that mean? He was just toying with me this whole time for his own enjoyment? All hope that he liked me suddenly flew away.

"I'm just a game to you?" I quietly clarified, feeling somewhat depressed at the discovery.

"No!" he hastily yelled, looking horrified that I'd come to that conclusion. "No! No-o-o-o! That's not what I meant at all! Not that I don't think you're, um, fun to mess with, but that's beside the point! You're interesting, like a puzzle box! Not a game, but a _puzzle box_! Something to figure out how to solve and finally open to reveal the goodies!"

Somehow, this wasn't making me feel any better. I'd gone from being a game to a mysterious object.

"And what happens when you see what's inside?" I inquired.

"I get to enjoy the discoveries!" he cheered, heartily slapping my leg.

"What if you don't like what you find? Will you lose interest?"

He paused at my pessimistic continuation, then frowned up at me. "Al, we've been playing _Second Life_ together for a whole month. If I wasn't gonna like you, I'm sure I already wouldn't." An encouraging smile brightened his face. "Even if I don't know everything about you, I'm still your friend and that's not gonna change! So don't worry about it, okay?"

My face warmed up slightly while I gave him a short nod, one corner of my mouth twitching. "Okay," I murmured and walked away from him, stretching out my black wings to either side. Although he hadn't really answered my question as to why he'd chosen me, I supposed I was satisfied with what he'd said, anyway, since now I knew why he'd stayed with me, regardless of how I felt that he would be able to find much more worthwhile teammates rather than myself. Even if it was a weird reason. After all, wasn't _everyone_ a "puzzle box" at first?

Without waiting for Dib to climb on, I jumped into the chilly, evening air and shot him a playful smile. "Well, have fun!"

"Hey!" he indignantly called up to me. "Where are you going‽"

I glanced over at the multicolored horizon stretching out in front of me. Through the quickly failing light of _Second Life_'s setting sun, I could see the rest of the boars finally returning from wherever it was they'd run to earlier. "I'm going to greet our little friends, who are currently stampeding toward us."

Dib turned in the direction I was facing, though I doubted he could see anything over the hills, and then gave me a terrified look. I flapped my wings a bit faster, rising further upward into the dark, starry sky to tease him.

"Al, come back!" he wailed, running over the grass after me.

"You forgot to say 'please,'" I called down to him, lazily gliding through the air.

"PLE-E-E-EASE!"

Laughing to myself, I fell to the ground and waited for Dib to catch up. He nearly knocked me over in his hurry to scramble onto my back. "You're so mean!" he yelled in a childish tone and pulled hard on my earring as he settled into his usual position. "Jerk!"

"I'm sorry," I said, not feeling sorry at all, and took off into the air again as I tried to stifle my continued laughter. I ignored his unceasing string of rants about how cruel I was and flew toward the boars through the steadily blackening sky, so we could train together a bit longer before we had to wake up.

A happy smile settled on my face as Dib wrapped his little arms around my neck and tightly hugged me from behind. "I promise I won't leave, so don't ever go anywhere I can't come with you, okay?" he pleaded quietly, but loud enough so I could hear him over the wind gusting past. He sounded worried, regardless of my assurances that I'd stay. It slowly dawned on me that perhaps I wasn't the only one who was afraid of being abandoned. After all, Dib had also been training by himself when I'd found him. Since then, he'd never mentioned having any other teammates before, aside from me. I felt secretly pleased with myself that perhaps I was his first.

"I'll never leave, either," I soothed as I twisted one arm around to briefly pat the top of his head. He grabbed my hand and held onto it with both of his as we soared far over the ground. "I promise."


	8. Office Panic

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –**__ "Zongcai" (Zian's father's title at the office) is the equivalent of "President." And, as a reminder, "Jingli" (Zian's title at the office) is the equivalent of "Manager."_

* * *

><p>I stared morosely at the multitudes of the papers that were littering the top of my desk. All of the little letters sitting on the pages seemed to mock me with every word they formed.<p>

There was never an end to things I had to read. Ever since I'd started working here right after my college graduation several years ago, I had often wondered if my father purposefully sent every single one of the company sections' reports to me, though I was only in charge of the accounting department. But he never had seen me as being very useful, so I wasn't much surprised that checking reports was all he ever had me doing, aside from attending the occasional dinner with him, though he usually left me out of any social events. Not that I cared, since I was much more comfortable alone in my room than surrounded by strangers in some dining hall.

The hours crawled by in tormenting sluggishness and for what seemed like the millionth time I glanced at the large, ornate clock hanging on the otherwise blank, white wall. The hands refused to move any faster, even with urgent mental prodding. It was only eleven o'clock in the morning, not even time for lunch yet, but I wanted nothing more than to go home and go to bed.

Quickly looking back at my papers, I frowned reprovingly. I'd told myself when I first bought _Second Life_ that I wouldn't let the game get in the way of my real duties. This was more important. Anyway, I had to at least pretend to be dedicated to work. That way, my father would hopefully not notice my absent-mindedness due to wanting to play _Second Life_.

Still, I couldn't quite stop myself from thinking up new battle tactics for Dib and my training while I attempted to read the next report.

A soft knock on my office door made me jump slightly and I immediately pretended to focus, but then realized that whoever it was outside couldn't see me. Clearing my throat, I sat up straighter and put on a blank expression. "Come in," I called after I'd used a moment to fix myself into the countenance of the company heir I was supposed to be. Sometimes it was difficult to turn off my Aeolus switch. He was certainly easier to be rather than Zian.

The door inched open and my father's secretary slipped through the gap. She neatly bowed at me. "Jingli, Zongcai wishes to see you in his office."

Refraining from sighing in annoyance over the interruption, I stood without another word and left the room. The woman followed a moment later and I hurried toward the elevators, straightening my pale blue tie as I went.

I glanced to one side as I passed by the row of my employees' desks. Only one looked up at me and met my eyes. It was that man who had called me lively a month ago. He and I hadn't spoken since, unless we had to do so. Probably because I'd glared at him after his little outburst. I supposed I'd frightened him off like everyone else who'd dared attempt to converse with me, regardless of the overhanging threat of my father.

But no matter. I had Dib to keep me company now and didn't particularly care if yet another man at the office avoided me as long as he continued to properly do his work.

A minute later, I found myself outside the unnecessarily large double-doors leading into my father's pointlessly huge office. Softly tapping my knuckles against the cold, black door, I shifted uneasily where I stood, hoping very much that he wasn't going to tell me he knew about my nightly activities. He hadn't called me for anything since that day two months ago when he'd spontaneously given me the day off.

I tried to force the fear off of my face as I heard him call me in, put a trembling hand on the doorknob and slowly opened it. After closing the door behind myself, I stepped quietly up to his desk and inclined my head, staring hard at one of the smooth, gray floor tiles and attempting to keep myself from passing out in fright.

It took him several minutes to finally look up at me, but I stayed in my position. However, rather than saying anything, he proceeded to take a very lengthy drink of water. Anything to make me feel inferior for a little longer, I supposed.

Sighing softly, he leaned back in his chair and stared critically at me, his emotionless black eyes only glancing away for a second to set his empty glass down. "Zian, you are going to go on a four-day business trip to oversee the new contract in T City," he firmly announced. "Choose three of your department's employees to go with you. You leave tonight at seven o'clock. Transportation and rooms at a hotel have already been arranged. All of the information is in here." He slid a thick, red folder across the top of his desk and I quickly took it.

"Yes, Father," I said quietly as he returned to his work without another glance. As I hastily left his office, I felt overwhelmingly relieved that he apparently hadn't noticed anything, but I wondered if I would be able to smuggle my _Second Life_ helmet along with me on the trip. The hotel would obviously have internet access. Four days wasn't terribly lengthy, but I still felt as though I'd very much miss playing in that time.

However, more pressing than _Second Life_ was the wondering thought as to why my father was sending me instead of going himself as he always had. After having banished me to my office for so long, it was somewhat strange. Well, I was supposed to inherit the company someday, even if he thought I was completely incapable of doing anything but read reports, so going on trips for experience was really a positive thing.

Pausing as I finally reached my own department again, I ran my eyes over my diligently working employees. Which unfortunate three should I take with me? It was hardly considerate of me to tell them I was bringing them along when they only had that afternoon to prepare to leave tonight, but it had to be done.

I quickly stepped over to stand between two of the desks and stared down at their owners typing away on computers. "Zhang Biyu, Wu Li Qin," I called, looking at each of the very professional-looking women in turn. They'd done quite a bit of praise-worthy work as of late, they seemed suitable.

They immediately stood up like their chairs had just been set on fire and turned in my direction. "Jingli?"

"Finish what you are working on, and then go home. Pack for a four-day business trip to T City. You will be picked up at your homes at seven tonight to be taken to the airport."

They both looked slightly overwhelmed at the sudden order, but nodded and said, "Yes, Jingli," before quickly sitting back down and returning to their work.

I turned away and looked over the rest of them, wondering who else to pick. My attention landed on the man that at some point I'd dubbed You're-Looking-So-Lively. He was a bit forward, but a very hard worker nonetheless, so I walked over to his tidy desk.

"Shi Heng. You are coming, too. Finish what you are working on, then go home to pack. You will be picked up at seven," I ordered, talking as fast as I could before he had a chance to stand up. I turned away as he looked up at me somewhat fearfully and I hurried back into my office, firmly shutting the door behind myself.

Sitting behind my desk again, I stared down at the red folder and my papers for a moment, picking up my thin fountain pen. But before I could open the folder to read about the contract, it suddenly hit me what was about to happen; I was leaving tonight. There was probably going to be a car waiting for me outside directly after work to take me to the airport, with my bags already packed by some maid or another.

Bags sans _Second Life_ gaming device.

There was no way to tell Dib that I wasn't going to be playing for a few days. I'd skipped nights before for various reasons, but never without telling him first. For all I knew, the impulsive boy would jump off a cliff and attempt to lasso a dragon to fight with while I was gone. He'd mentioned that particular scenario to me before and I didn't doubt he would try it out of boredom if I failed to log in. He would definitely die in a heartbeat if I wasn't there to protect him from monsters and from his own brainless ideas.

And only earlier that morning in-game, I'd told him I'd never leave and now here I was leaving him for four whole days. What if he thought I'd lied about wanting to be his friend and was now hiding from him? What if he got lost wandering around searching for me? What if he found someone else to be friends with? What if–

My mouth dropped open in horror. This was terrible.

I nearly ran out of my office to hurry home and explain to him what was going on, though I doubted he would be online at such an early hour, since he had work, too. But I held myself back and tried to beat down my anxiousness.

Taking several deep, controlled breaths, I mentally kicked myself for being so silly. What in the world was the matter with me? Those thoughts were ridiculous. Well, some of them. I was pretty sure Dib would indeed go try to find a dragon and get killed, but the thought of him dropping me for someone else was plain insulting. I knew he would never do that. How could I think such a horrible thing?

Anyway, it was only a four-day-long trip. It wasn't like I was leaving for an entire year. Why was I getting so panicky?

Nervously twirling my pen around in my hand, I hoped Dib wouldn't be too angry with me when I saw him next. He was also an adult, though I sometimes forgot because of how he looked and acted. I hoped he would understand the situation.

I sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. Having a real friend was more bothersome than I'd thought it would be. None of my other "friends" were so much trouble. In fact, they were just the opposite, acting so concerned over my comfort while they didn't actually care about me, but rather were concerned with the well-being of their job or something of that sort. Not that they had ever come right out and said such things, of course. The only reason I'd spent time with them in the first place was because my father had forced me to do so, since many of them were also sons and daughters of important business heads.

It wasn't until after I'd met Dib that I realized how false those people were. He was everything they weren't—rude, messy, obnoxious, childish, but also warm and caring, and one of the most considerate people I'd ever known. And even though the whole secret-friendship thing was wearing on me, I was positive I wouldn't change anything if I had the choice. Worrying about the other person came with the territory, I supposed. I just had to focus on my work, so I didn't lose that friend getting caught through my own mistakes.

"Lively" was starting to become an understatement, I realized with a huff and slowly went back to work, flipping open the thick folder at last.

Nearly twelve hours later, I was walking across the excessively decorated lobby of the hotel my father had arranged. I hurried to the counter and refrained from leaning against it in my weariness as I checked the four of us in.

When I was handed the room keys, I was vaguely surprised to find my father had only booked two rooms. I'd thought for sure he'd booked three in his bizarre determination to keep me above my subordinates. Not that I cared very much if I shared with You're-Looking-So-Lively. Now that I had no chance at playing _Second Life_ during my short stay in T City, I had nothing to hide.

Stepping into the large elevator along with the others, I stood in the corner and watched the little floor numbers light up in turn, thinking it would probably be best if I stopped mentally calling Heng "You're-Looking-So-Lively." After all, it would become a habit if I kept it up and it would be very bad if it slipped out by accident while I was talking to him. I didn't particularly want to know how he would react if he discovered I'd given him some weird nickname.

As we reached our floor, I handed one of the keys to the two women who'd come with me, and then slipped the second key into my room's lock. The door easily swung open on well-oiled hinges, and I hurried inside. Heng and the hotel employees carrying our luggage followed along behind.

I made sure my bags were put where I wanted them in the bedroom, and then went back to the main sitting room and slipped off my long overcoat, neatly draping it over a chair next to the wide window overlooking the city. I gazed outside, staring at all the little lights of the other building windows shining in the darkness and wondered what Dib was doing. I hoped he wasn't getting eaten by something.

Letting loose a small sigh, I turned back around. Heng was quietly standing to one side, looking awkward as he fiddled with the little buttons on the left sleeve of his white dress shirt.

When he didn't say anything, I sat down on the chair and began removing my shoes. After they were off, I stood up again. Heng was still in the same spot, staring at me.

"Would you like to take a shower first, or shall I?" I asked, wishing he would go away, or at least stop looking at me. It was very annoying, being constantly watched with such focus for no apparent reason.

He backed up a few steps and waved a hand behind himself into the bedroom, toward the bathroom door inside. "Please, Jingli. Go ahead of me," he offered quietly, smiling at me for the first time since the Lively Incident. My eyes widened as I looked at him. That expression was oddly familiar.

After a moment, I faintly nodded and walked past him. A long sigh came from the sitting room as I went to shut the bathroom door. I felt slightly hurt at how alleviated he seemed to be that I wasn't in there anymore. Was I really so terrifying to be around that he had to make such relieved noises when he thought I couldn't hear him? All I did was glare at him and that was months ago.

I quickly undressed and threw my clothing into a basket on the floor with quite a bit more force than was necessary, wishing that I'd simply booked a third room myself. Nearly an hour later, I was reluctantly opening the bathroom door, not really wanting to go back to where Heng was, but neither did I want to stay in the bathroom any longer. I wanted to go home.

Slowly stepping into the warm main room, I tightened the fluffy towel around my waist and glanced toward the dining table. There he was.

Heng smiled at me again as I walked toward him. I sat down in the chair across from him and stared down at the large dish of assorted fruits that hadn't been there before. "Thank you," I said, and then looked up at Heng, continuing, "for letting me use the shower first."

"You're welcome, Jingli," he replied brightly, and then gestured one of his large hands toward the fruit. "I ordered room service, I hope you don't mind. I wasn't sure what you would prefer, so I asked for a variety. But we could get something else, if you'd like."

"No, thank you. This is fine," I assured quietly and slowly took a shiny red apple off the top of the pyramid-shaped stack. Heng sure seemed to be in a good mood all of the sudden. I wished it would rub off onto me. Perhaps I was going to feel better in the morning, but at the moment, I was feeling thoroughly miserable on that business trip I didn't want to be on, stuck in a room with the recently-discovered-to-be-awkward-to-be-around You're-Loo…Heng. At least there was fruit. And the room was nice and toasty; Heng must have turned up the thermostat while I was bathing.

Twisting off the stem of the apple, I set it to one side and gingerly picked up the small knife that was sticking out of the fruit bowl. After peeling off the skin, I carefully cut the apple into even eighths and glanced up at Heng. He was staring at me again, now with a hesitant expression seeming to be slipping back into fear as he looked me over. I set the knife down and separated the slices from one another, feeling extremely uncomfortable under his relentless gaze.

"Please stop looking at me."

His round eyes widened as if he only just realized what he'd been doing and he immediately looked downward instead. "I'm sorry."

Picking up two white napkins from the stack placed beside the fruit bowl, I neatly arranged four of the apple slices on each and slid one of the napkins in Heng's direction. He abruptly looked back up at me in surprise as if he would never have imagined that I would share my apple with him. Part of me wished he would ignore the apple and go take a shower instead, so I'd be alone.

"Thank you, Jingli," he said, the warm smile back as he shifted the napkin closer to himself and picked up one of the slices.

"You are welcome." As I began to eat, I ventured another tiny glance at him, wondering why he was being so forcefully friendly with me all the sudden when he kept periodically acting scared. Especially before tonight, he'd always seemed so terrified whenever I looked at him. Then again, so did everyone else. But perhaps the reason his reactions alone stuck in my mind was because he was the only one who dared to look back at me. Often he didn't even bother knocking on my office door before bursting inside for whatever reason.

"D-do you like apples, Jingli?" Half of his mouth twitched into a smile and I stared at him for a moment, wondering if he really expected me to give him such an obvious answer. Why would I have picked an apple—the bowl also contained oranges, bananas, peaches, pears, and even a few kiwis—if I didn't like them?

Heng seemed to quickly notice the oddness of what he'd just asked and went back to eating. "Sorry, I guess that was a stupid question, seeing as how you're eating one and all…"

I nodded once, inwardly rolling my eyes at how nervous he was. Silence settled on us again. Slowly chewing the sweet fruit, I tried to think of something to say. I knew Dib would be proud of me for attempting to start a conversation with someone. That was probably the only reason I was bothering.

"You do not have to call me 'Jingli,' if you would prefer dropping it. When no one else is around, anyway," I muttered at last after I swallowed. Not a very interesting topic, but it was the only thing that came to mind.

He paused with an apple slice half-way to his mouth and looked at me curiously. "What should I call you?" he asked after a moment's silence.

"Simply 'Zian' is fine," I continued. It sounded strange when he spoke to me so formally.

Heng nodded and smiled widely at me as he popped his final apple slice into his mouth. "Okay, 'Zian' it is."

I frowned inwardly, staring down at my now-apple-free napkin. That didn't sound right, either, though it was better than having annoying titles tacked on all of the time. But I tried to ignore it, since I was probably just tired from getting forced on spontaneous business trips and riding around in cars and airplanes.

Abruptly deciding I didn't want to try to converse with Heng anymore, I crumpled up my napkin and stood, gripping my towel so it didn't fall off. Quickly walking to the bedroom door, I threw the napkin into the waste basket on the floor and glanced over my shoulder. "If you are still hungry, feel free to have the remainder of the fruit or order something else. My father is paying for all of the trip's expenses, so get whatever you want."

He hastily shook his head, then leaned back in his chair. "Oh, um, I don't think that I should…I'm fine with just this, thanks."

His stomach chose that moment to give a lengthy growl and I raised an eyebrow, stifling a smile of amusement. "Ah, is that so? Well, if you change your mind, the offer still stands, of course."

He looked slightly embarrassed and played with his napkin for a moment, but then gave me a curious stare. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"I…I mean, you also only had half an apple. You, um…Not to be rude, but you look…like you could use more." He vaguely waved one of his hands at me.

I briefly glanced down, then looked back up at him, feeling annoyed. "No. It was plenty." Without giving him a chance to say anything else, I turned back to the doorway. "Goodnight."

"'Night," Heng returned while I went into the bedroom and crouched down beside my luggage. Staring guardedly at Heng over the edge of the bed beside me, I silently watched as he went into the bathroom. I thought I heard him chuckle slightly before he shut the door. He was weird.

I hurriedly dressed in my pajamas when I heard him turn the water on, folded up the towel I'd been wearing and set it by the bathroom door, then slipped into one of the two beds, burying myself under the blankets and curling up. Running my finger along the soft fabric covering me, I immediately began to feel bored. Usually at this time I'd be logging into _Second Life_, if I hadn't already. It was like I'd reverted back to my pre-gaming life when I never had anything interesting to do. And I missed Dib, though I knew it was only for a little while that I wouldn't be able to see him. Hopefully he was okay, even without me being there.

Resolutely closing my eyes, I tried ignore my loneliness and go to sleep.


	9. Right in Front of Me

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Blinking away the tiredness, I ran my eyes across my laptop's screen and down the lengthy list of numbers I'd put in each little rectangle of the budget chart I was working on. Everything looked correct, comparing all of that to what I'd written earlier. I glanced down at my notebook, then looked back to the chart, pressing the "calculate" button up on the tool bar of the program. It gave me what had to be an incorrect answer for the millionth time. Or was my math wrong?<p>

Frowning, I once again began reading through my notebook and rechecking all of my neatly-written, step-by-step calculations. Where was the error?

"Zian."

"Hm…?" I mumbled vaguely, flipping over my page to look at what was written on the back. Why did this observational business trip have to have so much math involved? Stupid complicated projects. But I knew I had to write a very detailed report—including organized charts and graphs, not just a bunch of numbers—about every little thing that went on in every single meeting, or else my father would be angry with me yet again.

"I'm going to order dinner. What do you want?" Heng asked.

"…Divide that…What?" I tore my eyes away from my work, questioningly looking up to Heng. He was holding the hotel room's phone in one hand and a laminated room service menu in the other. At some point he'd changed out of his suit and into a black t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Dinner," he slowly repeated. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, thank you." I dived back into my battle with the math, feeling very determined to find the miscalculation. Dragging my pencil over the equation, I mentally redid the math. To make sure, I did it on my laptop's calculator. Nothing wrong with that portion.

"Zian."

"I said…nothing…" I brushed off, moving on to the next set of numbers.

"Zian!"

Dropping my pencil, I stared up at the Very Distracting Heng, who had come to stand right beside me and was also looking somewhat irritated. "I am not hungry. Go ahead and get something for yourself," I told him, nearly pleading and wishing he would leave me alone. There was little that I hated more than being interrupted when I was trying to work, but it seemed that Heng didn't care. Then again, he didn't know me very well, so I supposed for his sake I should try to keep my patience together. What little I had of it.

"I think you should take a break and eat dinner," he quietly suggested. "You've been working on that since we got back to the room and that was four hours ago." My eyes widened slightly and I glanced at the computer's clock. It had gone from afternoon to evening without my noticing. But I wanted to continue, regardless.

"Zian," Heng said yet again when I ignored him and went to pick up my pencil, "there's plenty of time to finish that later. You're going to overwork yourself."

"I will not," I stubbornly replied, mentally shooing him away.

"Take a short break, at least?" he offered. He really wasn't going to give up, was he? How annoying.

"Fine," I sighed, then slid my notebook over to myself and added, "after I check this next part." He looked like he wanted to take the notebook away from me, but sat himself down across the table and stared contemplatively down at the menu. Feeling very relieved that he was apparently going to leave me alone for a while, I hastily went back to work.

Before I knew it, he was standing beside me again, looking much more irritated than he had earlier. "Zian, it's been an entire hour."

I shot him a brief frown, but obediently made a small mark on the notebook, saved my chart on the laptop before closing it, and slid my chair backward, staring up at Heng with extreme dislike and wishing a second time that I'd booked a third hotel room for myself. I wasn't here to relax. I was here to work, and that was what I was prepared to do. Yet he kept interrupting. Why couldn't he just eat by himself?

With a relieved glance, Heng held up the menu to me. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," I replied at once for the millionth time, not moving to take the offered object. He continued to stare unwaveringly down at me. I felt somewhat confused at his complete lack of caution, which was a huge turn-around from the evening before. Rather than giving up like he had yesterday, he looked like he was all set to verbally battle with me for as long as it took to make me give in and eat something.

"May I ask you a personal question?" he finally inquired, tossing the menu on top of my computer and crossing his arms.

"Yes," I said, obstinately pushing the unwanted menu away from myself, "but I promise no answer."

"How tall are you?"

Feeling extremely confused—how was that "personal" or even relevant to this conversation?—I thought for a moment. "One hundred and seventy-eight centimeters…or so." Somewhere around there.

"And how much do you weigh?" he continued.

"I do not know," I answered truthfully. I hadn't weighed myself in a very long time, although my doctor did whenever I had examinations, but I'd never asked. Who cared what my weight was, anyway? My clothes fit and that was all that mattered to me.

"Come here." Heng grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, firmly but gently leading me into the bathroom and stopping me beside the sink. He turned me around, then began to unbutton my gray suit jacket.

In shock, I immediately slapped his hands away. "What do you think you are doing‽" I demanded, taking several steps backward and feeling somewhat panicky at the unexpected and extremely bizarre turn of events.

"Take it off," he sternly ordered. "The material is thicker than the rest of your clothes. And empty out your pockets if there's stuff in them." He pointed downward. "Then stand on that."

I questioningly looked down to see to what he was referring. My eyes landed on a digital scale. I looked back up. "Why are you so interested in my weight?" I asked angrily. He was a weirder person than I'd thought before.

"Have you looked at yourself in a mirror lately? You're so thin you'd disappear from view if you turned sideways!" he snapped, unwantedly returning to the unbuttoning and slipping the jacket off. He draped it over his arm and stared hard at me. "Your pockets. Empty them."

Glaring up at him for a moment, I finally did what he wanted, pulling out my wallet and cellphone. I set them on the counter top, inwardly seething at how he was pushing me around. Why was he being so mean? Although I didn't much like his constant look of terror from before, I didn't like this any better. In fact, it was worse.

Stepping onto the scale, I stared down at the little numbers on its screen. Regardless of my irritation over Heng's actions, I was feeling somewhat curious now that he had brought it up. "I figured as much," Heng remarked when the numbers settled just under a very small fifty-two kilograms. "More so since you haven't even eaten anything since last night." He held out my jacket to me, then sighed while I put it back on. "Over thirty kilograms less than I weigh, though I'm taller…You don't eat regularly, huh?"

"No," I admitted quietly, finally seeing what his point was in all of this. He was probably afraid I was going to collapse from my low blood sugar level and cause trouble for everyone, wasn't he? No wonder he was so angry with me. I felt my mood drop at my irresponsible behavior. I was being a problem again, and at such an important time, too.

Mentally berating myself, I slipped my wallet and phone back into my pockets and stepped past Heng, mumbling an apology and unwillingly attempting to work up the will to eat something. Rather than feeling hungry, I felt somewhat sick at the thought of food. Especially an entire meal, which was what Heng was probably expecting me to have.

I reluctantly sat down at the table again, watching while Heng sat across from me and picked up the daunting menu and phone. He smiled slightly at my worried stare. "I doubt you'll be able to stomach anything big after not eating for so long, so how about something light? They have soup and stuff like that. A bowl of congee should be easy enough to keep down."

"That is fine," I softly agreed, wishing he would pick one mood and stick to it. At least he was being merciful on my nonexistent appetite.

"Any preferences for the ingredients?" he asked after a pause.

"No."

He leaned over the table, propping his chin up on one hand. "You don't have to be so down. I'm not mad at you or anything. I'm just concerned, is all. Sorry for being pushy."

"It is my fault," I replied. "I will do my best not to cause problems due to my eating habits—or, well, lack thereof. I apologize for being so thoughtless."

"Look, you," he suddenly grumbled, sounding angry again. I stared up at him in renewed worry. "When I said I was concerned, I wasn't talking about the trip, although I do agree that you fainting because of this would cause trouble. However, I meant I was concerned about _you_. It's not healthy to skip meals, especially as often as you apparently do. You're way underweight. Men your height should be at least ten kilograms more. I'm surprised you can work so well like this. Or even think straight."

My eyes widened slightly. Why would he be concerned about my well-being, if not because I might hinder the trip? That was the only reason I could think of. No one had ever brought up this sort of thing to me before, unless it was a problem for other people. Well, Dib had, I supposed. Although his method of "bringing it up" was yelling at me and forcing me to eat things against my will, not allowing any refusals on my part.

Then again, wasn't that what Heng was doing? Except he did have a good reason, rather than just "Do it because I told you to," like Dib would most definitely say.

Several minutes later, Heng sighed and put the phone back on its base after ordering dinner, smiling at me as he sat down again. "Food'll be here in ten minutes or so, says the kitchen staff. And after you eat," he paused and gave me a stern look, "go to sleep. No more work tonight, okay? We still have three more days to spend here, you have plenty of time to finish that report. And I can help, too, if you'll let me."

Although I was feeling somewhat exasperated at his determination to get in my way, I gave in and nodded. He did have a point. And he was apparently doing it for my sake, not his. Perhaps he wasn't as irritating as I'd initially thought. In fact, he seemed quite considerate.

But it was still an unwanted interference, regardless.

I gave a tiny glance to Heng, who wasn't paying me any attention anymore, but rather was picking at a spot on his thumb with a very concentrated look, then I dropped my eyes to stare at my notebook. The urge to flip it open and pick up where I left off earlier was gradually rising, especially since I had some time to waste while I waited for my soup. However, Heng was making me take a break. But I _had_ been taking one for at least ten minutes…That was plenty, right?

Anyway, I was the boss. I didn't have to follow his orders.

Sneakily raising one hand, I slowly dragged the notebook over to myself. Heng's eyes immediately darted up at the movement and I stopped, wondering if he was going to tell me to put it back. "You're never going to give up, are you?" he mused, smirking faintly.

Ignoring my previous hesitation, I flipped open to the page I'd marked. "When there is a task I am required to do, no. I much prefer to get things out of the way as quickly as possible rather than lazily working here and there. It gives me peace of mind knowing that it is finished, and also opens up more time for other things afterward."

"It also often gives you a massive headache and wears you out as easily as running around can, sitting in a chair and working for too long at one time," he countered. "Earlier I wasn't suggesting that you ignore your work, but just to put it aside for a few minutes. That can't be such a bad idea after staring at math problems for five hours straight like you just did. Your brain needs a rest after working for so long, even if you don't think it does.

"You may call it laziness, but I call it leisureliness."

"And what is the difference between the two?" I asked, lightly tapping the eraser of my pencil on the corner of my notes. "Either way, the work is done much more slowly than it could potentially be completed. As long as I am not moving too quickly, as that would lead to a greater number of mistakes, I see no point in slowing down when I am able to continue at a swift pace. I may rest all I want once I am finished."

"Except you'll always find something else to work on."

I frowned in annoyance, but reluctantly murmured, "Well, yes. Things need done, so I do them. The faster I work, the more I am able to complete." But that wasn't entirely my own will. I always had assignment after assignment. Anyway, working so much helped me keep my mind off other things.

"You're too focused on getting things done immediately. And, if I may say, I would suppose it's your father's fault for pushing you so needlessly hard." He paused, giving me a careful look, but I simply shrugged neutrally. I didn't care what other people thought about my father. It was none of my business. Anyway, part of me agreed with Heng.

Apparently satisfied that I wasn't going to get angry about his remark, he continued, "The difference between the two is the motivation behind the slow pace. While lazy people work slowly just because they don't want to do the work and would rather be doing something else, people who work at a leisurely pace—while also possibly out of laziness, I guess—are doing it not to _overwork_ themselves."

"The situation does not always allow one to work so carelessly," I pointed out. "But that is not the case all of the time, of course. However, in my opinion it is more beneficial for individual employees and the rest of the company to begin right when one enters the work force—no, even back in school to form the habit of working in a time efficient manner, regardless of the size of the work load and pace of the environment."

"That's true," Heng allowed, "but when you have a lot of time like we do now, it's fine to go bit-by-bit, working hard on small pieces. Not tackling the project as a whole all at once." He turned toward the door when a knocking sounded through the room and he laughed slightly. "It's like eating," he added, standing and striding across the room. "You don't eat everything in one bite do you? Especially not anything large. You'd choke and what good would that do?" After an amused glance he opened the door to let the hotel staff in.

What a way to put it. Ridiculous sounding, yet so simple and easy to understand.

Only after the staff had delivered dinner and left did I let myself laugh at what Heng had said. One-handedly shoving my notebook out of the way, I leaned to one side in the squashy armchair and simply stared at my steaming bowl of congee, letting my mirth out.

"What's so funny?" Heng asked, looking at me in confusion.

"Mm…" I rubbed my mouth for a moment, shaking my head and chuckling. "I just…I know a person who would definitely use such comparisons if I was having this conversation with him. He is quite the food lover. He would probably eat everything in one bite if he could…Yet the fact that it is impossible does not really daunt him sometimes."

My thoughts briefly flew back to a moment earlier that month when Dib and I had been taking a break from our training. We'd settled at the top of a tree and Dib had pulled out a large cake from his pouch, then excitedly said, "Al, watch what I can do!" right before attempting to cram the entire dessert into his mouth. I'd immediately tried to stop him, but he'd screamed at me to let him try. He'd succeeded in fitting half of it in, but nearly died afterward, choking. He thankfully hadn't tried doing something like that since, although he did still take rather large bites.

I picked up my spoon and dragged it around in the thick soup, glancing back up at Heng while he began to eat. His mouthfuls were reassuringly normal-sized. "It is a bit surprising," I quietly confessed, "finding someone so similar to him."

"Someone who says the same things I do? Hm…who woulda thought that there's someone else like me. And here I was thinking I was unique." He playfully smiled at me, slowly chewing. "Small world, huh? Finding people you never thought you would. And so-o-o easily. Makes you wonder how long they've been _right in front of you_ and you _never_ _realized_ _it_!"

I nodded in agreement, slowly raising a spoonful of soup up as I contemplated his heavily emphasized words. He was quite similar to Dib in so many ways, it was strange…Quite similar…I'd even had a conversation with him. Or maybe it was more of a debate. Whichever way it was, I hadn't thought that that was possible. But once we got started, he was actually very easy to talk with, regardless of how I barely knew him. It had taken me quite some time to get comfortable with talking to Dib, other than a few things here and there when necessary. And yet Heng…

Wait a minute.

Right in front of me?

Nearly dropping my spoon, I stared hard at Heng, attempting to picture him as a very small, foreign-looking child. Mentally shrinking down his bulk was a somewhat difficult task, but…The general shape of his facial features, the familiar way he spoke, his forward personality, his warm smile.

His age…

Why hadn't this crossed my mind before?

"Heng, how old are you?" I hastily demanded, leaning forward.

"Twenty-four," he shot back, giving me a brief look of annoyance before returning to his meal. In shock, I slowly sank back into the squishy cushions of my armchair, slipping down somewhat. He sighed and rested his chin on his hand. "What're you doing over there? Melting? Geeze, Al. Is it really so surprising?"

It really was him.

"DIB! YOU DAMN BRAT! WHY ARE YOU HERE‽" I yelled, leaping to my feet and wildly pointing my spoon at him. All of the suffocating pretenses I'd been clinging to since yesterday morning were thrown aside and forgotten.

"Stop flinging your soup everywhere!" he ordered, stabbing a chopstick in my direction. "AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, _WHY _AM I HERE‽ YOU FORCED ME TO COME WITH YOU!"

"YOU! YOU…!" Unable to come up with anything else to lob at him, I instead threw my spoon at the congee-splattered table and stomped away toward the bathroom, feeling thoroughly humiliated. I quickly locked the door behind myself, hearing Heng chasing after.

He began to pound on the door. "Al, come back! I'm sorry for not telling you!"

"Go away!" I furiously snapped. He and I had been friends for a month now and not once had he let on that he knew me in real life. He'd let me go on living out each wretched day alone while he'd been sitting right outside my office the entire time. However, I supposed the blame for this situation was partially my fault. I hadn't recognized him. I hadn't even been looking for him.

The sound of him taking a deep breath came from the other side of the door. "Please, come back," he repeated much more calmly. I ignored him and instead went to the shower, messily dropping my clothing on the floor along the way. Quickly turning on the water, I drowned out his voice and stepped inside. My mind was reeling as I stared at the blue tiled wall under the shower head and let the nearly-scalding water continue to spray out. I didn't feel it very much, anyway. I was more focused on trying to decide if I wanted to be happy, or angry, or surprised, or confused, or relieved, or a million other things.

After bathing, I reluctantly stepped out of the steaming shower and dried myself. I took my time brushing my teeth and picking up my abandoned clothing, putting it in the basket before walking to the door. It was quiet on the other side and I wondered if Heng had gone back into the sitting room.

Slowly opening the door, I peeked through the crack, but then abruptly slammed it shut again. He was seated on the floor right outside and leaning against the side of my bed. My eyes widened and I gasped in surprise as the door suddenly opened from the outside, nearly smacking my face.

Heng forced himself through the gap before I could try to close it. "Thanks for letting me in," he huffed in annoyance as I glared at him. "Sheesh, you're even meaner in real life."

I stepped past him and left the bathroom. "Look who's talking," I snarled in return. Heng walked up behind me as I began hastily rummaging around in my luggage for a sweater, a pair of pajamas and boxers. I yanked out all the needed clothing and threw it on as fast as I could, dropping the towel to the floor afterward.

"I said I was sorry," Heng muttered quietly. I shot him a wordless, miserable stare, and then climbed into bed and flipped the blankets over my head in a futile attempt to hide from him. The mattress dipped when he sat down on the edge and leaned over me. "Would you just listen?"

"It must have been fun watching," I forced out, glaring at the inside of the blankets. "There I was pointlessly worrying about how I'd left Dib alone this whole time, but you were right there, probably laughing at how silly I am." My mood took on a slightly darker shade when I remembered what he'd done last night. "In fact, you did laugh at me!"

"Well," Heng murmured, "I admit I did find it a _little_ funny at first, seeing how completely clueless you are. But that only lasted a few minutes. After that, it was just aggravating. Really, hanging out with me all night almost every night for an entire month and you still couldn't recognize me…" There was a light tugging on the blankets, but I gripped them tighter, keeping them determinedly wrapped around my head. "Al." Heng put a hand on my shoulder and pushed it back and forth. "I told you to eat dinner before going to bed. Even if you're not going to talk to me, at least have your congee." When I stubbornly didn't answer, he let out a long sigh. "Pretending to be asleep, huh? Fine. Be that way, you jerk."

I barely refrained from yelling in surprise when he suddenly picked me up, bedding and all, and carried me out of the bedroom. "Put me down!" I ordered, squirming around in an attempt to escape. He dumped me unceremoniously into my armchair, picked up the bowl of cold congee, then wandered off into the hotel room's kitchenette, leaving me to rearrange the blankets and sheets so they weren't all over the place. My cute little Dib had turned into an annoyingly muscular man. One who could apparently pick me up as easily as I could his toddler-sized counterpart. I felt like I'd just been cheated out of something.

Heng eventually came back, setting down the hot-again congee and the spoon, then sat on the other chair and returned to his own meal. I reluctantly picked up the spoon and ate a mouthful of the smooth, thick soup, grimacing as its taste mixed with the mintiness of my toothpaste. In a want to wash away the unpleasant flavor, I took another bite, then stared questioningly at Heng. "Why didn't you just come right out and tell me before?" I asked softly, fighting back the rising desire to beat him to a pulp and cry my eyes out at the same time.

"Because," he said, waving his hand about in a helpless way and frowning, "you're always so damn distant. I didn't…I didn't want to force myself into your life if you didn't want me there." He fiddled with his chopsticks for a moment. "Every time I thought you were finally opening up to me, it made me really hopeful that you were going to stay that way…and then it was that much harder to put up with the next time you acted indifferently toward me."

A long silence stretched out, and he finally looked at me again. "I really was going to tell you, now that…After what you said in-game the other morning, I thought maybe…Well, it never seemed like a good time to bring it up. Anyway, I did drop some pretty obvious hints when you started getting more relaxed."

"You could have told me last night, preferably without being so cryptic," I pointed out. "There were plenty of chances and I would have relaxed around you much sooner."

"I know," he agreed. "I'm sorry."

I breathed deeply for a moment, nodding and swirling my spoon around. "I'm sorry, too, for not realizing…" I wondered how Heng managed to be so patient with me all the time. I felt like a complete idiot for being so hopelessly dense to things outside myself. Sometimes I wasn't even clear on things in my own head, much less the mind of someone else.

Heng sighed and began to stack up his empty dishes. "Seems like we never do anything but fight, doesn't it?" he observed with a smirk.

With a slight shrug, I replied, "Well, we also _eat_ sometimes–"

"I do, anyway," he cut in. I wiggled my spoon at him in annoyance and he put on a falsely serious face, nodding solemnly. "And you do, too. When I _force_ you."

Rolling my eyes, I shrugged. "And we kill things," I continued, but then paused and smiled before echoing, "I do, anyway."

He gave me an indignant look and crossed his arms, tilting his chair back on two legs. "Excuse me, but I killed three boars yesterday morning. Three!" he repeated, holding up three fingers as if I hadn't heard him the first time and needed further clarification.

"The third one we attacked doesn't count," I corrected. "You ran away before it was dead, and I had to finish it off for you."

Heng glared at me. "That's because it started to get up! A-and it was one of the bigger ones, anyway! It breathed fire at me and I almost got roasted!"

I smiled at him in bemusement, then went back to my congee with a muttered, "Whatever you say, Dib."


	10. Undiminished Doubts

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>I looked up from my notebook, glanced at the curved line of Seated Old People at the other end of the long and shiny and black table placed in the center of the freezing cold hotel conference room, then looked back down, quickly writing an abridged version of what they were talking about.<p>

Technically I was only on this business trip so I could oversee what was going on, seeing as how my father sent not only me and my three employees, but also several men from his board of directors and a few of the company's higher executives—the ones actually negotiating with the other company and putting together the contract. However, I was under the impression that I was here for experience. I knew my father would be wanting to know that I paid full attention to every little thing that went on. Thus my bazillion-page-long-and-going report.

But there was little going on today, aside from light chatter. They'd already settled everything and the contract itself was being passed from person to person along the other company's side of the conference table. While I watched, feeling very impatient, I refrained from squirming around in my chair. Since I'd adamantly refused to eat anything more than a banana for breakfast, Heng had made me promise to drink a lot of water during the meeting. They always had pitchers of it in the conference room. However, my bladder wasn't agreeing at all with being so sloshy. And also I was barely able to keep my teeth from chattering due to how cold I was, inside and out, from the merciless air conditioning and the ice water. Stupid Heng.

With quite a bit of effort on my part, I managed to stay still until the seniors finally stood and bowed to one another, thus officially ending the trip. I slowly rose from my chair, stacked up my belongings, and forced a polite smile on my face when I was greeted by the numerous wrinkly and graying businessmen. Ten agonizing minutes later, I managed to escape into the restroom on that floor.

After a thorough hand-washing and the usual appearance check, I tiredly stepped down the quiet hallway and made my way back to the conference room, wondering if Heng had left already. That morning, he and I had agreed to go get coffee together once the final meeting was over. For obvious reasons, we'd planned on leaving separately. However, who was leaving first hadn't been decided.

Voices came from around the corner and I paused when I heard my name spoken very harshly by a woman. One of the two who had come with me on the business trip. I was getting talked about yet again. Didn't people ever get tired of slandering me? How many times now had it been that I'd stumbled across little huddles of people—sometimes not even those from my own department—gossiping about me behind my back? One would think after two years of my working at my father's company, the water cooler talk would die out.

"Well, he's just always so cold!" the voice exclaimed. "And piles work on us like he thinks we have no personal lives at all. I can't even begin to count how many times I've had to cancel plans because of his stupid orders making me work overtime. My husband and I had dinner reservations last night, you know. Planned it a month ago. And now look where I am; dragged along on a trip with that ice cube when he should have come by himself, seeing as how all we've been doing is observing."

"He isn't treating you too badly, is he?" asked a second woman. "I feel a bit bad for you, having to be stuck in a room with him for four days. Is he making you work even after the meetings?"

"No, not at all," came Heng's murmured reply. "In fact, he's been doing all of the write-ups on his own, though I did offer to help."

One clicked her tongue. "Probably thinks you're not up for the job, hm? Doesn't think you can do as good as he can, that fat-headed prick of a peacock. Always strutting about the office like he owns the place, just because his daddy is the CEO."

I rolled my eyes. Since when did I strut?

"He never would have even gotten that job if his father hadn't given it to him. No one gets a job like that right out of university. Handed to him on a silver platter, just like everything else. And he has yet to convince me that he's capable of filling the position."

"It's true that he doesn't have as much experience as some other people, but I think he still does a great job," Heng mused. "And I highly doubt his father would have put him in such an important position if he wasn't qualified."

"I can see how you would think that. You've only been working there since…when was it that you had your orientation? March? April?" There was a pause, probably to let Heng nod or something. "Back before Zian graduated there were plenty other candidates for the position. Very qualified ones, very skilled people who'd been working there for years and years already under the guy who used to have that job—he's retired now, I think. But then Zian came out of nowhere, swooped in and stole the spot without any work on his part at all!"

"It's so irritating, being so respectful to the spoiled brat every damn day. If the pay wasn't so good, I would have filed for a transfer ages ago. Really, he…" the words were lowered to a whisper, not allowing me to eavesdrop any longer. Suddenly they both began to laugh.

"T-that's…that's not true!" Heng sputtered over their voices and I wondered what it was that she'd said to draw out such an embarrassed-sounding reaction from him.

"Maybe he's just hiding it really well."

"No! And that doesn't even have anything to do with his ability to work!"

Not particularly wanting to continue to lurk, I finally stepped around the corner and strode toward them. Noticing my approach, the women looked not unlike small animals about to be eaten by something. Or maybe Dib while "training."

I came to a stop beside the group, glanced at a very irritated-looking Heng, then gave blank stares to the ladies. "If you three are finished with your conversation…?" I quietly inquired. Their faces paled slightly while they nodded. They were always ready to be so bold and critical when I wasn't actually there—or so they thought—but when faced with the person in question, they looked so cowardly.

It figured.

"Since we have finished early with our business here, do what you will with your extra day. Our flight is at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, an hour after the check-out time here at the hotel. But your tickets may be exchanged for an earlier flight if you would rather leave today."

"Yes, Jingli," they answered at once, eyes flashing with relief. Probably because I wasn't firing them on the spot for what they'd been talking about. Really, as long as they did their work properly, I didn't care much what they thought of me. They could go on pointlessly grumbling all they wanted.

"Take this with you to our room, please. Put it by my laptop." I handed my notebook and pencil to Heng. "Thank you, all three of you, for your hard work over the past few days. Goodbye," I ended with a small nod, then turned and briskly walked away toward the elevators. I took one down to the lobby, then left the hotel, striding along the sunny sidewalk. Without paying attention to where I was going, I walked several blocks, taking turns at random, then came to a halt beside a small park.

Sitting on a nearby bench placed in the shade of a tree, I pulled out my cellphone and flipped it open, calling up Heng's number and texting him my location. Afterward, I sighed and stared about myself, absently watching people pass me by. It was rather annoying, going to such lengths just to spend time with a friend, but I didn't want anyone to see us being so casual with one another. Who knew what my father would do if he found out. He always seemed to know everything I'd been up to, even without being there. It was weird. Several times in the past, I'd wondered if he had someone follow me everywhere. My own personal stalker.

What a creepy thought.

My phone chimed a moment later and I looked at it again. **[12:26 **_**Be there soon. Must put a deadly booby trap on the other two's hotel door first.**_**]**

I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to laugh or not, but quickly replied with, **[12:26 I don't want to explain to my father why I left with three employees and came back with none. Behave yourself.]**

**[12:26 _Why none? Where'd I go?_]**

**[12:27 Prison, obviously.]**

**[12:27 _You won't help me get rid of the evidence?_]**

**[12:27 Too troublesome.]**

**[12:27 _Jerk._]**

**[12:28 Think what you will.]**

**[12:28 _Come on, Al! They deserve it._]**

**[12:28 No.]**

**[12:29 _Please? :)_]**

**[12:30 No.]**

**[12:30 _You're no fun._]**

**[12:30 Murder is fun to you?]**

**[12:31 _If they're the victims, sure. ^^_]**

**[12:31 Don't you dare.]**

**[12:32 _How about a trap that isn't lethal?_]**

**[12:32 No more snacks for you in-game.]**

There was a long pause, and then he messaged, **[12:35 **_**Leaving the hotel now. No booby trap placed.**_ _**Don't take away my snacks‼ \(T~**__**T)/**_**]**

Smiling, I closed my phone and pocketed it, relaxing against the back of the bench and staring upward to the fluttering leaves on the tree branches above me, and wondered if Heng had really been planning to do something mean to the women, deadly or not. It wasn't like I was annoyed at the fact that he was angry with them—it felt a bit nice to be defended like that for once, really—but having conflict between my employees over something so trivial didn't sound like it would be very productive. At all.

Anyway, some of the things they'd been saying were true. When my father gave me the job, I really had gotten in the way of several other people who'd been aiming for a promotion that was now nonexistent.

However, what they apparently didn't know was that during my college years, along with my burdensome class loads, my father'd had people from the company training me to take the position. I hadn't been unprepared or unqualified at all. Although I _did_ lack experience. There was little I could gain from textbooks and verbal descriptions, in comparison to working through real-life, hands-on situations.

But I really was trying my best…

"Laoshi!"

…what else could I do, after all? I couldn't compare my efforts to the lofty achievements of Certain Other People, but what I did counted for something, didn't it? Well, as long as everything got done, it wasn't too terrible of an environment, in general.

"Laoshi?"

I dropped my eyes from the tree hanging over me, to a young woman standing close by, smiling brightly. Was she talking to me? I was the only one on the bench and there wasn't anyone else standing nearby that she could be addressing.

"Good afternoon," she greeted, rolling back and forth from the tips of her toes to the heels of her pink sandals.

"…Good afternoon," I hesitantly replied, staring at her in bewilderment.

"Are you okay? Was I interrupting you on your lunch break or something?" she asked, suddenly looking anxious and wringing her hands around the beaded strap of her purse. When I took too long attempting to come up with a reply, she glanced downward. "Were you meeting someone? You're all dressed up in a suit and all. I don't think I've ever seen you in one before, since you're always wearing such casual clothes in class. You look nice. It kinda gives you a more mature air," she remarked with a small, coy giggle.

"Oh…Um, thank you. Well, yes. I am meeting with someone, actually. He should be here soon," I murmured uncomfortably, wondering what I was supposed to do to make her go away. She'd obviously confused me with someone else.

I attempted not to look too eager to get away from her when I spotted Heng a ways down the sidewalk. Standing, I gave the girl a polite smile. "He is here, I have to go. Goodbye."

"Ah, okay," she said, frowning a little. "See you later in class, Laoshi."

No you won't, I thought, walking away as fast as I could in what I hoped was a normal manner and aiming straight for Heng. He glanced past me, probably to whoever that was, then looked back to me, slowing his pace when he got close. "Who's that?"

"I don't know," I said in confusion, hastily attempting to hide behind him. He was so big, it wasn't very difficult for the scrawny little me to disappear from view.

Heng made a snorty noise and crossed his arms. "Was she trying to pick you up?"

"Pick…do what? You may be able to pick me up—don't do that again, by the way—but how would she manage that? And _why_?" I peeked over Heng's shoulder to see if she was still there. Thankfully she was crossing the street at a traffic light a ways off, hopefully never to be seen again.

"Not literally pick you up, stupid…I meant flirting with you," Heng explained, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would she do that?" I repeated, giving Heng a blank stare. "I don't know her."

He gave me one of his you-are-a-complete-idiot looks, then shook his head and took off down the sidewalk, muttering, "You're unbelievable." I stared after him, wondering what it was that I missed. Really, why _would_ someone flirt with me if they didn't know me? That was just plain creepy, going up to a random stranger and putting on the moves…Then again, she thought I was her teacher, which was a completely ridiculous assumption; never in a million years would I want to be any sort of teacher.

"Come on," Heng called over his shoulder while he beckoned to me. "Let's go find a coffee shop." Deciding to forget the weird girl, I hurried after Heng and we started off again, aiming away from the hotel in a hope that we wouldn't get spotted by anyone we knew.

The farther we went, the harder it was to forget that student. It seemed the university she attended was somewhere nearby. Even though it was early Thursday afternoon, there were many people of the younger persuasion wandering around the streets, looking thoroughly relaxed.

I was filled with a slight perplexity as I observed them, one after the other. I couldn't remember ever being so leisurely during my university years. If anything, each day was impossibly packed with studying and lectures, leaving me barely any time to sleep or eat. I probably would have died from starvation if my father's hired servants hadn't reminded me to eat regularly. Not that I'd listened to them sometimes.

My days had been horrendously busy, yet here were many older teens and young adults lazing about as if they didn't have a care in the world. But I tried to ignore them, since the weather was nice, and I was in a bit of a good mood for once seeing as how I could finally relax to a certain extent, now that Heng and I were out from under any unwanted attention of the other business-trip-goers.

It probably would have been easier for me to ignore the youthful passerby if many of them hadn't waved animatedly at me as we passed each other, many also referring to me as "Laoshi," or complimenting me on my suit and haircut, not that I had gotten one recently, or asking me why I was there, to which I didn't respond, since I had no idea what they were talking about.

It was like getting approached by that dark elf at the Star City restaurant earlier that week, only exponentially worse.

Heng's little smiles and stifled laughs every time it happened weren't helping, either. He seemed to think the whole thing was a colossal joke, though I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Walking directly behind him seemed to block me from view a little, but people still managed to spot me in one way or another.

"Dib," I grumbled in annoyance after someone else greeted me. I held myself back from glaring at the person as they left. "Hurry up and pick a coffee shop, so we can drink the coffee, so we can leave, so we can collect our things, so we can go to the airport, so we can fly home."

"But this is fun," Heng snickered, waving at someone in my place. I wished very much that he would stop encouraging them. Though I didn't suppose they would stop, even if he and I attempted to pretend like they didn't exist.

"I didn't know you were so popular around here, Al-laoshi," he teased with infinite amusement, and then grabbed my arm, dragging me to the edge of the crowded sidewalk and pointing at something with his other hand. "Let's go in that one."

"I've never even been here before. I have no idea who all of these people are," I denied as I tried to keep up with him while he hurried us across the busy road. I wished that we'd just flown home and gotten coffee there rather than here in the stare-fest. There was very little that I wanted less than being the center of attention. All of the people were making me feel self-conscious as if I had something on my face and didn't know it. But numerous checks at my reflection in the windows of the places we'd passed told me that my suit and I were still neat and tidy, exactly as they had been earlier in the hotel.

We slowly walked past the large front window of the coffee shop Heng had been aiming for, and I turned my head to take a quick look inside out of a want to see how crowded it was. My eyes widened in horror and I wished I hadn't looked. Or perhaps I was extremely relieved that I had. Either way, I definitely didn't want to go inside anymore.

Five more student-looking people were sitting right inside the window, staring at me as Heng and I passed by. Two men and a woman waved energetically, a second woman smiled in a twitchy way, and the last man…

"Dib," I gasped hurriedly, putting my hands on Heng's broad back and pushing him away from the entrance. "I don't want to go here. Let's pick a different one."

"What? Quit shoving!" He indignantly looked over his shoulder at me as the door handle slipped out of his fingers. He stumbled a few steps away from the door and firmly planted himself on the sidewalk, refusing to go any further until I explained myself. "Why not this one?"

"That guy is in there!" I explained in a whisper as if the man inside could hear me, regardless of the other people talking around us and the fact that there was an entire wall between us that would let very little sound through.

"What guy?" he asked, trying to look back over my head. "Where? Geeze, Al! Quit pushing me!"

"That dark elf from that tavern in Star City, the one who wanted to know my name! He's glaring at me again!" I snapped, pushing him as hard as I could, though he still wasn't going anywhere. Why did he have to be so damned strong, even in real life?

Heng's eyes widened and he stepped to one side with a suddenly serious expression. I nearly fell over, since I'd been leaning on him, but he grabbed my arm, pulled me upright, and proceeded to drag me back toward the window.

I hastily shook myself out of his grip and he walked over by himself. "Oh, you're right. What a coincidence," he remarked after a long moment of staring inside. He suddenly started waving at them, smiling brightly. "One of his teammates, too, it looks like. That guy that had the fan."

"Dib, come back here!" I hissed, pressing myself against the wall of the coffee shop to get out of the flow of people. "Please, let's go somewhere else!" I could clearly imagine what those sitting inside were thinking, suddenly being waved at by a random man on the street—people had been doing it to me for nearly half an hour. Though if I was too self-conscious, Heng was anything but. He would probably be able to dance down the middle of a busy road, singing at the top of his lungs, and he wouldn't get embarrassed.

With a small sigh, Heng obediently returned to my side and frowned slightly as he looked down at me and crossed his arms over his gray suit jacket. "It's not like he's going to murder you if we go inside, you know."

"I know," I agreed uneasily, not really believing that. I inched away from the entrance, regardless of Heng's assurance. There were plenty more cafés around the area, I couldn't understand why Heng was so hell-bent on going in this particular one. Especially since that intimidating person was inside, looking like he would try to stab me to death with his coffee cup's little spoon if I got within arm's reach.

Heng sighed again and nodded with a roll of his eyes. "Okay, fine. Let's find somewhere else if you're that reluctant."

"Thanks, Dib." I smiled with relief and gratefully patted his sleeve as we walked away from the shop, feeling much better now that I didn't have to go in there and get continually glared at while attempting to drink coffee.

Glancing down at me briefly, Heng looked back up with a resigned expression and began searching for somewhere new to go. "You're never going to make more friends with an evasive attitude like that," he scolded quietly after a moment. "If we'd just asked him what his problem was, I'm sure everything would have been cleared up in no time and we could have had a nice cup of coffee together."

I shrugged slightly at his words. "I don't care if it gets cleared up or not. It's his own business if he wants to hate me for no reason." I ignored Heng's look of pity at my apathetic attitude as we crossed the street again. Perhaps it would have been better to listen to the man's explanation as to why he seemed so angry with me, but even if Heng thought I should get more friends, I didn't particularly want to be friends with someone like that. Misunderstanding or not, he was very rude.

"Is that why you never confront the gossipers at work?" he asked while we stepped up onto the curb. "You think it's got nothing to do with you? Because it does."

"It happens all the time," I murmured. "I'm used to it. Anyway, it's not like they're angry with me for no reason, like that other guy." Giving a small glance to Heng, I frowned slightly. Why _was_ he the only person who supported me when everyone else I'd ever met before either hated me or used me for their own gain?

My mind once again flashed back to the question Heng had dodged. _"Why did you want to be my teammate?" _Why did he want to be friends with me? Why did he refuse to answer? Why had he kept his identity from me for so long? Was he just trying to get on my good side by using Dib? If that was so, then he was no different from my other "friends." The ones who only stayed in contact with me because it was beneficial for them to be close to my family. I'd long-since dropped the naïve hope that someone would befriend me with no ulterior motives; there were obvious benefits Heng would gain from being friends with the company president's son.

With that dismal thought lodged in the forefront of my thoughts, I skeptically continued, "What bothers me more than their rudeness is why you seem not to take their side at all."

Heng paused and incredulously stared at me. "What makes you think I would ever take their side over yours?"

"Why wouldn't you?" I returned. "You've only been working with me for five months. They've been working with me for two years, thus they have more experience with me than you do. What makes you think that what they're saying about me isn't truthful?"

"Al," Heng quietly whispered. I questioningly glanced back at him when he stopped again. "They were just taking out their stress on you—a convenient target. You can't possibly be telling me to support that."

"I'm not saying you should support their ridiculous prattle. I'm simply wondering why you're the only one with a different viewpoint."

"Because I'm your friend," he snapped.

I smiled humorlessly, continuing on my way. "Oh, is that it…?" He was tossing about that word again.

"'Is that it'? What the hell is that supposed to mean‽" he demanded, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around.

"It means I'm questioning your sincerity," I quietly replied, pushing his hand away. His face flushed and he took a breath to retort, but I shook my head to stop him. "Let's not continue this here. We're in public."

"We'll be in public in a coffee shop, too," he heatedly pointed out. "Let's go back to the hotel."

"That would take an hour on foot. We're already–"

"And a fraction of that if we take a taxi."

Raising an eyebrow, I shook my head again. "No. I don't want to be seen with you. That was the whole point of coming all this way; so we can relax while spending time together without being cooped up in our hotel room."

He was starting to look extremely angry. "Is it really such a bad thing to be seen with me? What happened to the guy who doesn't care what other people think?"

"That's in a game where I can do whatever I want without any serious consequences," I explained exasperatedly. "This is real life where I care very much about how other people see me. Now then, pick a damned coffee shop."

With an angry glare, he brushed past me and stomped on down the sidewalk. I felt slightly annoyed with myself for making him mad yet again, but for the moment I was satisfied as long as he didn't make a scene.

* * *

><p><em>Reminders about the honorifics: "Jingli" is the equivalent of "Manager," and "Laoshi" is the equivalent of "Teacher."<em>


	11. Our Reasons

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** A third thank you goes to Tearless Wish for the suggestions that helped me expand these past two chapters. :D_

* * *

><p>Heng didn't talk to me again until we'd found an out-of-the-way café, one with booths closed in on the sides by large, thick planters, giving every table a very private air. We sat in the far corner of the second story, ordered coffee and a few fruit muffins for Heng, then he stared hard at me through the spiraling steam coming from our drinks. "Well? I'm waiting. After you seemed so believing the other day, why did you suddenly change your mind and think I'm being insincere?"<p>

"Several reasons," I began. "First and foremost, prior experience with other people. You heard the ladies' resentment and I'm sure you've heard similar things from other people at work. That is the main view people have of me—a spoiled, incompetent, egotistical rich kid, who relies on his father for everything. However, some people pretend they don't see me that way and get close to me for their own benefit. In the beginning they were all 'sincere' to a certain extent. There have been far too many of those sorts of people in my past. Due to my father's wishes, quite a few of them are still hanging around me to this day. My friends, if you can call them that."

Heng's eyes widened slightly. "_You_ have friends?" Feeling extremely offended at that remark, I glared at him. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "That came out really wrong…sorry. I didn't mean to say that. It's just…you're really antisocial and all. I wasn't expecting…" When he saw that his rambling wasn't helping, he ended, "Sorry, continue."

"Friends of convenience," I summed. "Casual companions on the surface, who are simply getting close to one another for beneficial marriages, partnerships and connections later in life when we all inherit our parents' companies. A great big pile of spoiled, incompetent, egotistical rich kids, who rely on their parents for everything."

"And you're comparing me to these people, why?" Heng pressed, looking annoyed again. "What'd I do to make you think that I'm sucking up to you for my own benefit?"

"It isn't something you did, but something that you didn't do. Which leads me to reason number two," I plowed onward, holding up two fingers. "You refuse to tell me why you wanted to be my teammate when we first met in _Second Life_. Therefore—No, let me finish!" I snapped when he seemed about to interrupt. He leaned back against the dark green booth cushions, his furious glower returning at full force. "You sidestepped the question when I asked it, therefore I had to make my own assumptions. With all of my past history with not only my friends, but also people from my college years and people at work who inveigled me in a hope that I would be of use to them…You can't blame me for being doubtful about your motives when you won't give me a straight-forward answer.

"Reason number two, point one," I announced.

"Great, you've even got sub reasons. How organized," Heng grumbled.

I ignored him. "In the woods at Sun City, you used your cute attack on me, thus forcing me to agree to train with you."

"I did not!" Heng looked scandalized at my accusation for a brief moment, but then his face slipped into embarrassment. "Okay, _fine_! So I did! A tiny bit! I just really wanted you to agree! Is it wrong to use my special skills to get what I want?"

"Of course it's wrong when you coerce people into becoming your friend!" I chided. "There's no point in being teammates if you are manipulating my feelings, so that I agree to stay without even knowing that it's not my own will!"

"I told you," Heng sighed. "I really, really wanted you to be my teammate!"

"And I asked you _why_‽" I pressed.

"And…I…told…you…I think you're interesting," he slowly replied. "For a very long time now I've been wanting to get to know you. That's why."

"No, that is _not_!" I snarled. "That's the reason why you're still here! That's not the reason why you picked me! And the lack of an answer is why I've been wondering if you're just like the rest and you want something from me other than simple friendship! The people at work who want promotions and raises! The moronic people from my damned university who thought it would be 'cool' to be friends with the rich kid of the class, but then snubbed me from their ridiculous cliques when I refused to be exploited for their selfish purposes!" I took a very violent drink of my coffee, nearly spilling it all over the place, in a futile attempt to calm myself down, then proceeded to stare questioningly at Heng, silently demanding an answer from him.

Rather than looking angry like he had been, he seemed somewhat morose. "I remember that," he murmured after a long pause, picking vacantly at one of his muffins. I frowned in confusion. He remembered what?

A small smile twitched at the left side of his mouth. "I've wondered about it a lot ever since I got hired last spring…I guess I was right. You forgot me, didn't you?" When I shook my head, not knowing what he was talking about, he sighed. "And I spent so much time chasing you around campus for two years. Eventually gave up, though, since you kept acting like I was such an annoyance. You really don't remember all that?"

"No…You and I went to the same university?" I asked, mind swirling when I attempted to remember that far back. It was only six years ago when I'd first started attending there, but I'd never bothered to imprint the useless school life on my memory. Only what was taught in the classes had been important. All of the faces of my classmates had faded away a long time ago, leaving only their maddening actions.

"Not only that, but we were in a lot of classes together, since we were in the same program," he informed, pausing a moment to take a bite of muffin. "I tried so hard to befriend you, but you brushed me off every time I tried to talk to you or invite you somewhere. Even when I asked to simply do homework together. You always said you were busy, or that you didn't like working with other people, or that you weren't interested in whatever it was that I was trying to get you to do…"

"I _was_ extremely busy. And I _do_ like to work by myself," I pointed out huffily. "So…" I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're one of _those_ people."

"Hey, that's rude," he scolded. "Some of our classmates were really nice. Although, yeah, a lot of them were really stupid and got pissed at you when you refused to be their unconditional wallet. Can't really blame them for asking. Common college students who like to party…Having a rich guy in the class was probably their dream come true. But then you went and ruined it all, not that I blame you. I did the same thing whenever they asked me for money, though, knowing how blunt you can get, I was probably nicer about it.

"Anyway, back on topic. That was why I refused to take no as an answer when asking you to be my teammate. I've been trying to convince you to let me be your friend for years now. When you rescued me from those bears, the opportunity to get close to you at last was right there, so I took it. I'm sorry I made you mad by using underhanded methods, but it seemed like a really good idea at the time. In fact, I'd probably do it again if I thought you'd refuse otherwise."

"But why are you so determined to get close to me?" I asked.

"How many times do I have to repeat myself before it'll sink through your thick skull‽" he irritably wondered. "You intrigue me. And isn't that the reason people want to get close to others? It's not like a person'll normally straight away have a bunch of solid reasons for wanting to befriend someone they barely know.

"When we first met at college," he quietly said, "and when I got to meet you a second time when I was hired at your company, and even the third time in _Second Life_, I always wondered about you. Why is he so quiet? Why is he so passive? Why is he so guarded? What's underneath that stoic face of his?

"You seemed like a bird locked away in a cage, but kept outdoors. You could see the world beyond your boundaries and technically you were in that world, but you never really had a chance to be a part of it. Though you seemed perfectly content to simply watch through the bars while life played out in front of you," he mused, swirling the remainder of his coffee around in the small mug before gulping it down. "Then I found you by chance in Sun City. A complete coincidence, just like our little meeting in the forest. I had no idea that you also played _Second Life_, so it wasn't like I'd been searching for you or anything…But," he paused to laugh for a moment. "But it was like your cage had finally been opened. You got to fly. And I finally got to see a glimpse of the person I'd been wanting to meet for so long."

Heng looked me in the eyes with all seriousness. "That was why I asked you to be my teammate. Honestly, all I want is to be your friend and I still would even if you were a lowly middle-class citizen like myself, with neither an impressive social standing or a gigantic bank account. I'm not trying to get close to you for any selfish reason like a promotion, or a raise, or to be cool because I know a rich guy. Friendship and nothing else. I promise. Do you believe me?"

Running my thumb across the edge of the table, I awkwardly averted my gaze. "I want to," I softly replied. "But…Well, I know that it's been a month already and you're probably getting all impatient with me, but I just…"

"I told you before that I'm not expecting you to change overnight," he reminded. "I do get impatient with you a lot, but I already know that it'll take time, and _I'm still here_."

Smiling faintly, I nodded and finished off my coffee. The people at the university really hadn't all been selfish idiots, I knew. There was the occasional person who was simply interested in me as an individual, but they'd all given up after only one or two attempts at conversing with me. Heng was the one and only person who'd persisted. It made me feel a tiny bit important, being valued by someone for the first time in my life.

Once I'd gotten my cup refilled by a passing waitress, I made a humming noise, then rested my chin on one hand. "Now then! Reason number two, point two, as to why I'm in doubt."

Heng glowered at me in sudden annoyance, chomping into his last muffin and mumbling, "I thought you were finished."

"Oh, no. There's more. I said I have _several_ reasons, didn't I? I want to list them all, or else I'm going to keep worrying about them." At the resigned wave of his hand, I said, "You kept your real life identity from me for an entire month, even though we've apparently known each other for six years. And before you reminded me of our school days together, I'd been thinking knowing one another for a few months before you told me was cruel of you. So why did you keep it from me for so long?"

He took his time swallowing the muffin, then quietly answered, "I already said why. I didn't want to _completely_ force you to be my friend if you really weren't interested. I only used my special skill once, and only for a few seconds. After that, I never used it on you again. And anyway, would you still have agreed to be my teammate if I'd told you who I am?"

I fell silent, seeing his point. Knowing myself, I most definitely would not have agreed. It was the fact that he was someone new and different that drew out my curiosity and interest, leading to my continued consent for his company. If he'd told me then that he was my employee, I would have left him at once, regardless of any cutesy looks he threw at me. He was someone my father knew, after all, and keeping _Second Life_ from my father was one of my top priorities. Since I'd thought Dib was someone my father would never have known, that particular threat was eliminated and allowed me to relax.

"Exactly," Heng said into the stillness that had built up. "I didn't want you to feel any more uncomfortable around me than you already did, so I kept it a secret and hoped you would ask me yourself, but you never did…" He shrugged and I looked away, not knowing what I was supposed to say in return. Not once had I even been curious as to who Dib was in real life, even after he told me his age, which probably should have triggered at least a little interest into who he was. But I'd wanted to protect myself.

And here I was still protecting myself by going to such extreme lengths to simply meet with a friend.

Sighing, I looked back up. "I'm sorry."

"You know now and that's what's important to me," he said with a wide smile. "Now then, is there a reason number three? Or perhaps a reason number two, point three? Or reason number two, section ten, roman numeral whatever-it-is, paragraph fifty, sentence fourteen, point two-thirds?"

"Mm, I do have one more thing," I affirmed, laughing in amusement at his sarcastic list. I took a moment to drink the remainder of my coffee and gather up my shreds of courage to ask, "Why _are_ you still here? I mean, I mentioned before that I think you can do a lot better than me. Other than your fixation with my apparent mysteriousness, I…I don't know, I guess I just don't know why you would want to be my friend. No one else has ever seriously tried to make friends with me before, so…I don't feel like I'm…worth the effort."

"Reason number one!" Heng suddenly echoed, raising a finger for a moment before falling back against his seat and chuckling. "Actually there's a lot of reasons. Like how you handle your employees. All those guys who talk trash about you behind your back. While the person they think you are would get angry and run to daddy to get them fired, the real you puts up with their daily crap. You're compassionate enough to just take it all and let them keep their jobs, regardless of how ridiculously disrespectful they are while they're not pretending to be goodie-goodie employees when you're right in front of them.

"You go about things in a very outwardly cold way, but you're actually a very kind person." He suddenly leaned forward again and blurted, "And then there's the fact that you're really fun to annoy, and you're sarcastic, and you're so polite, and you're patient, and you have an unbelievable amount of focus and determination when it comes to completing work stuff, and you're always honest, and on and on."

Feeling extremely embarrassed by his list, I looked away again. They didn't actually seem very impressive, seeing as how there were plenty of other people with those same traits, but it was still very nice to hear such things said aloud. Plus it helped quite a bit that they were all personality-based, since everyone else was so annoyingly focused with what was on the outside—looks, status, money, et cetera.

"Well, that's all very relieving to hear…" I murmured, briefly glancing at him.

"Good," he chirped, then waved a finger at me. "And in the future if you have any worries, tell me. Don't keep them all bottled up like this, leaving them until they explode. It's really annoying, trying to figure out why you're mad at me when you never tell me anything. Then we get all argumentative over and over, 'cause of these stupid misunderstandings. Just come right out and say stuff. Okay?"

"Okay." I glanced at my watch for a moment, then looked up to Heng. "Are you finished eating?"

"Yeah," he answered, quickly running his eyes over his crumb-covered plate and empty mug. "Why?"

"Let's go back to the hotel and find out when the next flight home is." When he nodded, I slid myself to the end of the cushioned bench and stood up, leaving the booth. We went to the front of the shop to pay, then went back outside. Thankfully it seemed the multitudes of students' lunch breaks had ended. The sidewalks were quite a bit clearer than they had been earlier.

"You don't wanna stay the night here?" Heng asked after a moment.

"No…I want to go home, since the work is all done. Also there's no _Second Life_ here," I explained with a small laugh. "I kind of miss playing. The air feels a bit stuffy here on the ground." I looked up to the sky for a moment, wishing somewhat that I could be up there instead of all the way down here. Several times earlier whenever a particularly large group of people had come toward us along the walk, I'd caught myself straining my shoulder muscles as if I'd be able to whip out a pair of wings and take off.

Sadly, I was a mere wingless human in real life.

Heng smirked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his gray slacks. "I see. Well, then we'd better hurry home to relieve you of your flying withdrawal, huh?" Smiling, I nodded, dropping my eyes to where I was going. At least real life wasn't so bleak anymore.

* * *

><p><em>Chapter theme song! O-o<em>

_Waiting for Yesterday by David Archuleta (I know it's sung as a guy talking to a girl, but it still fits. xD)_

_It's like you're locked up in your own world, with nothing to say.  
>You keep me guessing, but it's in your eyes.<br>He made you promises, but gave you lies.  
>You shut me out, because you're so sure that I'll be another mistake.<em>

_I know that he left you in pieces.  
>You know that I won't be that way.<br>I'm not gonna treat you like he did, whatever it takes.  
>You think history is repeating.<br>You keep on pushing me me away.  
>But nothing's gonna change, waiting for yesterday.<em>

* * *

><p><em>And also random story time!<em>

_I was up late last night watching horror movies (my favorite~:3), and then when I about to go to sleep at around one or two in the morning, a giant house centipede raced across the floor. It had a million, billion, trillion, zillion super long legs and it was the size of a small mouse (minus the tail)…Upon noticing the bug, I had a Dib moment._

_*insert screams of terror here* "IT'S A MUTATED SPIDER FROM HELL‼"_

…_Or so I thought. It was also storming outside, so there were dramatic lightening flashes and booms of thunder going on in the background. I jumped out of my chair and ran away (to find a weapon, of course!…and also because the bug was so scary.) _

_But instead of getting something to squish it with, I decided to capture it underneath a jar and left it there. After turning on the lights, so I could keep an eye out for any other Mutant Hell Spiders, I twitchily spent the rest of the night writing, constantly paranoid that another one was going to sneak up on me. I got Sir Dad the Brave to relocate the monstrosity to the outdoors once he woke up._

_It was a scary night. A very scary night. But thanks to my unexpected guest, Mr. Mutant Hell Spider, and how he swept away my sleepiness, I got this finished very quickly._

…_Good thing bugs are so small. x-x_


	12. Mysteries Solved

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>I vacantly stared out the taxi window, watching the familiar streets scroll past. Heng and I had just landed after taking a late afternoon flight home from T City. We'd separated at the airport, although he'd been wanting to see me back to my house. However, he begrudgingly agreed when I insisted. I didn't want my father to know that I was getting close to one of my employees. He would definitely disapprove, since he was so fixated on appearances and such. As if being friendly with someone of a lower social class was something to be ashamed of. But in general, I wasn't too concerned. After all, as long as I continued to be careful, Heng and I would be able to see one another every night in <em>Second Life<em>, and also in real life from time to time outside of the office. I just had to keep acting normally to avoid raising suspicions.

As the taxi finally pulled to a stop outside the gigantic front gate to my house, I picked up the folder—the report for my father was inside—off the seat beside me, then slipped out of the car and waited while the taxi driver got out to open the trunk where my luggage was. I glanced through the thick bars of the gate, then sighed. I couldn't quite decide whether I wanted to be relieved that I was home, or a bit depressed. The past few days spent with Heng had unexpectedly refreshed me, since I'd been anticipating the trip to be horribly dull, but all of those light feelings I'd gained from his presence were getting oppressed by the heavy atmosphere surrounding the mansion.

Once I'd paid the driver, I slowly walked to the gate, rolling my suitcase along behind myself. Giving a glance to the camera perched high above the ground on the top of the brick wall surrounding the grounds, I wandered over to the side of the gate and pulled out my keys. However, before I could find the correct key to open the metal box built into the wall, containing a key pad to unlock the gate via security code, the gate suddenly swung inward to allow me entrance. The house security must have seen me coming through the camera.

Pocketing my keys, I hurried toward the house. My feet didn't seem to want to move me forward anymore when several servants scrambled out the door. My pointless greeters and luggage carriers. They never seemed to notice that I was a fully grown man, perfectly capable of carrying things on my own. My bag had wheels, for goodness sake. How difficult could it possibly be for me to roll it about by myself? I felt like I was being treated like an invalid. Then again, it was always like that.

The front door shut behind me with a dull thud and I took a deep breath of the cold air of the spacious entryway before starting up the steep stairs. The maid that had taken my bag followed me at a slow pace, dragging the luggage awkwardly up the steps behind herself. It took me quite a bit of self-control to keep myself from turning around and snatching it away from her. At least they'd allowed me to continue carrying the piddly little folder.

"Zian."

I almost tripped when the deep voice harshly boomed out above me. It reverberated oddly in the silent hall afterward and I looked up, face paling, to find my father standing at the top of the stairs. Blinking slowly, I resumed my ascent and stopped a few stairs down from him. "I am home, Father," I said quietly.

"How did the signing go?" he asked promptly when I finally dared to stand on the landing with him. "I trust there were no problems?"

"No, it went perfectly." I tried to calm my pounding heart. I hadn't been expecting to see him here, and I definitely hadn't been expecting him to ambush me on the stairs.

"As it should have," he added and turned away from me. I watched as he walked toward the enormous, circular window overlooking the front grounds of the mansion. I was about to retreat to my office, though I doubted he was finished with me just yet, when he abruptly turned back around and stared at me. "Zian," he called again, in a much colder tone than before.

"Yes, Father?"

He was silent for a moment, then looked back out the window. "Why did you return early? In a common taxi, no less…"

"Because we finished early," I slowly replied. "I thought perhaps it would be better–"

I froze when he turned around and briskly walked toward me. I stared at him as he stopped in front of me and gave me a disgusted look. "I arranged your departure for tomorrow morning, yet you felt the need to do this? The executives and members of the board of directors whom I sent with you are having a dinner tonight and were expecting your attendance. How do you suppose I should explain to them why you will not be there?"

"I am sorry, Father," I quickly said, attempting to take a deep breath. "I did not know about the dinner, no one told me." I'd run to the bathroom after the last meeting, perhaps they'd discussed the dinner then. But if they'd informed my three employees about it while I wasn't there, why hadn't I been told in turn? Those damn old men probably hadn't even let Heng and the women know about it. The higher-ups from my father's company were always just as critical of me as everyone else.

My father raised a hand and grabbed one of the lapels on my suit jacket while he hissed, "You should have known."

I nodded, my breath coming in shorter and shorter bursts. "It was thoughtless of me, it will not happen again. I am sorry."

"Of course it will not happen again," he snapped. I flinched when he roughly shoved me backward, and I stumbled into the carved wooden banister, catching myself to avoid falling over and nearly dropping the folder. "Stupid as you are, you are still the heir to my company, so _ACT LIKE IT_! I will not have you humiliate me further than you already have by missing this important dinner and also gallivanting about the city with the likes of that employee of yours!"

My eyes widened at his heated words and I glanced up at him in bewilderment. I'd thought Heng and I had gone far enough away from the hotel that we wouldn't be seen. How did he know? Then again, how did he _always_ know what I'd done? Did he really have someone following me?

"You are not to talk to him again, aside from when necessary. I will not hesitate to fire him if you do not obey," he informed, then paused for a moment, watching while I straightened up. "IS THAT CLEAR‽" he roared.

"Y-yes, Father," I gasped, dropping my eyes to the floor to avoid looking at him.

He suddenly slapped me across the face. "Stop behaving so pathetically. Look at me when I talk to you," he spat. I nodded, obeying as best I could when my trembling body was on the verge of collapsing with as terrified as I was feeling. He gave a long sigh, then took a step back and appeared very business-like. "Have you finished your report?"

"Yes," I whispered. When he glared at me in disapproval, I repeated louder, "Yes. I have finished it, Father," then held up the folder to him. "Would you like it now? I have it here."

"Deliver it to my office tomorrow morning." He waved away the offered object.

"But–" I began, shakily holding it out further.

When it got close, he slapped it out of my hands, scattering its contents across the floor. "I SAID DELIVER IT TOMORROW, YOU STUPID BOY!" he bellowed, taking several more steps backward as if he didn't want to stand near whenever he wasn't injuring me. I miserably watched while a maid suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to pick up the fallen papers. My father turned away and ordered a nearby butler to give me ice for my stinging face. I knew all too well that it wasn't out of worry or guilt, but a want to avoid any visible marks or swelling. And depressingly enough, the man had an ice pack on-hand. Even the house staff was used to this sort of occurrence.

I pressed the frozen pack to my cheek, flinching at the contact, then watched my father's perfectly straight back while he strode away. His evenly-spaced footsteps echoed down the hallway for what seemed like years before they were muffled as he turned a corner. Standing still for a moment, I tried to get my breath back. It was always so difficult to breathe whenever he was around, like I was drowning in his harsh words and hateful stares, which I always found to be far more painful than the physical abuse.

Once I had my now-rumpled-looking report, I slowly went to my own office and gave a glance to the maid while I walked to my desk and set my report down. "Leave." She immediately dropped the clothes she'd been unpacking and bowed herself out of the room. I locked the door behind her, then went into my bedroom, locking that door as well. I leaned against the smooth wood for a moment, rubbing my sleeve over my eyes and soaking up all the tears that had escaped now that I was alone. It seemed that all I ever did was make him angry, even with as hard as I was trying to please him. And although I wanted his approval more than anything else, I doubted I was ever going to get it, no matter what I did.

Wandering over to my sofa, I removed the left cushion and set it on the floor. Inserting my fingers into the tiny gap between the bottom of the armrest and the cloth-covered frame, I carefully undid the tiny, hidden hooks I'd put there—an addition I'd given to the seat on my day off. Flipping back the cloth after it was undone, I reached into the sofa's frame, pulling out my _Second Life_ helmet from amongst the seat springs. I replaced the cushion, then removed my jacket, shoes, tie, and belt. Not bothering to change into my sleepwear, I climbed into bed, pinning the ice pack between the pillow and my face while attempting to block out the dull pain starting to grow in my left hip where I'd collided with the banister.

Taking another deep, shuddering breath, I rubbed my eyes once more before slipping on the game helmet and pressing the power button. A gust of cold nighttime wind washed over me and I opened my eyes, glancing about the dark meadow just outside Star City's northern gate. After a quick view of the system window to see if Dib was online yet—he wasn't—I slowly walked toward Star City, staring downward and scanning the ground, searching for herbs among the grass in a want to distract myself.

Eyes landing on a small patch of the orange-colored duro plants needed to make stamina potions, I pulled out my dagger and crouched down, carefully cutting through the base of the thin stems and sending a citric-like scent into the air. While I collected the smooth, jagged-edged leaves, my thoughts flew back to all of the people who'd called me "lǎoshī" in T City. The discussion I'd had with Heng had pushed those people from my mind, but now the wondering question was back in full force; who was it that they had mistaken me for?

My older brother was, naturally, the first person who came to mind. But since he hadn't contacted my father or I after he'd left home eleven years ago, I had no idea where he was living, what he was doing as a profession, or anything else. For all I knew, he was dead and the person I resembled was a complete stranger who just happened to look like me. So much like me that everyone was fooled. It seemed like too much of a coincidence to all be an accident.

However, if the person in question really was my brother, I could see why my father had sent me to T City, rather than going himself. A lure to draw him back home, I supposed. However, if that was the case, I thought my father a bit silly for having such hopes. My brother would never willingly come home. Especially not if I was the one asking him. After what had happened between he and I before he'd left, I doubted he would even speak to me if we met again by chance. Unless perhaps he was yelling at me to go away.

**"A-A-A-A-AL! I'M ONLI-I-I-INE! WHERE ARE YOU-U-U-****U****‽****"** Dib's voice suddenly rang out inside my head, chopping off my train of thought.

I shook my head in amusement while I stood up, stowing away the dagger and herbs. **"Stop yelling. I'm near the gate."** Pulling out my wings, I lifted myself off the ground and searched around for him. Not that I could see very well, since the stars didn't give very much light to the meadow. It was a bit annoying how literal the cities' names were. One had to travel several kilometers away from Star City just to be able to see the sun again. Moon City was probably the same.

Below me there were many shadowy figures leaving and entering the city, but there was only one that was extremely tiny and running in my direction. Figuring that was Dib, I flew toward it, dropping myself in the grass. "Hey, Al!" Dib greeted energetically, crashing into me and hugging my leg as he came to a very abrupt stop. His chubby cheeks were pink from running so far.

"Hey," I returned with a laugh.

He took my hand and began sniffing my fingers, causing my smile at his appearance to slip into a frown of bewilderment. "Were you eating an orange? I want one! Gimme!" he ordered, yanking on my pouch.

"I was picking duro herbs for stamina potions," I corrected.

Dib looked extremely disappointed at the real source of the sweet scent covering my skin, but then he beamed up at me, hopping up and down. "Then we'll just have to buy some! Let's go to the market! I have loot to sell, anyway! And stuff at the armory I wanna get! I leveled up to forty-three last time we were on, so I'm getting an equipment upgrade!" he babbled, barely taking any breaths in between sentences while he attempted to clamber onto my back without waiting for me to bend down for him.

I knelt in the dewy grass, pulling my long hair over one shoulder so he'd stop yanking on it, and carefully stood again once he finally got into place. He continued to chatter at me as I extended my wings and quickly lifted us into the air, but I couldn't quite hear him through the new flood of thoughts going through my mind.

_"You are not to talk to him again, aside from when necessary. I will not hesitate to fire him if you do not obey."_

How was I supposed to tell Dib that my father had somehow discovered us? Although a bit hurt at first, I'd been very happy to discover Dib so close to me. But that had been taken away in a mere matter of days. My feelings had been mutual, so how would Dib react to my news? Was there any way to meet him in real life without alerting my father to my actions? If not, it wasn't like Dib and I would never speak to one another again, since we had every night to spend together in _Second Life_, but what if my father took that from me as well?

I'd promised myself that a division like this would never happen. So why did it? Why did things have to be so unmanageable? My father was constantly pulling me toward him, again and again, and I truly did want to obey him, whether out of my constant wish for his acknowledgment or simply out of love for him, but what I'd thought was an unshakable loyalty to him had indeed been shaken, and so easily.

Regardless of my fear of the response I would get, I still had to say something. Not that I could get a word in edge-wise with Dib's ceaseless rambling about the things he wanted to buy.

A few minutes later, I lowered us to the ground in a clear spot near the edge of Star City's bustling market area. Dib slid off my back and told me to "Stay put!" while he went into the armor shop, since the place was fairly crowded and the crowds would be much easier to maneuver if the one maneuvering was as short and agile as Dib, since he could easily slip through the forest of legs. Or just use his cute skill to clear huge paths.

Sighing slightly, I obediently stood where Dib left me, watching clusters of people hurry past. There were many teams here, it seemed. I vaguely remembered seeing a poster in the Adventurers' Guild for some enormous fighting competition that they were probably gathering for. I hadn't paid that bit of news much attention, since Dib and I didn't want to participate. He was terrified enough as it was killing monsters, I didn't want to know what would happen to him if he was thrown into an arena with hundreds of other people all trying to murder him.

And I doubted that I would be able to get myself to kill something that was actually human. Monsters, fine. They were simply lines of computer coding. But I felt nauseous at the thought of taking the life of a real person, regardless of the fact that they would immediately reappear elsewhere, alive and well.

Looking around for a moment, I searched for a place I could sit down to continue attempting to think of ways to bring up my father's threat while Dib shopped. I spotted a small bench in an out-of-the-way place beside a little fountain and began picking my way through the crowd. But before I could get far, I was almost knocked off of my feet when someone ran into my back and something soft and warm bounced off of the back of my head.

Feeling somewhat annoyed, I quickly turned around, expecting to find Dib there, mischievously smiling for managing to sneak up and surprise me. Rather than Dib, I found myself looking down at a warrior elf I didn't know. Not the Very Angry Dark Elf, much to my relief.

"I-I'm so sorry!" he hastily apologized, looking wildly behind himself rather than at me. He was breathing heavily as if he'd been running from something. It seemed he'd lost whatever or whoever it was, and after a moment he relaxed slightly, turning to look up at me at last. "Are you…?" he began to ask something, but then froze. His red eyes widened in terror as they darted between mine and his mouth dropped open as he gaped at me.

Well, there was a new reaction I hadn't seen before.

Without giving me a chance to reply, he suddenly screamed, "HOW DID YOU—STOP CHASING ME, YOU DAMN IDIOT!" before punching me and taking off once again through the crowd, leaving me standing there, pressing a hand to my bleeding lip and feeling extremely confused.

Yet another weird person. How did they keep managing to find me? At least none of the other ones had hit me.

Wondering what it was that had hit the back of my head, I looked around on the ground for a moment. My eyes halted on a round, white thing sitting by my feet. Crouching down, I carefully picked it up and straightened, searching the crowd for the violent elf to give it back to him, but he was nowhere in sight.

Frowning in irritation, I stared at the white, squashy-feeling thing, turning it around in my hands to see what it was. In shock, I almost dropped it a moment later as a very large pair of eyes looked up at me from the side of the thing. It was alive.

"Mama?" it called in a very high-pitched voice. I didn't know what to say back. I wasn't its mother. I wasn't even a female. Nor was that elf, or so I'd thought. He was very pretty, but clearly not a girl.

I held the white thing closer to myself, so no one would bump into it, and resumed my walk to the bench. Quickly sitting, I stared at the thing in my hands, wondering what I was supposed to do with it now that its owner had run off in a screaming panic to some unknown place.

"You're not Mama!" it indignantly yelled at me and began bouncing up and down on my palm to turn itself around. "WHERE'S MAMA‽"

When it launched itself into the air in an attempt to escape, I frantically grabbed it before it could bounce away and lightly patted what I assumed was its head—it seemed to be _all_ head, or maybe all body. "Wait a minute, we'll find your mother. Don't worry," I said quietly, standing up again and hurriedly looking around the area, hoping that elf would notice his pet had gone missing. Apparently he hadn't.

"MAMA-A-A-A-A!" the thing wailed, completely ignoring my words. "MEAT-BUNBUN HAS BEEN BUN-NAPPED! MAMA! SAVE ME!"

**"DIB!"** I yelled in a private message, starting to feel panicky over the thing's screams. Many people passing by were looking at me in annoyance as if it was all my fault that it wouldn't be quiet. "P-please, calm down," I said to it, trying to sound soothing. Rather than calming down, large tears began to spill from its huge eyes and it added shrieks to its already-ear-piercing calls for its stupid elf of a mother. What in the world was wrong with it?

**"What's wrong, Al?"** Dib's worried voice called back. **"What happened?"**

**"A guy ran into me and–" **I paused when a small helicopter rotor-looking object suddenly appeared on the top of the thing and began spinning. My utter confusion of what it was doing suddenly turned into realization when the thing—a bun?—lifted itself into the air and began to fly away. I grabbed it again, holding on as tightly as I could without hurting it. However, I also began to rise into the air, cherry-sized tears falling onto my upturned face. "Stop that!" I yelled at the thing, but it ignored me and continued calling for its owner. **"DIB! A BUN IS MAKING ME FLY AWAY!"**

**"…What the heck are you talking about?" **he asked, sounding somewhat amused.

**"A guy ran into me and he thought I was someone else–!"**

**"Again? Geeze."**

**"Yes, **_**again**_**,"** I snapped. **"He ran away and left his pet here. It won't stop crying and it sprouted helicopter blades and now it's carrying me off!"**

**"You sure do attract strange people a lot. And very strange pets. And why're you letting a _bun_ overpower you?"**

**"Oh, be quiet!"** Fuming at the ridiculous situation, I pulled out my wings and started flapping them as hard as I could to counter the surprisingly strong force of the bun's little spinny contraption.

"LET MEAT-BUNBUN GO!" the thing squeaked in terror, crying even harder. I wiped the dribbling tears off my face, then put my free hand over the bun, slamming it down on top of the blades in an attempt to squish them back into the bun's head. It worked. I held the screaming thing up in front of myself, glaring at it while I lowered myself to the ground.

A moment later, Dib hurried up to me, wearing a new set of upgraded armor. Re-attaching his pouch to his belt, he exclaimed, "Whoa!" and stared wide-eyed at the irritatingly blubbery thing in my hands as never-ending tears rolled off its face, splashing into the puddles on the ground at my feet. "I've seen this thing before."

"Good," I grumbled as I quickly scooped Dib off the ground. "Do you know who the owner is?"

"Yep. It belongs to a guy named Prince, an elven warrior," Dib said as he scrambled onto my shoulders, pushed my quiver out of the way, then took the thing out of my hands once he was settled. The thing was immediately subdued as he petted it, though it did keep crying slightly, dribbling large tears into my hair. I wondered how he had managed to calm it down so quickly when I'd only made it scream louder.

"I'll try messaging him," I told Dib with a sigh, hoping the moronic elf would answer so we could return his extremely loud, very weird-looking pet. **"Prince?"**

Thankfully he immediately messaged me back. **"Huh? Who's this?"**

**"The man you just punched,"** I replied snappishly. **"You left your pet here and I would very much like to return it. Where are you?"**

**"YOU HAVE MEATBUN****‽**** Oh, I'm so relieved!"** the elf exclaimed. **"Could you meet me outside the western gate? I was about to head there with my team, but then, um, stuff happened and I dropped Meatbun, so…"**

**"That's fine. I'll be there soon."** Feeling very relieved that the now-hiccuping bun would soon be gone, I snatched it off the top of my head and looked up to Dib. "He wants to meet outside the city." Dib gave me a nod, then slipped down onto my back. I quickly lifted us upward and headed toward the correct gate. "So who's Prince?" I asked.

"His team, the Odd Squad, is one of the finalists in the Adventurers' Tournament and a very famous group of players!" Dib answered in an admiring tone. "Sometimes when you couldn't login, I went and watched the dueling matches at the arena. But I never really got a good look at Prince or his teammates, 'cause my seat was always pretty far away from their section. They have a lot of fans who crowded me out. Prince is totally brutal. I felt like I was watching a horror movie whenever he fought. Blood and guts flying all over the place, screams tearing through the–"

"Okay, I get it," I cut in, feeling annoyed at Dib's praising voice. He sounded like a kid who was rambling about his role model. The elf hadn't looked so scary to me. Especially since he had run away, screaming his head off. The brutal part did fit, however, seeing as how he'd punched me for no apparent reason.

Even if he was a famous player, I'd never heard of him. Then again, aside from what I absolutely needed to know, like the locations of certain shops and good training areas, I knew relatively nothing about the game and other players. I simply didn't see the point in knowing, though now I was wishing I'd paid more attention to _Second Life_'s current events.

Clearing the top of the city wall, I glanced downward. There was a huddle of six people standing off to one side of the dirt path leading to the western area. I slowed my wing beats and carefully descended, soon landing in the grass. Prince detached himself from the group of his teammates and hurried toward me while Dib hefted himself up onto my shoulders to get a better look.

"MEATBUN!" Prince cheered, extending his arms. Several of the other people turned to curiously watch the reunion between elf and bun.

"MAMA!" the thing screamed in return and bounced off of my palm. Prince caught it as it flew toward him and hugged it tightly, looking thoroughly relieved that his pet had returned safely.

"I'm so sorry I dropped you!"

"MAMA!"

"I thought you were gone forever!" the elf yelled with tears gathering in his eyes, not looking at all like the cruel, blood-thirsty person Dib had made him out to be, but really looking somewhat ridiculous as he continued to smother his pet with apologies.

Never mind thinking the white thing had been weird. The owner was even weirder.

"Thank you for returning him," Prince said after a very long moment of hugging and finally looked up at me again while his pet fondly nuzzled his chest. "Oh, and sorry for punching you earlier. I thought you were someone else."

"No, it's fine," I replied with an awkward nod and stretched my wings out to leave again, but a pink-clad woman suddenly stepped forward.

"Wait!" she commanded, staring at me with a startled expression. Her reaction was shared by nearly everyone else in the team, their wide eyes filled with interest and surprise.

Not again…

She twirled around, grabbed a man by the arm, then dragged him forward. "Gui! Look at this!" She roughly slapped her hand across the back of his head. He'd been lurking at the back of the group ever since Dib and I had arrived and was the only one who didn't seem to be interested in what was going on.

At her loudly-spoken words, I involuntarily switched my focus from her to him, breathlessly watching as the man finally turned around, rubbing the back of his head. I felt as though my heart was about to stop as my long-lost brother glared at me with a thoroughly angry and suspicious expression. It really _was_ him, not some random person unrelated to me. But much as I'd been assuming, my relief at finally finding him after so long looked like it was anything but mutual.

"Well, Al," Dib said quietly after a long stretch of silence, briefly patting the top of my head. "Now we know who people kept mistaking you for."


	13. Short Reunion

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

_**A Dark Wind –**__ Yes, that little thing about the cities' names actually is in the novels, although it always seems to be sunny in the manhua. :P I didn't make it up, I swear! _

_To quote Prince's description of Star City in volume one, chapter three: "It really was a beautiful city, with its quaint European-styled streets and buildings, and the star-studded sky overhead."_

_And also the moment when Prince was drunkenly sparring with Nan Gong Zui and Kong Kong during volume three, chapter two: "The three of us staggered along the moonlight-flooded street…Bathed in the clear, icy moonlight, hearing only the delightful sound of my Black Dao whistling through the air, I felt euphoric and a smile crept onto my face, growing wider and wider. The moonlight, the blade, the slender, flitting figure, and the arrogant yet refined laugh – which only an elf could be capable of – wove together into an achingly beautiful melody which echoed throughout the rustic Moon City."_

_I can't recall any right off-hand about Sun City, but there might be one somewhere. lol And yes, it is a very cool idea. Yu Wo seems to be full of those, hehe._

_By the way, reading that Moon City quote, doesn't it seem like when Prince is drunk, he channels Gui's bard side? xD_

* * *

><p>My first reaction to seeing Gui again was simple happiness. After all, I'd finally been reunited with my prodigal brother after eleven long years. I'd hoped all the while he'd been missing that he was living the way he wanted to at last, out from under our father's relentless iron fist. Though I was still caught underneath, that thought had been enough to keep my spirits up for quite some time. I was very relieved to see he really was alive and well, and surrounded by friends, at that.<p>

My second reaction was confusion. Seeing how he interacted with said friends was not at all what I had expected. In the eleven years he'd been gone, just what had happened to him—my incredibly intelligent brother—to make him act the way he was? Certainly, he used to be rather unpredictable and, at times, just plain weird, but it was like he was another person entirely. Then again, we _were_ in _Second Life_—the game where everyone had the chance to be whoever and whatever they wanted, regardless of who and what they were in reality.

My third reaction was shock. Discovering his infatuation with Prince was, to put it lightly, extremely surprising. My beloved brother had become a masochistic homosexual and didn't seem to find it strange in the slightest. In fact, none of his teammates thought his abnormal behavior was anything but normal. The respectable, scholarly image I'd had of the older brother I looked up to so much was steadily being demolished the longer I observed him.

As I stepped alongside the team while we headed toward the mountain range near Star City, I watched in slight disgust while my brother romped across the rocky ground, chasing Prince like a maniac and yelling random, embarrassing-sounding things.

Perhaps I was then slipping into my fourth reaction; denial. That ridiculous person couldn't possibly be my brother. It was just someone who looked like him. My brother would never do something like that. And if it really was him—sadly, I knew without a doubt that it was, although I didn't quite want to admit it—what in the world had made such a drastic change in him? Actually, I supposed the reason was a _who_ rather than a _what_.

My gaze drifted to Prince and I angrily narrowed my eyes, deciding that I didn't like him and for an entirely different reason than the Meatbun Incident.

He hit Gui a lot, almost to death at times. It made the punch-to-the-face he'd given me earlier in Star City's marketplace seem like a friendly little pat on the cheek. And while the reason for Prince's angry outbursts was completely and painfully obvious, that must have been why Gui was acting like a lunatic. Head trauma. Brain damage. Some other horrible injury that muddled up his brilliant mind. But this was just a game, it was impossible for him to get a long-lasting problem from an injury, no matter how extensive. He'd simply heal in a matter of minutes. Especially with a priest around.

Whichever way it was, I was feeling thoroughly dissatisfied with the situation. Especially since Gui's teammate, Lolidragon, seemed to have no respect for anyone's personal boundaries. She'd been inspecting me as closely as she could ever since we'd left the city. Plus that bun had decided to once again uninvitedly take up residence on the top of my head, after loudly declaring that he liked hanging around Dib.

"I…" Lolidragon said after a very long moment of staring at me as we walked along. Her forehead scrunched up in a way that made it look like she was thinking very hard. "I can't understand it! It's just so weird!"

"Well, I apologize for being weird," I mumbled in reply, taking a few steps to one side to widen the distance between us. I refrained from telling her that I wasn't the weird one in this particular situation. While I supposed I was very different from the average "normal" person, I was fairly certain that I was one of the most normal people in that group. Everyone else seemed to have some bizarre trait or another. Several of them.

"But…seeing someone who looks almost identical to Gui being so…so calm and reserved! It's not normal!" she yelled, ignoring my attempts to get away from her and once again sidling up to my side, far too close for comfort. "Hey, Dib!" she called upward.

I felt Dib turn toward her as his conversation with the bun was cut off. "Yeah?"

Lolidragon jabbed a finger at me and frowned. "Is Aeolus always so, well, not-Gui-like?"

Dib laughed at her words and patted the top of my head. "He's the quietest person I've ever met. Barely ever says anything unless I force him to, especially in real life. Pretty mean and blunt when he does talk, though.

"By the way, Al," he continued, tugging lightly on a bit of my hair. "I know I said you should express yourself more, but please, don't become like _that_ person. That'd be horrible, in so many ways."

"As if I would ever behave like that," I said quietly, wondering why he would even say such a thing. My mouth automatically turned downward as I watched Gui fly through the air after Prince punched him yet again. He picked himself up after a moment and gleefully laughed as if the fall had tickled. An urge to drag him away from the violent elf was growing with each passing moment

"Why does that boy feel it necessary to constantly hit my brother?" I asked, turning slightly toward Lolidragon.

She shrugged and looked amused. "That's just what they do."

"Always?" My face paled slightly at the thought of my poor brother being perpetually pulverized.

"Prince has been beating Gui up from the moment they first met each other," Lolidragon confirmed with a nostalgic sigh.

"And you have never thought to stop them?" I continued, raising an eyebrow at her in disbelief. Forget trying to protect my brother from Prince, wouldn't two people constantly fighting get annoying after a while?

"Why would we?" Lolidragon snorted and waved at hand in the pair's direction. "They're obviously both having so much fun. I think trying to intervene would be more cruel than letting them do what they want."

Shaking my head slightly, I continued on in silence. It certainly did seem as though they were enjoying themselves in some bizarre way, regardless of their violent activities. I still didn't like it, though. Perhaps it was simply the naturally protective bond between siblings, but every time Prince hit Gui, my own fist curled around itself in a want to strike the elf in return. Even if no one else seemed to care that Gui was being used as a punching bag, I did. Very much so.

"Are you and Gui twins?" Doll eagerly asked, staring up at me with a wondering look. "You both look so much like one another!"

"NO!" Gui yelled in an offended tone, suddenly halting in his enthusiastic frolicking and angrily glaring back at us. He then promptly resumed his Prince-annoying like he'd never stopped in the first place.

Since when had he been listening?

"No, we're not," I repeated much more quietly, shaking my head in bewilderment as I watched Prince kick Gui's feet out from under him. I doubted I'd ever get even a shred of understanding as to why they both enjoyed that sort of thing so much.

"Which of you is the older brother, then?" Yu Lian inquired curiously, leaning forward slightly to look at me around Lolidragon and completely ignoring how my brother was now being roughly stomped upon by the elf.

"Gui Wen is older by two years," I answered, quickly looking away from the bloody mess which was my brother and instead focused on the rocky ground in front of myself, carefully stepping around a small, prickly bush.

Yu Lian's eyes widened slightly in surprise and Ugly Wolf started laughing. "I would have thought it was the other way around, judging by how you two act," he observed, smiling in amusement as he continued to chuckle. I made a faint noise of agreement; his reasons for thinking such a thing were very clear.

"Is Dib your son?" Doll suddenly asked while Ugly Wolf briefly paused to heal Gui's countless wounds.

I looked down at the girl with a mixture of perplexity and amusement. "Of course not." He and I didn't look anything alike, why would anyone think that? Then again, he didn't look very much like his real self, though that might have simply been because he looked so much younger—Heng and Dib's facial features really were similar to one another—so I supposed the possibility of a real father and son looking completely different from one another in-game wasn't so strange of an idea.

"Your nephew?" she furthered, eyebrows raised slightly.

"No," I replied, shaking my head.

"Your cousin?"

"No."

"Your brother?"

"No, Gui Wen is my only sibling. And I'm not related to Dib."

"Your boyfriend, then?"

I nearly tripped in surprise at that last guess, which was even more absurd than thinking he was my son. "No," I firmly denied, forcing myself not to glare at her in annoyance. Did I seem like a perverted man who would go after little boys? What in the world…

"Your husband?" Lolidragon calmly continued in Doll's place, face blank but twitching as if she was trying to keep herself from laughing.

"What‽ No!" I snapped, angrily glancing at her. "He's just my friend!"

"Dib-Dib is _Meatbun-bun_'s friend!" that bun abruptly and shrilly corrected, sounding very irritated with me as it bounced up and down several times, soundly smacking me on the head. I'd almost forgotten that thing was sitting on me, with how oddly quiet it had been up there for quite a while.

Emphasis on the "had been." And why wasn't I allowed to call him my friend, too?

"Dib-Dib?" Dib echoed in extreme amusement at the unexpected nickname. Somehow, I doubted it wouldn't be the last time I'd hear it. He was manipulative enough without cutesy nicknames, who knew what the usual targets of shop clerks and random passerby would do against his adorable demeanor when he added "Dib-Dib" onto the innocent stares he used to get the things he wanted.

"So you're single?" Lolidragon asked, leaning toward me and blinking her large, pink eyes, an obviously seductive look settling on her face. I simply stared at her in shock, not even attempting to form some sort of a response. What was wrong with these people?

"Hey, get away!" Dib suddenly cut in, threateningly waving one of his little arms at the thief and protectively wrapping his other around my head, tightly hugging it against himself. "Stop interrogating Al! He doesn't like it!"

Rather than backing down, her thin arm was suddenly snaked around mine. "LET GO!" Dib and I yelled in unison as I frantically pried her off and took several frightened steps away. At some point, Dib had unsheathed a sword and was brandishing it in her direction as if daring her to make another move on me.

"Oh, so mean," Lolidragon pouted, looking disappointed at my rejection as she crossed her arms, tilting her head to one side. "You're such a bishie, it's a waste."

…What the hell was a "bishie"?

"But," she continued with an amused grin, "don't get any ideas about Prince, you hear?"

"That will never happen." I gave her an irritated frown, then guardedly watched as she whirled around, laughing heartily as if her advances had all been a joke—I hoped very much that that was the case—and continuing onward toward the mountains. Dib waited until she was quite a ways away until he finally put his sword back and I let out a long sigh of relief. What a thoroughly creepy person. My reasons for disliking Prince were starting to pile up.

"Ah, they're here!" Lolidragon suddenly exclaimed, quickening her pace and running on ahead. Her teammates followed suit, leaving Dib, Meatbun and I where we were standing. Looking up toward where they were headed, I blanched. This night was getting worse and worse.

Dib suddenly started chuckling and leaned on my head, seeming to be much more relaxed now that Lolidragon wasn't there anymore. "Look who it is, Al. It's your buddy!" he teased.

"He's not my buddy," I snapped, walking as slowly as I dared when that dark elf and his team came into view around a large boulder. He immediately stomped up to Gui and began arguing with him. Another mystery was beginning to clear itself up as their angry words floated toward me; they were fighting over Prince. That explained why he looked like he hated me. But, having no interest whatsoever in the selectively sadistic elf, I was relieved that I wouldn't be shot daggers at anymore.

"You two should be friends," Dib suggested promptly, kicking my chest so I'd walk faster over the rough, uneven ground. "After all, you have a common goal, although your motivation is different."

Common goal; getting Gui away from Prince.

Regardless, I was very reluctant to stand anywhere near him. I stopped a ways off and watched the two teams mingle together as they began to form a plan for their training session. Prince suddenly turned to look at Dib and I, then quickly ran over. "Could I have Meatbun back?" he asked, looking up at Dib. After a reluctant pause, Dib obediently returned the bun. "Thanks. We're about to get started if you two wanted to join in," Prince invited with a smile, and then hurried back to the others. I couldn't decide if the elf was good-natured or vicious. One minute he was mercilessly thrashing my brother, the next he was smiling like a saint. He certainly had a lot of sides.

"Want to?" Dib asked a moment later.

"I don't know," I answered. Part of me wanted to fly off to be alone with Dib, since I still hadn't said anything about what my father had threatened us with and I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

But I was also feeling very reluctant to let Gui out of my sight now that there were two people around who seemed to want nothing more than to cause him harm. And although I was sure the dark elf wouldn't have minded in the slightest if I dragged Gui away with me like I would have wanted, I doubted very much that Gui would agree to be parted from Prince, if only for a little while. Especially if I was the one taking him away from his beloved.

"What do you want to do?" I tilted my head back to questioningly look at Dib.

"I think it would be interesting to be able to fight with a team," he replied, leaning his elbows on my forehead and smiling down at me. "Since it's always just us, we never get to fight the high-level mobs. Just the low-level stuff."

I gave him a playful smirk and sighed. "You and high-level monsters, hm? Sounds like quite the combination."

His golden eyebrows drew together and he pulled on my cheek in annoyance. "You jerk, what's that supposed to mean‽ I can take them, no problems!"

"You don't even know what they are yet," I pointed out, finally walking toward the others. Though I was very anxious to talk to him, I supposed we could stay for a little while longer, since that was what he wanted. We still had the majority of the night to pass, anyway.

"You're here too, are you?" the dark elf commented blandly as he watched us approach. He still looked at me a bit suspiciously, though not at all like he had in the past.

"Obviously we are," Dib chirped in amusement.

I held my breath after Dib's little remark and the elf walked over to us. He stopped in front of me and scrutinizingly ran his eyes over the two of us. "You're Gui's brother?" he asked at last, to which I nodded wordlessly. "I see. I'm Wicked," he informed.

"Aeolus," I said quietly.

"Dib."

He suddenly frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, are you two the ones who passed by the coffee shop earlier today? Around lunch time?"

I nodded again. Dib suddenly leaned over the top of my head and pointed a finger in Wicked's face. "It _was_ us! And I didn't get a chance to say this earlier, but stop glaring at Al! He didn't do anything to you! You're being mean and creepy! If you hadn't been scaring him, we coulda gone inside rather than walking for ages and ages and ages to find another coffee shop! I almost starved to death, 'cause we walked for so long! My legs were about to fall off, 'cause they were so-o-o-o sore! In fact, they were worn down to bloody little stubs from all the walking! I collapsed from exhaustion along the way at least five hundred times! Poor Al had to carry me and now he's got a bunch of hernias! And–!"

"It's fine," I muttered, cutting off his long string of exaggerations and looking away from Wicked's slightly indignant expression. "I know why it was happening now."

Wicked glanced up at Dib, and then down at me again. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, it won't happen again. I figured it was you guys after you both left. Gui definitely would have come inside," he ended with a snort.

I smiled humorlessly at him. "Yes, I suppose it won't happen again, since Dib and I don't live in T City."

"Those two are in T City‽" Gui demanded, glaring at me in suspicion, but obviously not directing the question at me. My heart sank with the hateful tone he was speaking in. I'd hoped that, with eleven years gone past since the last time we'd seen one another, he would have been a little bit more tolerant of me than he had been. It was extremely disheartening to find that he wasn't. But I supposed the fact that he wasn't attempting to murder me or anything was a good sign, at least.

"No, we're not," Dib corrected. "We were for a few days and just so happened to stumble across Wicked earlier, but now we're not, so shut up and relax already yet. Geeze. You're being really annoying, trying to pick fights with Al for no good reason."

Gui frowned angrily at Dib, but turned away again without arguing further. Wicked looked between he and I in confusion, but cleared his throat and said, "Well, um…were you both planning on training with us?"

"Can we?" Dib asked hopefully as he leaned against the back of my head.

"No, they shouldn't," Gui suddenly denied, unwantedly jumping into the conversation again. I hesitantly looked up to meet his narrowed eyes, trying to think of something to say to help him calm down. The constant anger in his voice deeply hurt me. He probably thought I was there to spy on him for our father or something of that sort.

"Why?" Prince wondered, looking between us with a wide-eyed expression. His words were echoed by several other people, making me feel a bit warm. They were people Dib and I had only just met, yet they were standing up for us. _Second Life_ was certainly giving me a lot of opportunities to experience new things. Perhaps they were only being polite, but it was still very kind of them to include Dib and I in their group. However, that brief, warm feeling quickly faded away when I looked back to Gui. It wasn't as though his anger toward me was unjustified, but it still stung.

He crossed his arms over his purple robes and coldly turned away from me. "Because. We two teams have been training together since the tournaments were canceled for the Grand Melee, thus we've gotten a firm hold on how we can maximize our training time. Those two will only get in the way."

I dropped my eyes as Prince proceeded to slap Gui upside the head, yelling reprimandingly at him for being rude. Dib's arms tightened comfortingly around me, but I took a step backward and nodded. "We'll be leaving, then," I said quietly, extending my wings and turning around as Dib carefully slipped off my shoulders, settling onto my back. I paused after a few steps and glanced at the group, smiling faintly toward Gui. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Gui Wen. It won't happen again."

"Aeolus, wait!" Prince called, walking quickly toward Dib and I before we could take off. "You can stay if you want, don't listen to that idiot! You aren't–"

"No," I firmly interrupted, shaking my head in a refusal. "Thank you for your kind invitation, but I don't want to cause problems."

Prince inhaled and opened his mouth to say something else, but I began to beat my wings as hard as I could, wishing to get away as fast as possible. Dib re-tightened his grip around my neck, startled at my sudden movements. I glanced downward once more, but Gui hadn't looked back.

Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I took a deep breath and flew Dib and I away.


	14. Pondside Chat

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**No**__**te –** Thank you again, Tearless Wish! :3 I managed to slip in another one of your suggestions sooner than I'd thought._

* * *

><p>"Al, stop!" Dib's faint voice reached my ears through the roaring wind, not for the first time, but I ignored him. I didn't want to stop until we were as far away from Star City as we could be. Or at least as far away from <em>Gui<em> as we could be. The unfading look of hatred on his face when he saw me again was more than enough to make me wish Dib and I had never left Sun City in the first place. Ignorance was bliss, and I was sorely missing it.

Shakily reaching a hand to my pouch, I withdrew a nearly-empty bottle. The contents had long-since been drained over the course of our lengthy flight. Barely a mouthful of the bright orange concoction remained, but it was enough for now.

Uncorking the small bottle, I drank the remainder of the stamina potion as best I could from my horizontal position. The refreshing-tasting potion eased the pain in my muscles slightly, making the continued rhythmic beating of my wings a little more bearable.

I returned the empty bottle to my pouch for future use, then unblinkingly fixed my eyes once more on the curved line of the horizon, focusing all of my attention on the sound of the wind rushing past and hoping vainly that it would be enough to drown out the ever-growing discomfort in my body and mind.

"I said stop!" Dib ordered again, this time pounding a fist on the back of my scaly leather top. I made no response, if only to fly faster. He leaned closer to my head, tugging on my shoulder guards as if he would be able to slow me down. "Al! You've been flying for hours! Potion or not, you're gonna kill yourself if you don't take a break!"

He waited several minutes for a reply, but when I didn't give any sign I'd heard him, he surprised me by shifting out of place as if he was slipping off my back. "If you don't stop, I'm gonna jump!"

"You wouldn't!" I yelled in disbelief over my shoulder, hoping that I was right.

I wasn't.

Dib stared at me defiantly for a moment, and then swung his left leg over my head to join his right dangling down the other side of my chest. My eyes widened in shock as he purposefully slid off before I could attempt to grab him.

I immediately pulled in my wings and fell after him. His calm face looked extremely out of place as he fell through the air with his arms crossed over his chest as if he were leaning against a tree and _not_ falling to his death from a hundred meters above the ground.

Trying to make myself as flat as possible, I watched as he got closer, urging myself to fall faster. Glancing past him, a dread filled me as I saw the not-so-soft ground rushing toward us with much more speed than I would have liked it to have. I looked back to Dib and reached out to him. Rather than taking my hands, he simply continued to stare blankly up at me.

Panic started to roar through my head. Much longer and I wouldn't have enough room to pull us safely out of the fall.

"TAKE MY HANDS, YOU IDIOT!" I screamed, trying desperately to stretch my arms further toward the boy, but he was still slightly out of my grasp. A tiny smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, and he finally uncrossed his arms and did as I asked. Drawing him against me, I held him as tightly as I could while I unfurled my wings. The wind painfully tore through them as we roughly spun about, scattering black feathers into the air behind us.

I managed to slow down slightly and make the angle of our fall much more shallow, but not nearly enough to gain any altitude.

Twisting around at the last moment, I skidded across the grass on my back, protectively cradling Dib in my arms. My grip on him involuntarily tightened when I felt the humerus of my left wing snap in two when it was crushed between my back and the ground. Arrows and my bow bounced out of my quiver and scattered across the grass. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth, blocking the lovely sight of the bright blue sky stretching out above us while I did my best to keep myself from yelling when wave after wave of hot pain washed over me as I felt, all too clearly, many of the other delicate bones in my wings break into countless pieces when they snagged on rocks and plants.

"That's more like it, idiot," Dib chided peevishly as he sat up after we'd come to a stop at last.

My arms released him and dropped wearily to the bloody ground. I didn't open my eyes to see what he was doing when I felt his hands tug at the pouch on my hip. Stubborn refusal to look at him wasn't the reason, but a simple want to hold back the tears brought on by the agonizing pain screaming through my body. I wondered faintly if my bow was okay, or if it had met a similar fate as my mangled wings.

Stupid realism level.

Stupid Dib.

Stupid Gui.

Stupid me.

The smooth glass surface of a potion bottle was pressed gently to my lips, and I let my mouth open slightly. Rather than pouring a little bit, Dib upended the bottle's contents in their entirety, and I nearly choked as the health potion filled my mouth, its medicine-like taste mingling with the all-too-familiar metallic, salty tang of blood that was covering my tongue.

Coughing for a moment after I'd swallowed the potion, I finally opened my eyes and grimaced in discomfort as my wings fitted themselves back together and stopped jutting out at bizarre angles underneath me—my feathers were still rather messy-looking—the deep scrapes on my arms and back disappeared, and the headache I hadn't noticed until just then stopped pounding through my skull.

My body felt better, at least. Now all I needed was a potion for my numerous mental injuries.

Looking away from the sky, I dropped my eyes to look at Dib, wondering if he was uninjured. It seemed that he was, and he steadily stared back at me with an angry, challenging look as if he was daring me to try to fly again. "Surely there was a less reckless way to make me stop‽" I demanded hoarsely after a moment. "What would you have done if I hadn't caught you?"

"I knew you would," he said simply as he squashed the small cork back into the neck of the empty bottle in his hands.

"You trust people too much."

"And you don't trust people enough," he retorted snappishly, glowering down at me. "Especially me!"

Sighing at his words, I let my head fall back onto the itchy grass, not knowing what to say in return. Dib returned the bottle to my pouch before climbing off my chest and hurrying away from me. Carefully sitting up, I watched as he walked back the way we'd come, picking up my scattered arrows as he went. With realization, I ran my eyes over the long stretch of scraped-up ground we'd slid across. "Damn it all," I murmured angrily, quickly lifting a hand to touch the back of my head. Dirt, blood, grass, and leaves. Never mind a less reckless way to stop, couldn't it have at least been a cleaner method?

Standing shakily, I looked around for a moment, then hurriedly stepped to where my bow was resting in the grass a few meters away. Scooping it up and inspecting it, I was very happy to see it was undamaged, save a few new scratches on the limb's surface. After returning it to my probably-just-as-beat-up quiver, I turned around, hoping there was a river near in which I could wash myself off. Whatever was going on, I refused to be covered in filth.

My gaze snagged on a sparkling light between the trunks of a few scattered willow trees, and I ran toward it, feeling relieved. That feeling didn't last long, and I quickly slid to a stop, staring in revulsion at the once-longed-for pond. Giant brown water beetles as big as horses were skating to and fro on the rippling surface of the dark water, chittering to one another.

"Damn!" I swore again. Beetles and the like were something I made a point to never attempt to train on. Their exoskeletons were far too thick for my arrows to puncture. Plus they flew, making escape nearly impossible, or so I assumed.

Why couldn't there have been a fish monster, or something of that sort?

Stupid beetles.

"Al, what are you doing?" Dib asked as he came to a stop beside me, clutching my arrows in his arms. He let loose a sigh as he watched the nearest beetle float past, and then looked up. "Is now _really_ the time to scope out potential training spots?"

"I'm not!" I denied in annoyance over my bath being taken away from me, and took my arrows back. Slipping them into my quiver, I crossed my arms and frowned. "I wanted to wash my hair, it's filthy now. Probably my wings, too…" They twitched slightly at the thought.

"I shoulda known, you neat freak," Dib muttered, running his eyes over the bank. "C'mere," he said after a moment, taking my hand and leading me around the edge of the water, far away enough that the shiny beetles didn't seem to notice our presence. We walked quietly to avoid exciting the swimming insects, and eventually stopped a quarter of the way around the pond where a long wooden dock was built over the water.

Dib let my hand go as he stepped up to the water's lapping edge and waved toward the pond. "Stay by the dock and you probably won't get seen."

Sending a cautious glance to the beetles I could see in the distance, I hurriedly slipped the leather bracers off my forearms. Dib sat himself down on the edge of the dock, removed his boots, and stuck his feet in the calm water while I carefully took off the rest of my armor and placed it all neatly on the ground next to my belted pouch and quiver.

Wishing I had a comb or something, I stepped into the warm water of the pond and waded out until I was close to Dib, and nearly out of sight of the beetles. I hoped there were no smaller ones lurking under the water where I couldn't see.

Looking downward somewhat fearfully at the water rising and falling slightly about my waist, I dipped myself underwater and glanced around. No beetles in sight. Quite a few small, silvery fish darting about, but they didn't attack me, so I slowly swished my wings from side to side and ran my fingers through my hair, getting quite a bit of the dirt and leaves out in only a few seconds.

Once I resurfaced, Dib waved me over and I sloshed toward him. He took me by the shoulders and turned me around, sliding himself as close to me as he could without falling off his seat. My slight confusion over his actions vanished into gratitude as he began pulling the remainder of the leaves out of my hair, untangling it as he went.

Leaning back, I stretched out my wings and let them rest on top of the sun-warmed planks of the dock that I'd braced my back against, enjoying the feeling of the soft breeze pushing through the dripping feathers. After a moment, I pulled a portion of my hair over my shoulder to help Dib, but he slapped my hand away and took the hair back. "I'll do it," he offered quietly, running his fingers down the length of a now-clean lock. Not wanting to argue anymore, I let him do as he pleased, though it would have gone faster with both of us working at it.

A few minutes passed in silence, then I suddenly remembered I'd been wanting to talk to him. It seemed like an opportune moment, since there was no one else around at last, save the gigantic beetles on the other side of the large pond. But they didn't count.

"Dib."

"What is it, Al?"

Pausing briefly, I realized I still didn't know what to say. Everything I'd managed to mentally scrape together had been tossed out the window when Gui had unexpectedly come into the picture.

"Earlier when I arrived home…" I hesitantly started. Whatever way I phrased it in my head, it seemed like it would make Dib angry.

"Yeah?" he prodded after a moment of silence.

"My father told me that he knew…what we were doing in T City earlier this afternoon," I continued, unsure as to how I should explain the rest. I didn't know if he knew anything about my family situation, other than the obvious. Not that I'd ever tried to confide in him.

Dib hummed contemplatively for a moment and slowly pushed some of my clean hair over my shoulder. "I bet he didn't like that," he commented blandly.

"He didn't," I confirmed, feeling relieved that he seemed to understand.

Dib was silent for a few more minutes and his hands paused in their work, coming to a rest on my back. "Did I get you in trouble?" he asked, sounding somewhat guilty.

"No," I said quickly. "No, you didn't."

"…If there's no trouble, why're you bringing it up?" He gave a relieved sigh and his fingers resumed their gentle movements, tossing another leaf in the water. It slowly sank under the surface and out of sight.

"_I'm_ not the one in trouble," I corrected, and turned to face him. He resolutely held onto the hair he'd been messing with, though it already looked suspiciously clean. Taking a deep breath, I leaned a bit closer and patted his small knee. "Dib, he…he threatened to fire you if I so much as speak to you when it's 'not necessary.'"

Dib's eyes widened slightly in surprise and they shifted between mine. Then he unexpectedly smirked and shook his head, returning his attention to my hair and laughing. "Geeze, he sure is exorbitant, huh? Going that far, just 'cause we got coffee together. Over-protective to the extreme."

"Of his assets, not of his son," I interjected, frowning at his airy response. This was the moment where he was supposed to be worrying about his career, not laughing over my father's excessive actions. I supposed from an outside view, my father did seem a bit silly for going to such lengths to keep me sheltered, but I knew it was only so I didn't do anything to embarrass him. Not that I thought my or Dib's actions were embarrassing in the slightest.

"Either way, he can do whatever he wants. It's his problem, not ours," Dib said calmly, sending a brief glance upward.

"I refuse to cost you your job."

Dib finally let my hair slip through his fingers and he leaned back, staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Are you…are you doing what I think you're doing?" he whispered, but I didn't reply, unsure of what to say. His eyes filled with worry at my silence. "Are you leaving me?"

"No," I answered, but then paused. "Well, yes. In real life. If we don't talk to one another unless we have to, he'll leave you alone." I tried to smile encouragingly at him when the look on his face took a turn for the worst. "We can still hang out here in-game," I hurriedly pacified, waving a hand through the air.

Dib breathed deeply for a moment. "What if I say no?"

My eyes narrowed at his continued apathy toward his situation. "If you and I don't distance ourselves from one another, you'll get fired and we'll see each other even less than we already do."

"Al, you're more important to me than my job," he softly apprised, looking extremely droopy as he frowned, glancing away from me. He raised his face again, suddenly seeming a bit more hopeful than before. "I can just find another one, and then we can still meet in real life, right?"

I shook my head slightly and his face fell back into its previous cheerlessness. "That won't work. He'll just find another way to stop you from associating with me. And then if he finds out I play this game, you and I won't see each other _at all_."

He simply stared at me with a stubborn expression, making no effort to agree. A moment passed, then he suggested, "What if I wear a disguise? Sunglasses and a hat or something so your father doesn't know it's me? I mean, you meet with your other friends sometimes and he doesn't care, right?"

"Well, no. He doesn't mind at all, in fact he encourages the outings as long as they don't get in the way of work," I admitted, continuing half-jokingly, "but those are people he deems worthy of my friendship."

Dib made a "humph" noise and stuck out his chin. "I deem _me_ worthier than them! You said he'll fire me if you speak to me when it's not necessary? Well, I say it _is_ necessary! To us two! So there! Loophole!"

Snorting in amusement, I smiled. "You're really not going to give up, are you?"

"Nope." He firmly shook his head and crossed his arms. "I think if we're careful, it'll be fine. And," he paused and gave me a reluctant, resigned look, "if it seems like he's noticed something, I'll back off. Okay? I don't want him getting mad at you, just 'cause of me."

I dropped my eyes to gaze at the warm water lapping about the waistband of my loose-fitting, blue leggings. "I don't know, Dib…I mean, it's not like I don't want to see you in real life. I really do, but I also don't want to disobey him…"

After a thoughtful pause, Dib murmured, "Is that out of fear?"

With a small shrug, I sighed. "Partially, I suppose, but there are other reasons."

He raised a hand and slowly dragged it down the damp skin of my abdomen. "I saw them at the hotel, you know," he whispered, a pained look settling over his face. "All over the place where clothing would cover up. Scars, cuts and bruises—some looking like they were barely a day old…I wanted to ask you about them, but, well, given the situation we'd been in…it didn't really seem like a good idea.

"Was it him?"

My distressed mood was further abraded when he brought up my humiliatingly marred body, and I looked away, reluctantly answering, "Some…most. A few are from normal every-day accidents. The rest are from the people—home tutors, the house staff and the like—my father had hired to watch me when I was a child."

"And yet you're still so dedicated to him," Dib mused in a disbelieving tone, "after all this stuff he's done to you for no good reason."

"He's important to me," I quietly scolded. "Even if he dislikes me, he still provided me with a proper education, a job, a place to live, and everything else. I'm very grateful to him. Regardless of the fact that he treats me so poorly, he just wants me to do my best. He's simply concerned about the future of the company he tries his hardest to advance. Anyway, all of that will be mine eventually, so obeying him will benefit me in the long run. Of course I'll do whatever he tells me to do. Not willingly at times, but I still try. Isn't it the same for you? Don't you want to do what _your_ father wants?"

"Both of my parents are dead, so having either of them order me around would be kinda weird, don'cha think?" My eyes widened in surprise at Dib's hotly spoken divulgence, and I quickly inhaled to apologize for bringing it up, but he shook his head, dropping his hand to his lap. He tilted his head down, his gold hair overshadowing his face and not allowing me to see what sort of expression he was making. "Don't bother saying sorry. It's not like you knew about it…" he muttered. "Happened when I'd just turned fourteen. A car crash. Not too dramatic, huh?…I wasn't even in high school yet."

A tiny smile quirked at his mouth when he briefly glanced up at me through his curls, hints of tears gathering at the corners of his round eyes. "Stuff wasn't much different after they were gone, really. They both had always worked full-time. Left early in the morning, came home after dinner time nearly every evening when I was already studying. I pretty much raised myself and my three little brothers…Going about life like an adult, although I was still just a kid. Didn't have any other choice. Sometimes our neighbors came over and helped me out with stuff, though. Wasn't too hard, I guess."

With a sigh, Dib's face scrunched up like he was trying very hard not to cry, then he leaned forward, resting his head on my chest. Feeling horrible for accidentally upsetting him with my thoughtless remark, I carefully draped my arms around him and pulled him close, then drew my wings in front of myself and securely wrapped him up, running one hand over his curly head when he started quietly sobbing. Heng's reasons for creating Dib were coming into view, and they were unexpectedly a lot deeper than simply wanting free stuff and shopping discounts.

He'd wanted a childhood.

"I miss…th-them a lot," he choked out, wiping his teary face off on me. "E-even if they weren't there very much…they were still really nice people…Working so hard for m-me…Spent their days off with my brothers and I, do-doing w-whatever we wanted, when they coulda been resting…And…and…" He wiggled around for a moment and made an annoyed noise, then glared up at me, his chubby face very red from crying. "AND YOUR STUPID WINGS WON'T STOP DRIPPING COLD WATER ON ME! IT'S GOING DOWN THE BACK OF MY SHIRT AND MAKING ME ITCHY!"

I nearly laughed at his unexpected outburst, but managed to hold it in. He jumped from mood to mood faster than anyone else in the entire world, although I suspected this instance was simply an act. But I decided to play along instead of making him say anything further if he didn't want to. I was completely empathetic when it came to touchy subjects that were difficult to discuss.

Frowning at the mad look Dib had on his face, I lifted my wings overhead and shook them out in a want to liven him up. A shower of water droplets flew off my feathers and rained down on us. He squealed and leaned against me again, covering the top of his head with his hands. "NO! Don't do that! It's freezing, you jerk!"

Grabbing him under the arms, I stepped away from the dock and held him up over the water. His eyes widened and he held onto my wrists very tightly. "Don't you dare, Al…! Don't do it!"

Keeping my face as blank as possible, I pretended to drop him. He screamed at the abrupt movement, kicking his legs and squirming about in an effort to escape. When he noticed that he wasn't underwater, he glared at me. "You jerk! Put me down!"

With a mischievous smile, I said, "Okay," and started lowering him toward the water's surface.

"NO-O-O-O! PUT ME DOWN _ON THE DOCK_!" he snapped when his bare toes came in contact with the water. He curled his legs up in front of himself, trying his hardest to stay out of the pond. The water wasn't cold in the slightest, the exaggerating brat.

"Stop being so loud, or you'll make those beetles come over here," I warned, obediently setting him safely back on the pale timbers. He jumped to his feet and I cautiously backed away, lowering myself down into the rippling water until my shoulders were submerged, wings floating around behind me. Raising an eyebrow, I watched while he started roughly removing his own armor, tossing the tiny, silvery pieces next to his spike-toed boots. "What are you doing?"

"I'll…I'll show you, you jerk! See if you pick on me again! I'm gonna teach you a lesson!" he snarled threateningly, forcing his leather jerkin over his head, then tossing his red undershirt on top of the pile. When he only had his leggings left on, he took a few steps back, then dashed forward, leaping at me. I reflexively caught him, falling backward when he forced me underwater, smiling fiercely. His tiny fists punched my chest several times, then he used my stomach to launch himself back up to the surface.

When he began treading the water above me, I reached up, grabbed one of his skinny ankles and mercilessly tickled his foot. The faint, muffled sound of him screaming yet again slowly reached my ears, and the water violently churned around me when he started thrashing about. Inwardly laughing, I finally stood up again, breaking the bubbly, wave-covered surface and smiling down at his very angry expression.

"YOU'RE SO MEAN!" he shrieked, flinging a great deal of water at my face. I shielded myself with my wings, then splashed him in return. That was all it took to set off a full-blown water fight that lasted for several very berserk minutes. After getting doused with a particularly large wave, I briefly pushed him under to buy myself some time, then twirled around and frantically attempted to run away, using my wings and arms to wildly propel myself along through the choppy waves of the once-tranquil pond.

Even with my extra appendages giving me an unfair advantage against the tiny boy, I only got a short distance before he caught up, grabbing me from behind and knocking me over again. Coughing and sputtering, I gasped for air once he'd stopped jumping on me. Flipping myself onto my back, I picked him up and nearly threw him, but then noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning to look, I stared in slight surprise at the large number of water beetles zooming our way, irritatedly clicking their pincers together. "Oh, great. Look what you attracted."

"Huh?" Dib looked to the side, eyes going very wide. He then grabbed me as tightly as he could. Without another thought, I leapt to my feet and dashed to the bank. "WAIT! WHAT ABOUT OUR EQUIPMENT?" Dib demanded, slapping my shoulder. "THAT ARMOR IS BRAND NEW! DON'T LEAVE IT!"

"It'll be fine!" I hastily took off into the air, nearly crashing into one of the large, swaying willow trees dotting the bank. I was very determined to get out of the beetles' preset territory so they would calm down, regardless of how we were leaving everything we owned—except our pants, anyway—behind. It wasn't like the beetles were going to steal the stuff, and there was no one else in sight.

Dib suddenly wrapped his arms around my neck and nearly strangled me. "A-A-A-AH!"

"WOULD YOU STOP SCREAMING‽" I yelled in annoyance, flying up and up and up, not daring to look back to see what it was he'd seen. I could hear the loud buzzing noises just fine, so perhaps I didn't really need to look to know what was going on back there.

"BUT THEY'RE FLYING AFTER US!"

"OF COURSE THEY ARE! YOU WERE SO LOUD, THOUGH I TOLD YOU TO BE QUIETER!"

"THAT'S YOUR FAULT, YOU JERK! YOU WERE PICKING ON ME!"

"YOU PICK ON ME ALL THE TIME! YOU'RE IN NO POSITION TO GET HUFFY WITH ME FOR RETURNING THE FAVOR!"

"S-SHUT UP AND FLY FASTER, THEY'RE GAINING ON US!"

Rolling my eyes, I re-tightened my grip on Dib, having what I hoped was a good idea to escape. I folded my wings against myself, swooping downward. A glance behind told me the enormous beetles had thankfully copied my action, closing their wing cases and dropping after us like horse-sized bombs. Turning back around, eyes watering from the force of the wind blasting over my face, I began carefully counting down the distance in my head.

"AL, WE'RE GONNA BE SQUISHED UNDER THEM!"

"We will not!" When there was barely enough time to pull out of the fall, I let my wings snap open, halted myself, and looked up. Evasively darting to one side, I moved Dib and I out of the insects' paths. With crunchy-sounding crashes, they all landed face-first on the ground, having been unable to stop their own barreling descent. My plan worked.

Smiling with triumph, I lowered Dib and I to the bug-guts-spattered the ground when the game announced that the beetles had been defeated. And there I'd been thinking they were such terrible opponents, since I couldn't use my bow. They were actually quite easy to kill. One would think that even NPC bugs would have the sense to pull out of a dive, even if their prey was getting away. Apparently they didn't. Maybe these particular bugs were just on the low end of the intelligence scale of game monsters.

After I'd set Dib down, he stared for several long moments at the twitchy-legged corpses sticking bottom-end-up, then breathed, "Whoa. That was cool," and scurried forward to get a better look. Feeling very relieved that he seemed quite a bit cheerier than he had on the dock, I followed after to help him pick up the loot. Afterward, seeing how late it was becoming, we returned to the pond—now empty, as the silly beetles hadn't respawned yet—and picked up all of our belongings, hurriedly dressing ourselves before our alarms could go off.

With a small sigh, I crouched down next to Dib while he adjusted his belt. "Sorry," I murmured, and he glanced up, "for making you upset earlier…"

He smiled and straightened up, hurrying over to tightly hug me. "It's fine," he assured, patting the back of my head. "Wasn't your fault or anything. I just hadn't really thought about it in a while, I guess. Made me a little too weepy. I'm happy I said it, really." He pulled away slightly and beamed up at me. "See you at work, Al."

Frowning, I glanced over toward the serene pond. "I make no promises that I'll act any friendlier with you than I have in the past, even if there isn't anyone else around." Taking a deep breath, I looked back at him. "But it's not…how I want to treat you. You know that, right? I just don't want to cause you problems that could have been avoided with more caution."

A silent moment passed, then he very unexpectedly kissed me on the cheek. I stared at him with a messy concoction of embarrassment and bewilderment afterward, and he laughed. "So popsicle-like, as always."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, drawing together my eyebrows in annoyance.

"You're cold, but sweet!" he lightly explained. He then added with a serious stare, "And skinny, too."

Sighing, I shook my head and smirked at him, wondering if I was supposed to take that as a compliment or a joke. Either way, I was simply glad that he was in such a chirpy mood again, and I lightly patted a hand on the top of his head, fondly ruffling his golden hair around. The happy warmth I'd lost earlier from Gui's attitude slowly began to creep back when Dib gently hugged me a second time, murmuring his goodbyes into my ear.


	15. Covert Encounters

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Tightly gripping the red folder—containing a freshly printed report, since it wouldn't do to give my father one that had fallen on the floor—the visual quality of the presentation was just as important to him as the contents, after all—I lifted my other hand and sharply rapped my knuckles against the cold, black surface of his office door. He promptly called me in, and I quickly entered, wishing to leave again as soon as possible. Striding across the silent room to his wide desk, I offered up the folder with a bow. "My report, Father."<p>

"Set it there," he murmured, never looking up from his thick scheduler. I slowly placed it near his desk's round lamp, then took a step back. He glanced at me afterward and frowned, commanding, "Fix your face."

I pressed a hand to my cheek—the spot where my skin was mottled with a bruise that had unwantedly formed. Having no idea how I should go about magically vanishing a bruise, I replied, "Yes, Father," for lack of anything else to say. Pointing out the fact that I wasn't able to control such things was completely useless.

"You may leave." At his dismissal, I gave him another short bow then left the room, slipping with relief into the elevator. It smoothly opened at my floor and I hurried to the restroom, coughing slightly along the way. Perhaps I'd caught something in T City. As well as the occasional cough, my stomach had been hurting a bit all morning.

Thankfully the restroom was empty, and I stared at myself in one of the mirrors over the line of sinks, then sighed. It wasn't a terribly big bruise, as my father hadn't hit me very hard, at least not in comparison to his usual blows, but the purple splotch was still very obvious against my pale skin.

Turning on the tap, I filled my hands with water, bent over, and splashed my face with it, making sure not to drip any on my brown suit. The cold liquid was not at all refreshing, unlike that pond I'd been playing in earlier this morning. I paused, one hand still over my cheek, feeling my face flush slightly while I mentally replayed the moment Dib kissed me. The action hadn't seemed very strange at the time. Confusing, of course, and surprising, but not particularly strange. After all, Dib had always been very close to me in a physical manner. But, now that I thought about it, I'd just gotten kissed by a twenty-four-year-old man. On the cheek or not, that couldn't be normal…

The bathroom door suddenly opened when I began to dry my face, and the second person I least wanted to see at that moment stepped inside. Heng's eyes widened with glee and a conspiratorial grin spread over his face. "Good morning, Jing…li?"

He briefly froze when I straightened up and turned off the tap, softly returning, "Good morning."

His bright expression immediately turned to fury when he stepped forward, grabbing my chin and turning my head so he could see the bruise better. "You said you hadn't gotten in trouble, you liar!"

I pushed off his hand and backed away from him. "Please, do not touch me."

When I attempted to walk past him to leave, he took hold of my arm, pulling me back and holding me in place. "Why'd you lie‽" he demanded, looking somewhat hurt.

Forcefully tearing myself out of his grip, I angrily whispered, "I did not lie to you. We will talk later." Before he could continue, I hurried out of the restroom, wove through the corridors, entered my own department's section, and shut myself in my office. I sat down behind my desk and tiredly rubbed my eyes. I'd thought that I'd gotten through to Heng that we weren't supposed to talk. Apparently he didn't care at all, even with as worried about him as I was.

Covering my mouth when I coughed again, I frowned with annoyance when my cellphone began to vibrate. Pulling it out of my pocket, I raised the screen and opened the text message from Heng.** [6:46 _Are you free tonight?_]**

Sighing, I reluctantly replied, **[6:46 Yes.]**

**[6:46 _Can we meet after work?_]**

**[6:46 No.]**

**[6:46 _We won't get found out by your father. Don't worry._]**

**[6:47 He somehow knew what we were doing yesterday, even though we were on opposite ends of the island. He would easily know about something happening so close.]**

**[6:48 _I really want to talk to you. Please?_]**

**[6:48 We can talk in-game.]**

**[6:48 _I want to talk face-to-face._]**

**[6:49 We will be face-to-face.]**

**[6:49 _I MEAN IN REALITY._]**

Without answering him, I deleted all of his texts, put my phone on silent and returned it to my pocket. I doubted he was going to be happy about being ignored, but I didn't know how else to tell him no, since he obviously wasn't getting persuaded by words. Why did he have to be so nonchalant about this? It was incredibly stressful.

Rather than going the whole day without having another run-in with Heng, like I'd been hoping, he obstinately popped up in my office after our lunch hour had passed, holding some budget report or another in his hands. "Today's report, Jingli," he quietly announced, controlled anger still edging his deep voice while he walked to my desk in a very slow manner and put the thin stack of papers down just as carefully, leaning over the edge of my desk. Staring hard at me, he murmured, "Page three is particularly interesting," and then left, quietly closing the door behind himself.

After taking a drink of water in a want to make the tickle in my throat go away, I flipped to page three of his report to see what it was he'd done. There was a small scrap of paper taped to the page, and I tiredly peeled it off and looked it over. There was an address and a time scribbled on it.

That reckless, persistent brat.

Although I really didn't want to do it, I read through it several times to memorize what was written, then tore the note into dozens of tiny shreds and pocketed them to later dispose of in a toilet. I thought myself a bit silly for being so extreme with my cautiousness, but after my father'd apparently had me followed, I was determined from that point on not to leave any evidence anywhere of my interactions with Heng.

Six hours later, I'd changed out of my suit and into a much more casual outfit of a thick black sweater and denim jeans, and was sitting in my car outside a mall I'd never been to before. However, it was in a part of town that I drove through often. It wouldn't be terribly suspicious of me to be there, so I was a great deal more relaxed than I would be if I had no idea where I was. Perhaps Heng was being more prudent than I'd been assuming.

My phone rang after a few minutes, and I glanced at the screen. ****[19:13 ******_**Go inside. There's a cake shop in the eastern section of the mall. Order a chocolate mousse. The guy at the counter will take you into the back. I'm in there. ^^**_******]****

What a weird place to meet. But somehow, I wasn't surprised.

With another ring, he suddenly added, **[19:14 **_**I feel like a spy. Complete with sunglasses! So sneaky~!**_**]**

At least he was having fun with this horrible situation…

After deleting the messages, I slowly closed my phone, slipped it into my pants pocket and grabbed my messenger bag, pulling it onto my shoulder. Stepping out of my car, I locked it up and put my keys into my bag, reluctantly walking toward the busy entrance. Attempting to beat down my coughing, I picked my way through the streams of people and wandered in an eastern direction, trying not to look like I had a definite destination.

I eventually went into the designated confectionery store and glanced around, feeling like I was getting cavities simply from breathing in the sugary air. There were several round, white tables arranged about the warm room, each with what looked to be a teenage couple sitting at them. The walls and floor were both of a rich brown, polished wood, making it look like the shop itself was made out of chocolate. The ceiling, however, was painted white with little floral designs twisting about. Much like the shops in _Second Life_, there was a long counter top stretching from one wall to the other across the room. The glass front of the counter allowed the customers to see all of the numerous sweet choices they had to pick from.

No, I definitely wasn't surprised Heng had picked this place to meet in. Why he was in the back and not the front, eating everything in sight, was a mystery. Well, Heng _was_ a bit more reserved in his eating habits than Dib.

A bit.

Clearing my sore throat, I strode up to the counter, waited until the lady in front of me had been served, then stared blankly at the overly-enthusiastic shop clerk, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to sell me lots of cake. "Chocolate mousse, please," I quietly told him, then curiously ran my eyes over the neatly-arranged rows of desserts beneath their glass shield.

There was no chocolate mousse.

His eyes widened at my order and he leaned forward, smile stretching further. "Ah! My specialty! We don't usually serve that in here, but I'll make one just for you! Wanna watch? Customers aren't really allowed in the back, but hey, you're the first guy in a long time to have the nerve to order a mousse when it's not even on our menu! I'll make an exception!"

I gave him a small nod and he directed me over to the gap between the counter and the wall, then dragged me into the back kitchen. Heng was in there, sitting on a chair in the corner and eating a very large piece of cake. "Al!" he cheered, leaping to his feet and smiling gleefully, white icing at either corner of his up-turned mouth.

"Hi…" I muttered, watching nervously as that man began to actually make what was probably a chocolate mousse. "I don't really want…that…" I warned him, hoping he wasn't going to be offended or anything.

"Yeah, Heng told me ahead of time that you wouldn't. Said he's taking it home to his brothers instead. Don't worry about it," he dismissed, smirking. He glanced up when Heng stepped over to lean against the preparation table. "I swear, they all have as big a sweet tooth as you do."

"Mm," Heng hummed, swallowing the last of his cake and setting his dishes aside. "Not quite. But with a bit more rigorous training, I'll get them there." They both laughed and continued talking, and I slowly shifted my weight from one foot to the other, wondering what I was supposed to do. It wasn't like they were leaving me out of the conversation—several things were sent in my direction—but I couldn't think of anything to say. Having gotten used to being around Heng, I didn't have many difficulties anymore speaking to him, but trying to chat with someone I didn't know at all was a daunting task. One I didn't want to tackle.

After a great deal of mixing, mixing, chocolate-melting, and even more mixing, the man handed a cooler box—he'd put in three large, plastic cups of the chocolaty goop—to Heng. "See you later, Heng. Probably tomorrow, hm?"

Heng chuckled and shrugged. "Probably." He unexpectedly turned toward the rear entrance and waved at me. "Come on, Al. I parked out here to be even more sneaky." I gave a faint smile to the man before he said, "Goodbye!" to me and hurried back out to the shop front, then I followed after Heng while he stepped outside and toward his red car parked in the employee lot at the back of the building. "I'm a frequenter here," he explained with amusement over his shoulder to me when he unlocked the car. "They let me get away with a lot."

I wordlessly climbed into the passenger-side seat, put on my seat belt, then proceeded to let out all of the coughing I'd been suppressing for the sake of the kitchen's cleanliness. Heng paused when he reached behind himself to put the cooler in the back seat, and stared at me in concern. "Are you okay?"

Shrugging neutrally, I glanced out the window, wondering where we were going to go. Hopefully we weren't going to be wherever for very long. I didn't want to leave my car parked out in front of the mall for any great length of time.

With a sigh, Heng pulled the sunglasses off the top of his head from where they'd been perching, then put them on my face instead. "There. All undercover." He started the car and backed away from the mall, pulling out onto the busy street. "So," he breathed, "are you going to explain why you lied to me?"

"I didn't lie," I said again, rolling my eyes. "I didn't get in trouble with my father."

"If that's the case, what the hell is that on your cheek‽" he demanded angrily, giving me a brief glance before turning his attention back to the road. "He obviously hit you. Or did you punch yourself?"

I almost corrected him with "It was a slap, not a punch," but I doubted that would do any good, so I replied, "For the third time, I'm not lying. I really didn't get in trouble because of what we did."

"Okay, so then what was it that he punished you for? Or does he just hit you for no reason whatsoever? Not that that would be surprising, I guess…"

I covered my mouth, attempting to stifle yet another cough, then said somewhat hoarsely, "It wasn't punishment for anything."

An impatient glare was thrown in my direction. "Quit dodging the question and answer me."

"Discipline," I quietly supplied, "not punishment. There _is_ a difference. He was yelling at me, I looked away, which made him angry because he doesn't like it when I act, in his opinion, 'pathetic,' so he made me look at him again."

"You…" Heng started, then suddenly raised his voice to a yell with, "ARE AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT!" I stared at him in shock and fear. Since we were at a red light, he took the moment to turn and bellow, "LIKE HELL THAT'S DISCIPLINE! YOU'RE LOOKING AT A PERSON WHO'S RAISING THREE TWELVE-YEAR-OLDS! I KNOW ALL ABOUT DISCIPLINE! THERE'S A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SMALL SMACK FOR DISOBEDIENCE AND A FULL-BLOWN SLAP OUT OF NOTHING BUT ANGER! THAT'S OBVIOUSLY CHILD ABUSE, DAMMIT! NOT PARENTAL GUIDANCE! IT PISSES ME OFF THAT YOU'RE CALLING THOSE TWO THE SAME THING!"

When the light turned green, he looked away from me and resumed driving, red-faced and breathing heavily. I let the silence draw out for a bit, then whispered, "I'm sorry for making you upset, but that's how I see his actions, even if they are rather violent…My father isn't you. He isn't 'parental.' He's always been forceful and extreme with everyone. It's just how he is. Anyway, I can handle it just fine, you don't have to get so angry about it."

"Of course I'm going to get angry if I know that someone's hurting you," Heng snapped, hands tightening around the steering wheel. "And I know that…that you can handle yourself and all, but I just don't get why you put up with all the shit he does to you. It's completely unnecessary."

With a small frown, I leaned over and rested the side of my head against the glass of the car window, watching stuff fly past outside. "Could we please change the subject? I really don't want to talk about this."

A reluctant mutter of "Fine," floated over to me, and I sighed, closing my eyes. Pressing my hand to my mouth, I took a deep breath and coughed again. They were getting worse the more they came on.

"Are you sick?" Heng asked, and he slipped a hand onto my forehead for a moment, checking for a fever, I supposed, not that I had one. "Geeze!" he exclaimed, hastily taking his hand back. "What the heck‽ You're freezing cold! You popsicle!"

"I'm always cold," I muttered in annoyance, waving the cuff of my sweater at him. "Hence the summertime sweater-wearing."

"That's so weird, especially since the weather is so hot," he remarked, giving me another glance of worry before turning onto a side road and shaking his head. "I noticed that earlier in the restroom when I grabbed your chin—sorry for being rough, by the way—but well, the building's air con is always on and stuff…Anyway, are you sick or something?"

"I might have caught something during the trip. I don't really know," I replied, shrugging one shoulder. "Other than a slight stomach ache and the cough, I feel normal."

"'Normal'…" he echoed quietly, sounding somewhat amused. I sat up and stared out the window with renewed interest of our surroundings when he pulled the car into the drive-through lane of a fast food restaurant. "Reason number two for making you meet with me," he explained with a small grin.

"No," I declined at once. "No way."

"Why not?" Heng raised an eyebrow, pulling forward and ignoring my protestation.

"First off, I don't want to smell like greasy food," I began, frowning, "and not because I'm being snooty, but I don't want to–"

"I get it, you don't want the smell to stick to you all the way home," Heng interrupted with a laugh. "No grease for you. How about a salad? They do have somewhat healthy stuff here, you know. Well, maybe you don't…Have you ever been to one of these places before?"

"No," I admitted, "but I'm also not–"

"Don't you dare say you're not hungry," he grumbled, stopping the car and rolling down the driver-side window. "You haven't had dinner yet, have you? And you didn't leave your office during lunch. And I bet you didn't eat breakfast, either. How are you managing to keep your stomach from growling? Sheesh."

"How many times do I have to repeat myself‽" I asked hotly. "I'm really not hungry!"

"You're never hungry…" he mused, "just like you're apparently never warm. Weirdo."

"Be quiet," I huffed, feeling very irritated when he ordered a salad for me. He probably still didn't believe me, but I was, in all honesty, not hungry at all. In fact, I couldn't recall a time I'd ever felt hungry. My stomach had never growled, either. Even if it was weird to other people, it was completely normal for me.

But a few minutes later, we were pulling back out onto the road, and I had a plastic bowl full of shrimp salad sitting on my lap. "Eat that before we get back to the mall," he firmly ordered, waving his elbow at me. I snapped apart my chopsticks and picked up a very small piece of lettuce, unwillingly sticking it into my mouth. Heng thoughtfully glanced at me while I grumpily chewed. "I wonder," he slowly began, briefly scratching at his chin, "if there's something wrong with your brain."

"What‽" I lashed, staring fiercely at him. He never seemed to have any qualms about being rude.

He laughed, shaking his head. "No, I'm being serious. I mean, it's not like I'm a brain expert or anything, but…well, for example if you cut your finger, your finger sends the 'Oh, no! You've been hurt!' signal to the brain, and it returns with an 'Oh, no! You're in pain!' response, so maybe your brain isn't getting the 'I'm hungry! Feed me!' signals from your stomach."

"Oh." So that was what he meant. I'd never considered that before. Or rather, I'd never wondered about any of it before. What he'd said did seem rather plausible. And again with the weird-sounding, simplistic explanations…

"Maybe you should get it checked out at a hospital," Heng suggested.

"I have check-ups at home every few months from a doctor my father knows," I replied after a moment, stabbing one of my chopsticks into a shrimp, "and the tests are very…thorough. Sometimes he even brings scanning equipment and assistants along with him. He's never mentioned any problems. Then again, he just tells me everything is fine and gives all the results to my father."

"You've never seen the results of your tests?" he questioned, looking somewhat confused. "Isn't that weird?"

"I've never asked about it." I shrugged. "If something was wrong, I'm sure they would tell me."

"Mm…if you say so," Heng muttered in a tone that implied he didn't quite want to drop the subject, but was going to anyway. With a wave of his hand, he said, "Hurry and eat the rest of your salad, we're nearly back to the mall."

In a want to make him stop prodding me, I quickly finished it off while he pulled into the back lot of the mall. We both went in through the back door of the cake shop and were heartily greeted by the staff. A boxed chocolate mousse—for appearances, apparently—was shoved into my hands, and I left alone through the front entrance and went back outside to my car. Thankfully, Heng and my little outing only lasted around half an hour. The thought made me feel a bit guilty for getting so angry with him earlier that day. He really was being cautious about it all.

That night, I slowly pulled on my pajama top and ran a hand through my hair, damp from a shower. Grimacing, I inhaled sharply and covered my mouth, coughing forcefully for several minutes. Eyes watering from the pain, I shakily glanced at my hand afterward, already-ragged breath catching further at the sight of several drops of blood running down my palm.

_"If something was wrong, I'm sure they would tell me."_


	16. Their Past

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>Dib wasn't there when I logged into <em>Second Life<em>, as was usually the case. After all, he didn't have an assortment of maids and butlers to do his chores for him, although he did apparently have three younger brothers who could help. He had gotten online earlier than me occasionally, but it was rare.

Sending a cautious glance toward the gigantic water beetles skating about nearby on the surface of the large pond beside me, I wandered away from the wooden dock to find something to do while I waited for the little boy to appear. Stopping under one of the bowed willow trees on the bank, I twisted around for a moment, attempting to look at my own back. Not being flexible enough in my armor to be able to see that far, I instead ran a hand along the backside of my top and smiled with relief as I continued on away from the pond, up the small rise. The dirt and grime that had coated my dragon leather armor last night had disappeared by itself without me having to find a way to wash it off somehow.

Oh, the strange goingsons of _Second Life_.

I stopped as I entered the windy fields, brushing my hair out of my face when it blew about. The land was so flat, I felt like I could see everything. Not that there was anything particularly interesting to look at. Dib and I may have flown for several hours last night, but we weren't anywhere near Sun City, which was still several days worth of flying away. There was nothing but wilderness and monsters in between the three towns, and that thought made me feel very small, standing out there all alone. I doubted many people came out here, unless they needed to travel to a different city, since it was obviously more logical to stay nearer to whatever city was preferred, for supply replenishing and whatnot.

Sighing, I hesitantly glanced at the palm of my hand as if that blood would reappear there. Thankfully I was feeling just fine in-game, even if my health seemed to be steadily deteriorating in real life. I'd gotten sick countless time in the past, naturally, but the illnesses I'd had before had never been so severe. Common viruses—colds and the flu and such. But definitely not coughing up blood.

Out of fear and a slight curiosity, I'd done a bit of searching about on the internet before I'd logged in. Apparently stomach aches and the bloody coughs were possible signs of ulcers. Some of the websites I'd read also said stress was assumed to be a cause. I'd had a lifetime worth of stress within the last week. So I hoped it was something so explainable as an ulcer. Not that I _wanted_ to have one, but at least if that was the case, I knew what was happening. However, I couldn't imagine that something like that would form in only a couple of days. I had no idea how long they _did_ take to form, but it seemed like more of a lengthy process than; one day I'm fine, the next, coughing up blood and full of ulcers.

Whatever it was, all I had to do was alert my father in the morning and everything would be fine.

I would be fine.

I mentally repeated that last thought to myself several times in a want to convince myself that I really was okay, then looked down at my feet. Quickly sitting in the long grass, I carefully ran my finger over the edge of a thin leaf of a daisy plant, mind wandering back to the cake shop. Regardless of how Heng and the shop employee hadn't been ignoring me, I felt rather put-out by the occasion. I knew that it was an extremely selfish notion to have, but I'd gotten very used to being the only person Heng seemed to pay attention to. But before yesterday, I'd only ever been around him at the office and in-game, not in a casual real life situation—not including the time at college we'd spent together, since I could barely remember any of that.

Seeing him chat so happily with another person made me feel a bit jealous, and the tiny pinpricks of doubt started once again prodding my mind. He may have been my very important friend, and my only one at that, but he certainly didn't seem to need me around to enjoy himself…

A dark frown tugged at my lips as I laid down next to the swaying daisies and stretched myself out, resting my head on one arm and staring at the tall, white flowers. Slowly closing my eyes, I sighed again in annoyance with myself. He'd already told me before over and over that he wasn't going anywhere, yet here I was, trust wavering for the millionth time. People could obviously have more than one friend. That was completely normal. I'd been getting conceited, thinking I was special just because someone wanted to be _my_ friend. But I was only one of I didn't know how many friends that he had. And they were probably all special to him, in one way or another. Why wouldn't they be?

My train of thought was abruptly derailed when something fell on top of me and forced the breath out of my squashed lungs in one large whoosh. "WAKE UP, AL!" the very familiar, high and clear voice of Dib suddenly yelled as he punched the side of my head and bounced up and down on my back several times before finally relocating himself by my side. "Don't go to sleep here! One of those beetles might sneak up on you and gnaw your legs off while you're not paying attention!"

Gasping for air, I opened my eyes and rolled over, looking up into the triumphantly smiling face of Dib as he leaned over me. "Oh, thank you for jumping on me. I was just thinking perhaps I wasn't very much enjoying being able to breathe," I declared after I managed to fill my poor lungs again.

Dib chuckled and flopped himself down over my stomach, tightly hugging me around the middle. Rather than hugging him back and feeling happy for the warm contact like I usually was, I felt somewhat angry. Both at him and at a lot of people whom I didn't know if they actually existed or not. How many other people did he hug like this? He'd kissed me on the cheek, how many other people did he do _that_ to? Did he smooch that cake shop person whenever he went there?

"Ah-h-h-h," Dib sighed in a contented tone, patting my chest with one hand, "you're always nice and toasty-feeling here in-game." He propped himself up on his elbows, peering down at me, his face crinkled up in anxiousness. "Are you feeling any better in real life? Or getting worse?"

Not wanting to tell him what had happened, I murmured, "I'm still coughing, but I'll probably be fine after I get some rest."

"Mm…did you make a doctor's appointment?" he furthered.

"Not yet. I'm going to ask my father about it in the morning."

Smiling, Dib nodded. "That's good. Maybe they'll have something to get rid of the cough. And to fix your weird brain. And maybe they'll even have something for your attitude problems!" he teased.

"You brat," I muttered with a glare and tried to push him off of me, but he wrapped his arms around my neck and resolutely held on, laughing into my ear. My face heated up slightly at the action, and I forcefully removed him, tossed him to one side, and stood up while he fell over with a gusty "Oof!"

He kicked his legs at me and snapped, "You jerk! What'd you do that for‽" before jumping to his feet and seething with indignation over getting thrown. Once again not wanting to answer, I silently turned and walked away, feeling embarrassed.

I'd only taken a few steps when I paused and looked behind myself in slight amusement as he clumsily attempted to scale my back. "What do you think you're doing back there?"

"What's it look like?" he asked huffily, dangling several feet off the ground as he held onto my shoulder guard, scrabbling with his boots to try to get a foothold so he could lift himself up. "I'm trying to…Urg! Why are you so darn…tall! I'm trying to climb on, stupid! Help me up, Al!"

"Oh, no you don't." I unwound his fingers from around my top and took a guarded step away as he dropped to the grass. I quickly thought up an excuse not to have him hanging all over me. An excuse that left out being selfish and flustered and jealous for no good reason.

"I don't want you riding on my back after what you did yesterday," I hastily scraped together, figuring that was as good an excuse as any.

Dib glared up at me. "I only jumped because you wouldn't stop!"

"And I'm grateful for your concern," I continued with a slight nod, and resumed my walking, "but not your actions, and I don't want it to happen again."

"It won't!" he yelled.

I looked behind myself in alarm when I heard his footsteps hurrying toward me. He was charging me with a very determined frown.

Without another thought, I took off across the grass as fast as I could as he attempted to tackle me to the ground. I may have had lighter armor and much longer legs, but Dib's agility and strength were higher than mine, if only because he had been playing for longer than I had, and it didn't take him ten seconds to close the gap between us.

I evasively darted to one side, not daring to open my wings since the wind resistance would slow me down enough for him to catch me before I could take off. His indignant calls for me to stop running away rang out in the otherwise silent air, and I smiled playfully over my shoulder, thoroughly enjoying teasing him.

Looking backward was a mistake, I belatedly found out, when my foot stupidly put itself into a hole in the ground, causing the rest of me to fall into the grass with a yell of surprise. I watched as my arrows scattered across the grass yet again.

Dib purposefully landed on top of me a second time after he caught up a moment later, breathing noisily in my ear while he gave me a punch for good measure. I decided to stay face-down in the rather itchy grass for a while longer as he started laughing.

"Nice try, but not nice enough, Al!" he whooped, shifting himself into a more comfortable position on top of my spine. Comfortable for him, anyway.

I laid there quietly for a moment, and then rolled over, squashing him underneath me. He was stronger and faster, but I was undoubtedly _heavier_.

"A-A-A-AH! Get off, Al! Get off! HELP! I'M GONNA SUFFOCATE! GET O-O-O-OFF!"

"I don't think I shall," I announced, relaxing myself thoroughly. He gave a squeak as he was flattened even further. "This is rather comfortable."

"It is _not_! I can't breathe!" he wheezed, slapping my sides as he wriggled around to try to dislodge me. "I'm dying-g-g…"

Heaving a sigh over his dramatics, I slowly slid myself backward to lay on the grass instead. He gave a roar, not acting at all like he was really dying, and roughly shoved my legs off of himself. "You jerk!" he yelled, trying very hard to look angry when a smile kept taking over. When I laughed at his futile efforts, he finally let his face do what it wanted and punched my leg one more time before once again stretching himself out on my chest and hugging me while giggling. "You're so mean."

"Mm," I murmured neutrally, staring at a scraggly cloud that flew over us through the sky. Feeling a bit more cheerful than I had been, thinking dreary things all alone, I loosely draped my arms over Dib and simply enjoyed his bubbly warmth. Even if he did have other people he liked to hang around with, the point I should have been focusing on was that he enjoyed spending time with me. And, judging by his somewhat reckless determination to keep us connected in the real world as well as in _Second Life_, he enjoyed it quite a bit. Or so I hoped.

In my increasingly good mood, I even found myself considering returning to Star City with Dib, perhaps to watch that Grand Melee competition thing I knew Gui was going to be competing in with the Odd Squad, though I didn't particularly want to see hundreds of people murdering each other for fun.

Maybe he'd talk to me at last if I went. Maybe I would be able to explain myself. Maybe he would forgive me for what I'd done to him.

But perhaps I was being too optimistic.

I gave the top of Dib's curly head a brief look, then closed my eyes with a sigh, wondering if it would really be worth it to go see Gui, since I knew he would probably turn me away again like he had last night. However, it seemed a shame to finally discover him after eleven years and leave him just like that. I'd been waiting for so long to be able to see him, and abandoning the chance to attempt to make amends just because he told me to go away seemed rather silly of me, now that I thought about it. But staying and making him even more angry than he already was didn't seem very smart, either.

However, trying to speak to him couldn't really make things much worse than they were.

"I wish we could be like this in real life, too," Dib quietly murmured, breaking into my reverie when he shifted his head slightly to thoughtfully stare up at me. "Being so close and not having to hide. It tires me out a bit, pretending all day long that I'm nothing more than your employee. Always on-guard, making sure I don't make any mistakes."

"I'm sorry." I held him a bit tighter, pressing my chin to his head. Perhaps things would be better in time, but I hated having to put him through such hardships. Ones he wouldn't normally have to go through.

He slid himself closer to my face and smiled when he settled down again, tangling his little fingers in my hair and twisting the strands around. "It's not anything to apologize for. Especially not you. You probably have a tougher time than I do, huh? I've only gotta pretend at the office. You've gotta pretend everywhere."

I made a noise of agreement, shrugging one shoulder. "It does get difficult sometimes, I guess. But I'm simply relieved that I finally have a place I can relax." Smiling fondly, I rubbed his back. "And that's here with you." It was one of the many things that _Second Life_ had given me. And it was the one that I treasured most.

Dib lifted himself up so he could look down at me, his face slightly pink as his eyes darted between mine. "I help you relax?" he softly asked, sounding like he didn't quite believe me.

Laughing lightly, I placed a hand on his cheek, carefully patting his chubby face. "Of course."

"I thought…" He took a deep breath, frowning a little. "I thought it was the opposite, and I was only adding to your stress. Like pressuring you to let us keep seeing one another in real life, too."

"Well," I mused, sliding my hand up to ruffle his hair around, "I admit that it is very stressful, trying to keep this all a secret, and I would prefer a bit more caution on your part in real life…But I will always gladly choose stress if gaining relief meant I had to let you go. It's a small price to pay."

"Really?" he pressed, pink face turning red. At my amused nod, he smiled elatedly, leaning down to kiss my cheek a second time. When the soft contact was broken, he hugged me closely, whispering, "Thanks, Al. Hearing that makes me really happy."

His softly spoken words made me quite happy as well. It seemed that he was always the one giving me comfort and support. Turning that around and allowing him to be given assurance as well made me feel useful to him. It was unbalanced to have him always comforting me and never the other way around, after all.

But through the satisfaction I felt at giving him peace of mind, the thoughts I'd been having in the restroom this morning rose up again. There was a very small twenty-four-year-old man laying on top of me, and he'd just kissed my cheek. Again. But why? Was it just something he normally did with friends or family? I was itching to ask, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to hear the answer. Anyway, that topic made me embarrassed all over again. And it made me feel annoyed with that cake shop person, not that he had even done anything to make me annoyed, and that in turn made me annoyed with myself because I was getting annoyed with someone else for no reason at all…Damn confusing situations.

"What's wrong?" Dib suddenly asked, eyebrow quirked at my muddled face. Well, I wanted an answer, and I probably wasn't going to get one without posing the question, but I decided to keep that particular query to myself. For the moment, anyway.

"I don't want to say right now," I mumbled, lifting my gaze up to the sky to avoid looking at him. Then again, seeing that bright blue expanse made me feel like I was still staring into his brilliantly-colored eyes.

"Alright." He propped his chin up on both hands, graciously not pursuing the subject, then his eyes widened with fresh curiosity. "Hey, I'd been wanting to ask. Did your brother message you or anything after we left last night?" he inquired somewhat cautiously. "Yesterday, you both were kinda…well…I thought maybe he would have if he calmed down, but…"

"No, he didn't," I answered, sighing softly as I shook my head. "And I highly doubt he would, with as deeply as he hates me."

Dib stared at me somewhat gloomily for a moment, then finally murmured, "Would it be too nosy of me to ask what his reasons are?"

I gave a vague shrug. "I don't suppose it would be." He slid off my chest and laid in the grass beside me, watching as I shifted myself onto my side and allowing me time to put my thoughts into order.

"When he and I were much younger, my father really…he really pushed us to compete with one another," I began slowly. Dib nodded as I paused to tangle my fingers in a patch of grass.

"For a very long time…for years, Gui Wen and I obediently went along with his orders, and we treated the other as rivals, constantly trying to be better than the other. But eventually Gui Wen decided the whole thing was stupid—which it was, really—and refused to do as my father said any longer. However, rather than removing the burdens he'd placed on us, my father simply drove me harder.

"Since Gui Wen is so talented, he didn't really need to push himself, anyway, and still did extremely well in everything, even with little effort on his part. Me, on the other hand…I wasn't…Well, I'm _not_…I need to push myself so much if I want to achieve even a fraction of what he could so easily.

"I have a lot of respect for Gui Wen, but…but back then, sometimes I caught myself resenting him quite a bit. He is so much more capable than I, and even to this day my father often praises him and compares me to him. When I was a child, it made me feel so…so hopelessly inferior. No matter what I did, I was never good enough. And when Gui Wen stopped trying to compete with me, while I suppose I was somewhat relieved, a part of me was angry at him for it, as if he also saw me as someone who wasn't worthy to challenge him."

Sighing deeply, I tore some of the grass off the ground and tossed it to one side with a frown. Dib stayed silent, his face filled with worry as he waited for me to continue. I quickly looked away from him in fear of what his reaction might be to what was coming next. Feeling extremely ashamed of myself, I took a shaky breath, blinking away the tears which were gathering at the corners of my eyes, and plowed onward in my explanation. "Eleven years ago…Gui Wen confided in me that he wanted to study literature at a university of his own choosing, rather than business as my father had obviously planned for us both.

"I don't know what possessed me to do it…Maybe jealousy, or some naïve hope that my father would stop oppressing us, or something of that sort, but…" I paused again, feeling hot tears spill over my eyelids and run down my cheeks. It was getting harder to breathe, the more I spoke. "I told my father what Gui Wen said to me," I finally whispered, laying my head down on the wet grass and squeezing my eyes shut. Dib leaned against me and slowly ran a hand over my hair, still not saying a word.

"Gui Wen never spoke to me again," I choked out after a moment, "and a month later, he left home. Until our unfortunate reunion yesterday, I hadn't seen him since." Several minutes passed in silence, save the warm breeze and the noise of my crying, and I finally sobbed, "He trusted m-me, and I betrayed him out-t of spite. I'm a h-horrible person, who deserves every bit of t-the hatred he has for me, and mo-more."

"You're not a horrible person," Dib disagreed softly and unhesitatingly, still patting my head.

"Yes, I am," I hiccuped in response as I looked at him in disbelief over the crook of my elbow. After what I'd done, how could anyone think otherwise?

"No, you're not," he persisted. "Truly horrible people don't think of themselves as horrible people. They find twisted ways to justify their actions so they seem good, and you aren't doing that at all."

"That doesn't make what I did any less despicable," I miserably pointed out.

"I didn't say that," he corrected in a somewhat reproving tone at my stubbornness to beat myself up. "Yes, what you did wasn't a good thing, of course, and it's understandable that Gui's angry at you for it, since, knowing how controlling your father is, I'm sure Gui's plans were all messed up with your interference.

"However, you were an affection-starved, completely smothered, neglected, and worn-out 13-year-old boy, who simply wanted his father and brother to acknowledge his efforts. You're not the only one at fault in this situation, so stop trying to take all of the blame, okay?

"Between my brothers and I," he continued with a slight shrug, "I know all too well how bad sibling rivalry can get. Definitely not to your extent, though. And I made plenty of stupid mistakes while I grew up. Many more than I would care to admit. There isn't a person anywhere who can truthfully say otherwise."

I fell into contemplative silence as Dib wrapped his arms around me tightly, burying his face in the back of my neck. "I'm sure if you try to talk to Gui, he'll listen," Dib soothed, his voice somewhat muffled from trying to talk through my hair.

"What if he won't?" I asked quietly.

"He will. After all, he's also had eleven years to grow up and think about things," Dib said confidently. "And if he refuses, we can get those insane teammates of his to help us out."

Chuckling somewhat reluctantly, I smiled at the thought. It seemed as though Prince's violence had a purpose after all. But I didn't want to force Gui to listen. I wanted him to be willing to talk to me, or else there wouldn't be any point in trying to apologize.

Dib suddenly thumped me on the shoulder and stood up, lifting me easily into the air to set me in a sitting position. I looked down at him in surprise, abruptly realizing once more just how strong the tiny boy was. When I'd been squishing him, he could have pushed me off of himself whenever he wanted.

Drawing his small hands over my tear-streaked face, he shot me a determined smile and patted my cheeks. "Now then, let's go back to Star City and find them."

Sighing again, I stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Okay."

After allowing him time to climb onto my back, I stood up, finally gathering my scattered arrows from where they'd fallen when I'd tripped. I passed them to Dib so he could return them safely to my quiver.

Extending my wings, I slowly took off, aiming for the city and hoping that Gui would willingly listen to me. I wasn't dense enough to assume that he would be over what I'd done, eleven years passed or not—with how he was acting, he obviously wasn't over it at all—but I still hoped he'd give me a chance to apologize, at least, even if he would refuse to accept it.


	17. Belittlement

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>A few hours and the rest of my stamina potions later, Dib and I were in Star City once more with around half of the night to waste on attempting to persuade Gui to talk to me. We'd searched around the bustling city for a while, checking the restaurants, the Adventurers' Guild, and other spots we thought the Odd Squad might be in, but they were nowhere to be found.<p>

I wasn't sure why we hadn't thought of it beforehand, but Dib then made the suggestion of PMing one of them, rather than wandering around aimlessly. After a quick narrowing down, I decided Ugly Wolf would be the best one to message, since if they were fighting, he—the priest of the team—would probably be the least occupied.

He promptly informed us they were training on dragons in the mountains with Dark Phantom, so off we flew yet again, after a quick stop in the shopping area to buy a few supplies. I definitely wasn't about to go fight dragons without more health and stamina potions.

"Where do you suppose they are?" I asked once we'd finally reached the mountains after flying for nearly two hours. They were rather large and extensive, I realized belatedly as I tilted my head back to try to see their peaks, but some of them went all the way up into the cloud bank. Ugly Wolf had only told us that they were in the mountains. Maybe they had some sort of spot they usually trained at, but I had no idea where it was, nor did I particularly want to fly over the entire mountain range to look for them.

I could have used sound to try to find them, since fighting with dragons didn't seem to be a very quiet activity, but there were numerous roaring and growling noises bouncing all over the place, and I had no idea which way they were coming from, or if they were really coming from the Odd Squad's fight.

Dib lifted himself off my back and sat up straight as if that would help him see better. "There's something to the east," he called after a moment, patting my back and sounding thoroughly excited about the idea of training on something as challenging as dragons at last. "A lot of something!"

Wishing that he would have been more specific as to what it was, I swerved in the correct direction, hoping it was the teams. Speeding us up, I glanced worriedly at the rocky ground scrolling past far underneath us, hoping a random dragon wouldn't fly out in front of us or anything. I wasn't quite prepared mentally to deal with an enormous flying lizard that breathed fire and had the idea permanently fixated in its head that we were food. Dib, on the other hand, sounded completely prepared. Judging by his past actions, I doubted he was. I hoped there was a safe spot somewhere I could let him down when we arrived.

It didn't take long before I realized quite clearly what Dib was talking about. There certainly was a lot of _something—_large spouts of fire and lava blasting into the air like flaming geysers, bolts of lightening shooting about and making the air crackle, and a lot of steam, smoke, and crashes and roars that echoed around the area making it sound as though there were several dragons somewhere having a wrestling match. There was also quite the impressive show of magic spells flying here and there and all over the place like fireworks, most likely from the two teams' magicians. I hoped that was the case, anyway. The dragon already seemed to be very talented without being able to use magic as well.

Ignoring Dib's cheering and excited pounding of his fists on my shoulder as he bounced up and down on my back, we cleared the lip of a large crater-like area and my breath caught in my throat. I nearly did a U-turn in mid air right then and there to fly away as fast as I could and get Dib and I to safety. But I kept flying forward in a very reluctant manner, regardless.

A three-headed dragon as big as an entire house was sitting at the bottom of the hollow, seemingly guarding a cave entrance. One head was spraying fire, one ice, and the last lightening. Those three attacks coupled with its spiked tail, person-sized claws, very sharp teeth, and enormous leathery wings that kept sending little whirl-winds about the air, it looked like something I would never ever want to take on.

Ever.

I knew these people were a little off in the head, but really. Who in their right mind would challenge something like that? The little reassuring voice in my head that told me, "It's just a NPC, it can't really hurt you," whenever I trained wasn't quite working at the moment.

Dropping Dib and I lower, while my entire body and mind were both screaming at me to leave again, I watched nervously as the melee-based team members of the Odd Squad and Dark Phantom attacked the dragon king from the ground. They looked so tiny in comparison, barely coming up to the dragon's ankles. Silly as I thought they were for being so daring, I couldn't help but admire their courage to attack such a terrifying beast.

Arrows and spells whistled through the air from a spot a ways off where the others were hiding in safety, but many of their attacks were harmlessly bouncing off the dragon's thick black scales.

"Hey, where are you going‽" Dib demanded. I could feel him twist around to watch the fight we'd flown over and passed.

"Are you crazy‽ I'm not letting you down over there!" I bellowed, swooping lower as I saw the long-range attackers of the two teams come into sight around the rocks they were standing behind.

"I wanna fight, too! Go back!"

"No way!" I landed amongst the surprised yells of the group who, aside from Ugly Wolf, must not have known we were coming. I gently lowered Dib to the ground, but then grabbed his arm when he attempted run past me and scramble down the rocky slope to hurry toward the dragon. "You, stay here," I told him firmly, pulling him back to safety.

"But Al, I wanna go, too! Come o-o-o-on!" he whined, leaning backward and twisting this way and that in an effort to escape. "Let go! Let go! I wanna fight! You jerk, let go!"

"No!" Re-adjusting my grip on him, I lifted him off the ground, attempting to ignore the questioning stares of the others. Dib started kicking his legs about while angrily screaming threats at me, and I put him back down beside the confused-looking Ugly Wolf. "Stay here!" I ordered. Dib gave me an extremely dirty look, but finally flopped himself down onto the ground, sticking out his bottom lip and crossing his arms. I took one step back, staring at him suspiciously, but he didn't move. Hoping that he would really stay there, I took off again, pulling out my bow as I went.

**"Wait, Aeolus. I should bless you first,"** Ugly Wolf hesitantly messaged before I could get far, and I paused in my ascent.

**"Oh, I forgot,"** I admitted, expectantly looking down at him. He smiled, laughed for a moment, and proceeded to boost my stats. **"Thank you."**

**"You're welcome. And I don't know why you don't want Dib to join you, but try to come back quickly. He hasn't stopped swearing at you since you left. He's got quite the, um, colorful vocabulary for such a little kid."**

Sighing, I turned to fly away. **"Sorry, don't mind him. I'll be back as soon as I can."** Switching to my own team chat, I commanded, **"Stop swearing at me, you brat. If you came with me, you'd just run away again in a matter of seconds and use me as a shield, like you always do."**

Dib replied just as brilliantly as Ugly Wolf had observed.

Ignoring the heated curse words he was lobbing at me, I hurried back to the battle and tried to get a hold on the situation. It didn't seem like the teams were making much progress as they battled against its three heads, tail and feet all at once. The dragon seemed to have very few openings for attack. Though it was only on the offense, its scaly hide seemed to be enough for defense, and the attackers' blades simply glanced off, doing little damage.

My eyes widened and I rolled to one side nearly on reflex, narrowly missing a large bolt of lightening one of the heads shot at me. The sizzling electricity in the air made the fine hairs on my arms stand on end, and I gritted my teeth, wondering how the world I was supposed to attack the thing.

Pulling out an arrow, I halted in mid-air, aiming for one of the large, glassy eyes of the lightening-head, since I doubted I'd be able to pierce it anywhere else, aside from perhaps inside the mouth. With as much as the head was weaving around on top of the long, snake-like neck, it was very difficult to focus on. But, huge and terrifying or not, the dragon king was still a NPC with pre-programmed movements.

Lifting myself further upward, I dodged another streak of lightening, and intently watched as it prepared itself for a third attack.

Dip its head to the ground, snap with its mouth at the warriors, swipe both feet in turn, lift the head again while the other two heads swooped downward to take its place, open its mouth, pause for a second to charge, blast electricity at me, repeat…

I released my arrow after watching the head bob about for a moment, and smiled in relief as I struck my target. The dragon roared angrily, and the lightening-head looked up at me with one bleeding eye closed tight, and opened its mouth. I let myself fall several meters and the electricity flew harmlessly over my head to blast a portion of the mountain away.

Dodging the larger pieces of debris falling from the mountain, I ignored the smaller bits raining down on me and pulled out another arrow, watching as the head prepared itself again. My second attack missed, but my third managed to take out the other eye with the same method. Now blinded, the head swung around in the air, randomly blasting lightening all over the place, not just at me.

Readjusting my position, I got a bit closer to it and shot two arrows into its mouth, cutting off the wild electrical attacks. Once the perpetual lightening stopped, several of the warriors dashed forward over the broken, scorched ground and began to attack it again while the others kept the rest of the dragon busy. I relocated myself again, preparing to attack the ice-head.

A sudden blast of heat from below lifted me upward slightly and I watched as the fire-head belched out a very large amount of smoking lava. I inwardly groaned as I saw that Prince was right in the path of the rushing liquid, looking extremely worried as he got cut off from the rest of the warriors, who were all running in the other direction, heading for higher ground.

Hurrying toward him as his small patch of not-lava-covered ground got steadily smaller, I put my bow away and reached out my arms, feeling somewhat exasperated at how much like Dib he seemed. Confidently rushing head-long into fights and sticking himself in bad situations…Except Dib would have run away, screaming hysterically, a long time ago.

I grabbed Prince before the lava could reach his boots and frantically struggled to lift us both into the air. I'd long-since grown accustomed to carrying Dib's weight, but Prince was nearly as tall as I was, and had much heavier armor, besides. I was very glad I'd decided to use the majority of my skill points on strength the last time I'd leveled up. And Ugly Wolf's boost certainly helped quite a bit. I really didn't know just how useful having a priest was until now.

"WHA‽" Prince oh-so-nicely screamed into my ear as he clung to me, looking wildly over my shoulder where the dragon was roaring in frustration over its prey escaping, rather than getting roasted. "Gui—I mean, Aeolus!"

I rolled my eyes at his mistake and tightened my grip around him. As if Gui would somehow sprout wings and come to his rescue. Then again, Gui probably would have if he'd been able, or perhaps he would just fall face-first into the river of lava to use himself as a bridge for Prince to get to safety. The Chivalrous Gui aside, I was surprised that Wicked had let Prince get separated from the others, especially in such a dangerous situation.

"Where shall I set you down?" I asked, ignoring Prince's bewildered expression over me appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Had he really not noticed that I was there until just now?

He shifted in my arms to run his eyes over the area. "Over there!" He pointed his dao at a spot near the dragon's stomping and slashing front feet.

Of course he'd pick _there_, of all places it looked the most dangerous.

"You'd better not get me eaten," I grumbled, reluctantly doing as he asked. I flew us over, sending many cautious glances at the last two heads, though they were very busy attacking the other players, and soared toward the enormous claw-covered feet.

My eyes widened in horror when I saw an all too familiar-looking blond head disappear into the fray near the ice-head. Prematurely throwing Prince in the general direction of the feet, I flew as fast as I could toward Dib instead. Heart pounding wildly, I watched as the ice-head crashed to the ground in a flurry of melting ice chips and steam as it was defeated at last. What if he'd been caught underneath when it fell? What if it had eaten him before it died? Why hadn't he listened to me?

I felt somewhat relieved when Dib's little face popped up into view again as he attempted to scramble on top of the fallen head. He quickly noticed me flying toward him and shot me an extremely guilty expression. I grabbed him while I tried to land on top of the head, but slipped off as the head was unexpectedly covered in a thin layer of ice, which, being _ice_, didn't agree with my momentum. We landed on the ashy ground in a crumpled heap.

"Ow, Al…" Dib muttered as I hurriedly lifted myself off him, and he rubbed the back of his head, wincing slightly. "I know it's slippery up there, but did you really have to crash into me like that?"

"I'm sorry! Are you okay‽" I asked frantically, yanking him toward me again as he made to stand up. I forcefully turned him around, inspecting him for injuries. "You didn't get hurt, right‽"

He indignantly pulled away from me and shook his head. "I'm fine, geeze! Calm down!"

Heaving a sigh of relief, I nodded and stood up. Feeling as though my eyebrows were permanently stuck together, I frowned down at him and waved a hand toward where I'd put him earlier. "Why didn't you stay over there like I told you?"

"I said I wanted to fight!" he snapped, crossing his arms.

"You could have been killed by this stupid dragon!" I yelled, emphasizing my words with kicks at the dead dragon head behind me.

Dib suddenly pushed me backward, looking seriously angry and very unlike how he had earlier during his immature tantrum. "So could you have, flying off and leaving me behind, you jerk! I'm a higher level than you are, anyway, so don't get all uppity! If anyone was in danger, it was _you_ when you got right in the way of that lava to grab _Prince_!"

"What, was I just supposed to let him die because it was dangerous for me to intervene? And I'm not getting uppity!" I roared. "I was just worried about you!"

"Well!" he snarled, shoving me again and stomping off in the direction of the others as they brought down the last dragon head with a resounding crash. "You don't have to be! I can take care of myself without your protection, thank you very much!" He paused briefly and glared at me over his shoulder. "Stop treating me like a little kid."

My face flushed in anger and I barely managed to hold myself back from letting my furious retorts spill out. If he didn't want me to treat him like a child, he shouldn't have acted like one this entire time. How could I not worry about him so much when he was so reckless?

I watched silently for a moment as he turned away from me and hurried over to the others, and then I launched off the ground, not wanting to stay there any longer. I hadn't meant to be so over-protective, but I just didn't want him to get hurt. His words had made me feel very unwanted there, so he could go kill dragons by himself or whatever he wanted to do. I certainly didn't have to be present if he wanted to go around training with the teams instead of me so badly.

Flying out of the smoke-filled crater, I headed back toward Star City, wordlessly fuming to myself the whole way. Rather than going all the way to the city, I let myself down in a wooded area within sight of the city gates. Settling down on top of one of the large oak trees, I looked down at my hands and frowned again. They were covered in gray ash, as was probably the rest of me.

I didn't bother to try to clean myself off, and instead stared at the distant mountains, wondering how long it would take for them to finish their training session and return to the city. They probably weren't going to come back for a few days yet.

Being alone all of the sudden made me feel as though I'd reverted back to my nights spent playing _Second Life_ by myself before I met Dib. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to go find something to kill to pass the time, or if I wanted to go to the city to find something to do, or if I should just sit there at the top of the tree and waste away, wondering if Dib was having more fun in a large group than he had been with just me. He was much more outgoing than I was, after all, and I supposed he would prefer being around people more often than the infrequent city-trips we had between our periods of training.

My stomach twisted unpleasantly when I wondered if he'd even noticed I wasn't there anymore.

I hadn't meant to belittle him, but I wondered if that was even worse; being completely oblivious to my own actions. If that was the case, I wondered how many times I'd unknowingly hurt his feelings in the past. I'd been so focused on trying to keep my father happy so he wouldn't notice anything, I'd neglected everything else.

Leaning against the rough tree trunk to wait, I closed my eyes and hoped I hadn't just driven away my only friend.


	18. Meeting Jiao

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Slipping off my <em>Second Life<em> helmet, I groggily rolled over underneath my numerous thick blankets, and smacked a hand onto the button of my alarm clock, silencing its irritating beeping. I'd sat, waiting in that oak tree for the few remaining hours in-game, but Dib hadn't even messaged me after I'd left the mountain range, which made me all the more afraid that he enjoyed the company of the Odd Squad and Dark Phantom more than mine. Not that I'd messaged him, either. I'd opened a messaging window more than a few times, but was too scared of the thought of him yelling at me again to actually say anything. But in a way, simply waiting for him to come back so we could speak face-to-face was even worse than trying to apologize to him in a message for my thoughtlessness.

Unsteadily standing, I hurried across the dark room, crouched down beside my sofa, hid away the game inside the seat frame's springs, and then went into my bathroom, flicking on the light. After my tired eyes got used to the blinding brightness of the overhead lamp, I was torn between not being surprised at all and being extremely shocked when I glanced into the mirror. Apparently I'd been coughing quite a bit in my sleep. There was dried blood all over the right side of my face. It was probably all over my pillows as well, deeply set into the soft fabric and stuffing after an entire night…

Trying very hard to keep myself calm, I quickly undressed and took a shower, washing away all sign of the brown, flaking smears from my skin, all the while fighting back the aching feeling in my chest, nagging away at me to give in and cough some more. But, not wanting to see any more blood, I held it back as best I could. Regardless, I couldn't help but let some of them out.

Once I'd finished in the bathroom, I dressed in black suit pants and a dark blue dress shirt and stepped back into my bedroom, starting slightly when my eyes landed on the bold silhouette of my father standing in the doorway leading to my office. He simply stood there, not moving or speaking, so I hastily put on my black silk vest and necktie, shoes and socks, then slipped on my jacket, questioningly coming to a halt in front of him. His narrowed eyes glanced to my messy bed, then back to me, an annoyed look flashing over his face before it resumed its initial blankness. "Where did you go after you left the office last night?" he softly asked.

Oh, great.

He knew. How did he _always_ know?

Taking a slow, deep breath, I started, "To," but it came out so raspily, I had to clear my throat several times, causing his annoyance to deepen. "I went to a mall a few blocks away from work, Father," I answered, throat and chest burning at the weak effort.

"And what did you do there?" he furthered, lips pressed together so tightly his mouth was a perfect line.

"I went to a confectionery store," I murmured. "I wanted to buy a chocolate mousse."

"You have never shown any interest in eating desserts in the past, but now you simply had to have one?" His tone was slightly amused, but that mirth didn't reach his frozen face. "Why, we have many skilled cooks here at home who would give you whatever you want. Yet you wasted your time driving all the way to a silly little sweets shop. Now why would you do that? You did not go there to meet a certain someone, now did you?"

I returned his emotionless stare and told him, "I met the chef, if that is what you mean." I knew all too well before I said it that that was a very wrong thing to say, but I didn't regret it in the slightest. After all, if I'd said the whole truth and revealed that I'd met with Heng, the result would have been much worse for he and I both.

In the blink of an eye, my father had drawn back his fist and brought it forward again with a blinding amount of force into my stomach. "Do not speak to me in such a contemptuous manner, you stupid boy!" he hissed when I doubled over, gasping.

He hated it when I was spineless, yet he hated it when I showed nerve. What a predicament.

Rather than attempting to come up with some sort of apology, instead I stayed silent, counting the slow seconds in my head until I would be able to breathe again. The suffocating pain of temporarily losing the mandatory ability to inhale was a small price to pay in comparison to what could be lost. And, as I'd told Dib, it was a price I was more than willing to pay. It was entirely bearable if it meant keeping him safe.

"You!" he suddenly yelled, making me flinch again. However, he was directing the word at a prim maid that I hadn't noticed until just then, standing off to one side. "Give Zian the tea, and then fetch his blue suit—the one we had tailored last month. Take it out to the waiting car. And thoroughly clean that filth off of the bed."

A cold cup of some thin, black liquid that was apparently tea was suddenly handed to me, then the maid hurried off to complete her other tasks. I glanced at my father in confusion. "Drink it," he ordered. "All of it. It is for your cough. Also, you will be driven to the office after you have eaten breakfast. Do not take your car." After he finished, he turned away and briskly left my rooms. Feeling thankful that I hadn't needed to tell him that I was sick, I hastily lifted the teacup to my mouth, taking a curious sip. Not a second later, I nearly spit it out. It tasted absolutely revolting.

I forced the terribly bitter liquid down, grimacing afterward and handing the porcelain cup away to another maid, then obediently went downstairs to get breakfast—because my father told me to eat, and because I wanted to get that disgusting aftertaste out of my mouth as soon as possible. What the hell had he put in the tea to make it taste like that?

An hour later, I was entering my office and setting down my bag, sighing deeply with relief. That gag-inducing tea had seemed to have already taken effect a bit. I'd stopped coughing so bodily, at least, although my shredded throat still gave my voice a far-more-than-normal husky addition—it always had been, to a certain extent, but that was only from lack of use.

There was a quiet knock on the door behind me and I turned around, half hoping that it was Heng. "Jingli, Zongcai wishes to see you in his office," my father's secretary informed with a neatly executed bow. Those were not the words I wanted to hear. Especially not when I only _just_ got to the office. Couldn't I at least be given a bit of time to wallow in my Paper Typhoon before he summoned me? And if he had something so terribly important to say, why hadn't he simply said it earlier in my bedroom?

Whatever the reason for his delayed call, I hurried out of my office without a word. Heng had just arrived, and it didn't go unnoticed the way he frowned and pointedly looked in the other direction when I walked past. Inwardly rolling my eyes at his immature behavior, I continued on to my father's office. For once, he didn't pretend not to notice my presence as I stopped in front of his desk. He looked rather attentive, really. Although after a few moments, I thought perhaps I preferred his inattentive side. Being stared at so intensely with those dark, hawk-like eyes of his was always extremely frightening. But he did seem like he was in a rare cheerful mood for a change. What was "cheerful" for him, anyway.

"Zian," he said quietly, leaning forward a bit. "At four o'clock, change into the other suit you brought. It is much more formal than your ordinary work clothes. At five, you will be visiting the Lin estate to have dinner with your fiancée. You will also take the opportunity to properly greet her family."

I tried very hard to keep the surprise off my face as he spoke. After so long of having her existence overlooked, I'd almost forgotten I even had a fiancée. I'd never met her before, because my father had told me years and years ago when she and I had been engaged for some business partnership reason or another that it wasn't necessary to do so, thus she'd been pushed out of my mind to make room for other matters.

Well, she hadn't been _completely_ wiped from my memory—I'd never gotten romantically involved with anyone else, knowing that I already had that prior commitment in place. Not that I'd even been wanting or looking for a girlfriend; I was too busy with work and had no extra time to mess around with a relationship. Anyway, everyone that had approached me for such things thus far had been, as always, simply and maddeningly interested in everything on the surface. I hoped quite a bit that my fiancée was different from those materialistic people. I knew my father only valued the business partnership that the union brought, but I had a small wish that my future wife and I could have more than a marriage on paper.

My mind reeled briefly when I attempted to remember her name.

"Why do you look so reluctant?" my father asked after a moment of observing my facial expression as it changed several times.

Quickly wiping said expressions off my face, I shook my head. "I am sorry, Father. I was just not…expecting it."

"Of course you were not," he remarked tonelessly, ever-so-slightly raising one of his graying eyebrows. "I had not told you."

"I have quite a bit of work to do," I quietly said, hoping I could squeeze out of the dinner to get home earlier. The thought of dining with What's-Her-Face wasn't _bad_, per se, I just had many more things I would much rather be doing than eating. Like playing _Second Life_.

"Are your employees there for decoration‽" he barked.

"No, Father. I am sorry." I hastily shook my head again, mentally apologizing to Heng as well. It looked like he was about to get quite a bit of spontaneous and yawn-inducing overtime. I hoped he didn't have after-work plans or anything. He was a grown man after all, I wouldn't have been surprised if he also had a fiancée, or even a wife and children.

Dib's bright, young face flashed through my mind and I inwardly smirked. Maybe I would be a _little_ surprised if he had a family of his own. That thought made me feel a bit lonely, though. Even if Heng didn't like it, Dib's outward appearance did still overlap his in my mind—the appearance of a child. Thus the thought of my child-like companion being married, while being somewhat absurd-sounding, made me feel as though he was growing up and leaving me behind, not needing me anymore. And not being needed was a dreadful idea, one I was most frightened of. I wanted to be needed. To a certain extent, I _needed_ to be needed—it gave me a purpose, it meant I wasn't useless.

"Well," my father huffed slightly, leaning back in his large chair again, "I trust you have no prior engagements conflicting with this dinner?"

"No, Father."

"Good. Do not botch this, as you do so ridiculously often with even the simplest the tasks I give you," he ordered in an obviously threatening tone. "Also," he added, "do not go about visiting any more confectionery shops on your way home. I expect you to come back in a timely manner, no unnecessary detours along the way."

"Yes, Father," I repeated, inwardly sighing. He looked satisfied with my answer, waved a hand at me in a "Go away now," motion, and went back to work. I hurried from his office, letting out a whoosh of breath as I rode the elevator back down to my own floor. That meeting had gone quite a bit better than I'd thought it was going to. He hadn't even glared at me, and had only raised his voice a few times. Though I was still feeling rather torn-up about both Gui Wen and Heng, today seemed somewhat nice regardless.

Rather than attempting to organize and distribute all the work myself, I dragged the very reluctant Heng and my other nine employees into my office with me and we all worked together. I was fairly certain my father—and probably the employees involved—would not like that particular method of getting work done faster, but it worked nonetheless, so I ignored the little cautionary voice in the back of my head. He was the one who said I should use them, after all, so use them I did. Just in a different place.

_Loophole_, as Dib would say.

It got rather chaotic from time to time, because one of them who was rather clumsy kept managing to knock over, in extremely spectacular ways, stacks of paper we'd only just sorted—at times, I had the not-so-sneaky suspicion that he was doing it on purpose, but didn't raise any complaints—if it really was intentional, I didn't doubt that obvious irritation toward his actions was the sought-after response—and a lot of food was spilled on the gray-carpeted floor during lunch, and my office wasn't really built for eleven people to work in all at once—if we all wanted to have breathing room, anyway—but in general it all went rather smoothly, and we were actually able to finish a half hour short of four o'clock when I had to leave.

They all went back to their own work with my quietly spoken apologies over keeping them later, and I then changed my clothes and tidied myself up, leaving a bit early for the Lin house. The whole car ride there, nervousness over the whole ordeal built up, and up, and up, and up, spilling out in short, flustered bursts of movement. Never mind that my fiancée was the daughter of one of my father's important business partners, but simply meeting a new person—one I was going to be married to in the most-likely-not-so-distant future—was anxiety-inducing in of itself. However, I tried very hard to calm myself down for the sake of my father. It wouldn't do me any good to make a fool out of myself for being jittery.

Twenty minutes later as the car pulled through the wide, open gate of the estate, I scolded myself for being so terrified. My habit of over-thinking everything was definitely something I had to work on eliminating. If not, I knew I would only live the rest of my life complicating even the simplest things. Not that meeting my fiancée was simple. But not something to be scared of.

I hoped.

Staring out the window while the car leisurely rolled down the long drive—apparently the house was set fairly far back from the road—I watched with extreme interest as an enormous garden went by. It sprawled across the entire span of the mansion's extensive front grounds, and seemed to curve around the sides of the large house as well. The garden looked like it was out of a painting. Traditional-style, complete with winding and branching brick pathways, countless beds of bright-colored flowers and leafy plants, many pavilions, countless neatly-trimmed trees, little ponds here and there, and even a wooden bridge or two. It was quite a contrast to my own home where the grounds consisted of nothing but stretches of perfectly flat and green grass.

Once the car finally came to a stop in the circular ending of the drive, I undid my seat belt and ran my eyes over the out-of-place-looking, but nice, creamy-colored brick house. The car door was opened for me, and I climbed out, taking a deep breath of the warm air and anxiously straightening my already-straight tie while I walked toward the opening front door.

A curious glance upward made me momentarily pause. There were three pairs of eyes staring intensely at me out one of the tall windows on the second floor. When they noticed that I'd noticed their attention, all six eyes widened and disappeared from view around the edge of the window's fluttering white curtain. Attempting to beat down my bewilderment, I continued on my way to the door. And there I discovered another very obvious difference between this house and mine—the servants who'd come to greet me were _looking_ at me, and all wore a smile. _Real_ smiles. Having gotten used to the robot-like behavior of my own house staff, it was somewhat unsettling.

Yet more unsettling—or perhaps simply annoying—was the black-suited man—obviously not part of the enthusiastic house staff—who looked to be about my age, standing just inside the entryway and glaring at me as if my presence there was entirely unwanted.

Why was there always someone glaring at me?

His thin brown eyes ran over me in a scrutinizing look as if he was attempting to size me up. His hair was parted to one side and fell about his eyes in a very lazy manner as if he couldn't be bothered to do anything else with it. Our heights seemed to be the same or close, but, as usual, he was much bigger around than I was, and definitely not in a pudgy way.

Refraining from flinching under his death stare, I gave him a short bow. I didn't particularly want to expose the back of my neck to the man, but I knew it wouldn't do me any good to be impolite to my fiancée's family members. I would most definitely die a very painful and slow death if I made even the slightest mistake with any of them, especially her parents.

"I am Min Zian. It is a pleasure to meet you," I offered with a polite smile.

"I am Lin Delun. Jiao-mèi's _older brother_," he informed snappishly, making me feel very relieved that I managed to learn her name without having to ask. I didn't want to know what my father would do to me if he found out I'd forgotten. Anyway, asking would have been very rude. Not that forgetting it in the first place wasn't, I guiltily thought with a vow that I wouldn't forget it again.

There was suddenly a great deal of loud stomping coming down the wide staircase behind him. We both looked up. Two women—one holding a slightly-bigger-than-Dib-sized girl in her arms—energetically hurried down the smooth, wooden steps. I hoped with all of my might that their stocking-clad feet wouldn't slip out from under them, with as rambunctious as they were being. It looked like they were racing, and the three new arrivals seemed to be the ones that had been at the second story window, watching my arrival.

The younger of the two—a teenager bearing a very similar visage to Delun, and wearing a casual outfit of a yellow t-shirt and pale blue jeans, with her long hair tied back into a messy bun—arrived at the bottom first, slid to a stop, and gave a stern frown to Delun before turning to me with a wide smile. "Hello! I'm Lin Mei Rong! Jiao-jiĕjie and Delun-dàgē's sister!"

Forcing my own smile to stay on—my face was definitely going to hurt later from so much smiling, it was already feeling somewhat tired—I reflexively repeated, "Hello, I am Min Zian," while the older woman whispered reprovingly, "Behave yourself, dear!" to a much more subdued-looking Delun. Apparently he wasn't as bad-natured as he had initially seemed. At least, not to his own family. To me, on the other hand…

The second woman stepped forward after she was finished telling off Delun, a warm look settling on her round face that was framed by short, bobbed hair that matched the girl's in her arms. "I am Lin Chen, Delun's wife. And this," she paused and hoisted the little girl higher up on her hip, "is our daughter, Shuang!"

"I'm four!" Shuang proudly informed me, holding up four of her tiny fingers.

"It is very nice to meet you, Shuang-mèi," I brightly replied to the excited girl, already itching to pat her head like I would Dib in this sort of situation. Why were children so darn cute all of the time?

Now that the brief introductions were over, Delun importantly cleared his throat and glared at me again before reluctantly announcing, "Jiao-mèi is already in the dining hall. We will take you there."

"Thank you." Finally stepping fully into the house, I quietly followed after when they all started off down a hallway, leading me deeper inside. Now that I had a chance to inspect my surroundings, I discovered that the inside of their home was just as beautiful as the outside. Unlike the pointlessly spacious, empty interior of my father's palace-like house with its spotless, polished marble floors covered in obviously expensive carpets, enormous paintings on the paneled walls, crystal chandeliers hanging from the lofty, white ceilings, this house had a much more _residential_ feeling. The bare wood floor underfoot was, while still being very clean, rather well-traveled looking. The calm-colored walls were covered in a great deal of family photos—something nonexistent in my own house—as well as a few small paintings here and there. And the ceilings were actually a normal height.

But in my opinion, the thing that made the house genuinely beautiful was not the way it looked, but the way it felt—like a _home_. The airy hallways and rooms were very welcoming and bright, unlike the stiflingly quiet, pressing and stern impression one got from my own house. The laid-back environment allowed me a great deal of relief from my initial anxiety, though I was still quite nervous.

We soon arrived at a set of double doors and Delun carefully swung them both open, then hurried forward, making his way around the edge of the wooden dining table and seating himself next to one of the table's few occupants. "Sit," he huffily told me, waving a hand at the chair across from his as if he wanted to be able to keep an eye on me. Not wanting to make a fuss, I immediately did as he wanted, slowly seating myself at the rectangular, annoyingly food-covered table, while the other three sat by him.

My fearfulness was returning in full force when I ran my eyes over the row of blatantly staring people lined up in front of me, making me feel as though I was about to be interviewed. A middle-aged couple was on my right—the parents, I assumed—and an older, much more formally-dressed and curly-haired version of Mei Rong was seated next to them, a seething Delun, plus the other three—Shuang as well, perched atop a booster seat—on Jiao's other side.

In an attempt to calm down, I looked to Jiao and smiled as best I could. "Hello…I am Min Zian. It is very nice to finally meet you."

She gave me a twitchy grin in return, seeming to be just as nervous as I while she quietly replied in a very stiff voice, "Hello, I am Lin Jiao." Afterward, she firmly shut her mouth and looked down at her lap, suddenly seeming to be very interested in patting smooth the folds of her pale blue dress.

Several minutes passed in awkward silence, and I nearly dropped my eyes to stare at the carved edge of the table in front of me, but persisted in my straight-forward, unwavering gaze. If the Lin parents were anything like my father, they wouldn't like it at all if I averted my attention out of fear. However, I hadn't been expecting the entire family to be dining with us, so keeping myself still was a difficult task. It had been a horrible enough thought to eat with Jiao alone, but now there were six other people as well.

More time crawled by, and then a gurbly noise popped through the air. Mei Rong—the source of the loud sound—sighed deeply and sent me a questioning look, asking, "I'm hungry. When may we eat?" as if it was up to me.

"When _may_ we eat‽" Delun repeated, still intensely staring at me like he had been the entire time.

"I was never stopping you from having your meal," I softly pointed out, feeling slightly angry that he was apparently blaming me for everyone's hunger.

"This dinner is for you. We were waiting for you to start. You could have told us." His glower deepened while he picked up his chopsticks.

"Ah, I had not realized. I apologize for being so thoughtless. But please, do not mind me, eat what you will." With another forced smile, I took a long drink of the glass of ice water that had been provided while the others dug into the food at last.

"Hey, may I call you 'Gēge'?" Mei Rong suddenly asked, leaning over the table, with an eager expression.

"Yes, if you want. I do not mind," I slowly replied, feeling a bit surprised at the request. I didn't like having titles and such tacked onto my name—it took a lot of effort not to let my annoyance show every day whenever "Jingli" was used—but being called in such a familiar way wasn't at all a terrible thought.

"What about me?" Shuang chirped, eyes wide with an unnecessary amount of anticipation.

"I won't allow it! He's not your brother!" her father denied at once, crossing his arms.

"Not yet, at least," I allowed, smiling faintly while I carefully arranged a set of chopsticks in my left hand. Delun looked outraged at my reply, regardless of the fact that it was only the truth. Was having me as a sibling really such a terrible idea to him? He didn't even know me at all. We'd only met for the first time but fifteen minutes ago, yet he was acting like I was trying to take over his territory. Perhaps he would warm up to me later, but his constant argumentative behavior was grating on my patience.

Delun sharply inhaled to indignantly yell something at me, but his father cut him off. "And how was your drive here, Zian-xù?" The tone he spoke in caught me entirely off-guard. Its softness wasn't the stealthy, calculating way of my own father's smooth, cold voice, but was gentle and not malicious at all, no hidden barbs and blades in his light, interested words.

That coupled with the fact that he had called me so familiarly me lose the ability to think properly for several moments, but I quickly gathered together my scattered wits. "It was fine," I answered, "uneventful. At least, until I arrived here. The garden I passed outside is lovely. I have never seen one like it."

"Is that so?" he murmured, taking a sip of his steaming tea. "Well, what a fortunate visit then, hm? The garden has been there for generations. Even when the house was rebuilt into this more modern one—they do not match one another, do they?" He laughed when I gave a small noise of agreement. "The garden has always been kept the same, carefully tended by the staff, and also Jiao-nu from time to time."

I switched my focus of attention from father to daughter, eyes widening. "Keeping such a garden is impressive work."

She answered in her constantly formal tone, a polite smile never leaving her pretty face, "I only tend it from time to time, as my father says. The gardeners are the ones who keep it so, thus they are the ones who deserve your praises. I am afraid I have little time to spare around my classes."

"I see. That is understandable." Falling silent, I carefully took a mouthful of food, inwardly panicking at her disinterested response. I immediately began fishing for something else to talk about, and ran my mind over what she'd said. "You are still a student? What sorts of classes are you taking?"

"I am in my second year of university, yes, working on a degree in botany."

"That sounds very difficult," I commented, once again feeling thoroughly impressed. I had a hard enough time earning my business degree. Something along the path of science sounded far too perplexing for me. The few mandatory science classed I had to take during my schooling years were torturous. I worked much easier with straight-forward facts and situations, rather than testing and research and such.

Jiao laughed for the first time, noncommittally shrugging one shoulder. "It does get somewhat complicated at times, having to memorize so many scientific terms, but it really is a very interesting study."

Smiling in relief that she'd lost her perpetual guardedness, if only briefly, I picked up another bite of food and slowly ate it. "Will you be working in your family's business when you graduate?" I asked, glancing up at her.

The Lin family owned an architecture company, and focused mainly on building anything from sky scrapers, to houses, department stores, as well as structures such as bridges. They'd branched out over the years to also accommodate the services of demolishing old buildings, remodeling others for future use or preservation of historical areas, working with the city to design and plan out any road work or changes in neighborhood layouts, as well as simply making recommendations to individual families on how and what they should do to improve their own homes.

Their company and my father's—a wide-spread and well known airline company, which also prided itself on the manufacturing of high-quality, long-lasting and apparently easy-to-handle planes, jets, and such, as well as technological research into more advanced flying vehicles—had actually been working together for decades and decades, but my father had been very eager to snatch up the opportunity when it came along to bring our families closer together. Literally.

Jiao nodded at the question I'd posed, taking a small drink of water before replying, "Yes. I will be in the landscaping department. It will be more design-based work rather than the hands-on projects I would prefer, but still something I enjoy."

"I still think you should just be a stay-at-home mommy once you get married instead of going to work," Mei Rong suddenly muttered, a faraway look rising in her eyes while she stared at the wall. "That's what Chen-dàsăo is going to do after she graduates, right? Having more nieces and some nephews around would be fun. If you two get an early start after the wedding, you could pop out a few babies before you even finish with school!"

My, Jiao, and Delun's faces all flushed at her blunt remark. On the other hand, Chen sat up straighter, beaming at me. "When _is_ the wedding?"

Taking a long sip of water to give myself time to compose myself, I swallowed slowly and smiled at her eager expression, which was contrasting horribly with Delun's sudden look of fury from the seat beside her. "I am afraid I do not know. As of yet, my father and I have not discussed anything regarding the wedding. Perhaps some decisions have been made, but I have not been told."

"Aw." Mei Rong sighed in open disappointment, "I was hoping it would be soon."

I wasn't.

Not that I had any massive reasons for delaying, but I wanted to be more mentally prepared for the event. I also didn't want to make Jiao uncomfortable with the onslaught of a sudden marriage. She already seemed rather distressed simply meeting me.

The way Jiao dropped her chopsticks a moment later only heightened my anxiousness that I was making her uncomfortable—not that I could really blame her, with the direction the conversation had suddenly turned. "May I be excused?" she quietly asked.

"Of course not," her father reprovingly responded. "Dinner is not over yet."

A desperate look flashed across her face and she leaned forward to plead further, but I set down my own eating utensils, sliding back my chair. She shot me a questioning stare when I got to my feet. "Would you be so kind as to show me around the grounds?" I requested, smiling and hoping that she would agree so I would be able to speak to her alone. "I would love to see the garden up close."

"Ah…You are already finished?" I nodded at her father, ignoring the fact that I'd only eaten two bites. "Well, in that case…Yes, that is a wonderful idea," he slowly agreed. He patted Jiao's arm. "Go ahead."

Chen slapped her hand over Delun's mouth when he opened it to say something. Jiao hesitated briefly, but stood up and hurried toward the door. Feeling relieved that she hadn't disagreed, at least verbally, I wordlessly followed after, dizzying nervousness swirling up all over again.

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><p><em>Once again, I forgot to mention what Zian's father's business is until so many chapters into the story. xD Except I think it wasn't until chapter 40 that I revealed it in the original Clockwork.<em>

_Well, there you have it. I actually decided on an airline company while writing chapter one of the original…I chose it because it seemed fitting in regard to Zian, much like the symbolism that his wings have. His real life is such a cold and unfeeling cage moving in a direction controlled by another, like an airplane, but in Second Life he can really fly and with his own power, rather than relying on his father's machines._

_And just in case they need clarified, the honorifics I used are as follows: dàsăo means sister-in-law, jiĕjie means older sister, dàgē and gēge mean older brother, mèi means little sister, xù means son-in-law, and nu means daughter. (oh my gosh, how do they remember them all? x-x)_


	19. In the Garden

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>I gave a small sideways glance at Jiao, then looked forward again while we stepped out the front door, along the edge of the circular drive and toward the little brick pathway leading into the enormous garden, my inner panic never going away. She wasn't saying anything, so I had my own mind going at full power in an attempt to think of something interesting to say. It was difficult. What did people normally talk about in this sort of situation? What did people who were dating one another talk about? Well, technically we weren't dating, I supposed. We'd been forced to skip over that particular section of the relationship process and had moved straight to marriage. Missing such an important foundation made everything feel extremely unsteady.<p>

When we entered a portion of the path that was tunneled in by overhanging maple trees, I curiously glanced behind myself, then to each side of the neatly-edged, gray bricks at my feet. "What part of the garden is the part that you tend?" I asked, hoping that a simple question about her hobbies would be less stressful to answer than talking about childbirth, as her younger sister had unexpectedly crashed the dinner conversation into several minutes ago.

"Whatever part needs it," Jiao vaguely replied.

"What part do you _like_ to tend?" With a tiny alteration to the question, I hoped perhaps I would get a more in-depth answer.

"Any part." One corner of her mouth lowered slightly. Inwardly sighing with frustration, I fell silent and went back to staring at the pretty, colorful scenery. Was this how Heng had felt back when he and I had first met, and I barely ever said anything to him unless I had to? The realization of how annoying that behavior had been was starting to sink in. I felt snubbed for no reason, and that was making it all the more difficult for me to think up some sort of conversation topic.

But Dib had once said, _"You could say whatever you're thinking, then. That's what I always do. It gives lots of topics for conversation, saying things that randomly pop into your head."_

And the response I'd given to his suggestion seemed to apply to this situation as well. _"My thoughts are not interesting enough to talk about." _They really hadn't been interesting. Nor were they now, in my opinion.

Yet now, stuck on the other side of things, I could see why Heng had assumed that my constant silence had been disinterest toward him. The pressing quiet coming from the petite woman walking by my side was making me feel very disliked. Or maybe she was just shy like me, or happened to be in a bad mood that day, or perhaps she was angry with me for accidentally making the dinner conversation go in such a personal direction. Then again, I hadn't thought that speaking of her schooling and career would lead to…that.

When we stopped under the shade of a large pavilion, I leaned against the railing and took a deep breath while she placed herself directly opposite me across the circular platform, simply staring. I gave a sweeping look to the sprawling flower beds, tall trees, and the small pond surrounding the sturdy, but weather-worn structure. "This is an especially pretty spot."

"Mm-hm."

"Are there fish in that pond?"

Jiao's dark eyes briefly flickered to the place in question before coming back to rest on me. "Yes."

"What kind?"

"Koi." Her flat tone and expression implied that I should have known without even asking.

…Why did I feel as though I was talking to myself? Figuratively _and_ literally.

When she gave an obvious I-want-to-leave look back the way we'd come, I ran a shaky hand through my hair, deciding to give up on making any small talk. "I apologize if I have made you uncomfortable by asking you to come here with me," I said, smiling faintly in an attempt to cover up my growing irritation with her, although I couldn't quite keep it out of my voice. "I thought perhaps using the garden as an excuse to help you escape the dinner table would allow you a bit more ease, but apparently I was wrong. Please, do not feel obligated to keep me company if you would rather go back."

Something that looked suspiciously like fear broke through her blank mask. "I did not mean to be rude. It did help," she murmured, nodding. "A little, at least."

"That is good to know. But, ah…please…although we have only just met, you do not have to be so on edge. You may act as you always do, if it would be easier."

"Is that an invitation to drop the formalities?" she carefully clarified, speaking with deliberate slowness as if she didn't quite want to assume such a thing. At my amused nod, she looked surprised, and then finally smiled in a way that wasn't forced. It was an incredibly refreshing thing to see.

"Sorry, I'm not usually so prim and proper. It's just that my parents told me earlier today not to be rude to you—as if I was _planning_ on being rude."

"Were you?" I half-jokingly inquired.

"No, of course I wasn't. Intentionally, anyway." She sounded slightly annoyed, but it quickly disappeared into caution. "Also, well…you're turning out not to be what I—what _we_ were expecting."

My eyes widened slightly at the revelation. "Is that a positive or a negative discovery?"

Waving a hand, she answered, "Positive. My parents were going on about your father and what he's like, they were a bit afraid that you might be similar."

"Is that why your brother was so ceaselessly murderous?"

A smile of fond hopelessness settled on her face. "Partially, but he's just really over-protective of my sisters and I. He's always been the 'responsible big brother,' and even when we were all little kids he'd been so serious when it came to looking out for the three of us girls. He really likes being relied on. The fact that I was finally meeting you coupled with how you're two years older than he is kind of pushed him overboard. Try not to take his antics personally."

"Ah, I hadn't," I quietly assured, shaking my head. "And you really have nothing to worry about in regard to me being like my father. We are quite different." Much to his disappointment. Then again, rather than him being disappointed that I wasn't like him, I supposed that he was more disappointed that I wasn't like Gui Wen.

"If my parents' descriptions of him were accurate, I'm very relieved that you're not like him. Now I can stop fearing for my life." Her playful tone told me she'd meant that as a joke and I would have laughed if only to be polite, but the humor simply wouldn't come. It was entirely true, after all.

She grinned and pushed herself off the smooth wooden rail, walking toward the edge of the platform and stepping down onto the path again. I followed after, silently watching while she crouched next to a flowerbed and began uprooting a handful of grass. "Weeds?" I quietly asked.

"Mm…" she hummed in a distracted way, dropping the thin plants to the pathway. Straightening up, she slipped out of her white flats, placed them under the pavilion, and then barefootedly knelt down again, leaning over the bed of bright yellow flowers. "Whenever I see them, I just can't leave them alone. It's like they're taunting me," she remarked, laughing slightly. After yanking out another tiny grass plant, she paused and tilted her head back to look up at me, seeming to be suddenly regretting her decision to be so casual. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Oh, no," I replied, smiling. "Go ahead." With her enthusiasm renewed, she eagerly went back to what she'd been doing, looking like an entirely different person than the one I'd just been dining with. I watched her quick, practiced movements for a moment, and then removed my dark blue suit jacket, laying it beside her discarded shoes before crouching down beside her. "May I help? I've never weeded anything before, so I don't know what to pull and what to leave, but I'll try very hard not to _completely_ ruin the flowerbed."

"Don't worry, I'll stop you from destroying it." She chuckled and patted a grubby hand on the small pile of grass and leaves she'd already evicted from the dirt. "Just pull up the plants that look like these."

Nodding, I neatly rolled up my white dress shirt's sleeves to get them out of the way, leaned forward and searched the bed of flowers for the unwanted plants, intently listening to her while she told me the right way to pull the weeds so the roots came up as well, and pointed out the plants that were supposed to stay, and what they were, and who had put them there, and what the other flowerbeds contained, and what sorts of trees were around, and on and on. Her passion for and knowledge of gardening was a bit overwhelming, but I drank in all of her words, feeling very relieved that I'd helped her relax. It was a wonderful change from how she'd been behaving before.

Once that bed was clear of the weeds, she was more than happy to move onto the one next to it. I followed after in amusement, enjoying the new feeling of manual labor. I rarely spent time outdoors in real life, and it was an extremely refreshing experience. And the fact that I hadn't coughed since this morning was very nice. My stomach still ached, though. A large, knuckle-shaped bruise had already formed from the punch my father had given me earlier that day.

It matched the one on my face.

How nice.

"Don't look now," Jiao suddenly murmured warningly, giving me a side-long glance, "but I think we're being watched."

For a very brief moment, I felt cold, numbing fear completely fill me when I stared in horror down at my filthy hands, rolled-up sleeves, and dirt-flecked dress shoes. Why was I giving myself such an appearance when I knew already that my father kept an eye on me wherever I was? He was going to be furious with me if he—no, _when_ he found out what I was doing. I'd gotten carried away with the carefree mood and had stupidly let my guard drop.

However, when I was about to leap to my feet and make an excuse to go back to the house, the not-so-stealthy, high voice of Shuang suddenly chirped from somewhere behind me and to the left, "I want to feed Xiao Pang! I brought him dinner!" and I nearly collapsed with relief when my unintentionally tensed body relaxed a considerable amount. It was just the others, not a hired stalker. Then again, he or she might be there somewhere as well.

Delun noisily shooshed his daughter—he was just as good at hiding as she was, it seemed—and whispered something I couldn't hear. After a minute or so, the whispering had predictably taken on an argumentative atmosphere and I smiled mischievously. "I'll be back in a moment," I told Jiao under my breath as I threw a hasty glance over my shoulder. Delun, Chen, Mei Rong, and Shuang were all hidden—in other words, _completely exposed_—behind a scraggly little bush and at that moment weren't looking at Jiao and I. I stood, hurried past the flowerbed, and sneaked around the pavilion.

Slowing my steps when I came around the curved edge of the wooden railing, Mei Rong exclaimed, "See‽ I _told_ you they weren't doing anything interesting! Jiĕjie can never resist her urges to pull weeds whenever she comes out here!"

"But we didn't know for sure!" Delun snapped back. "He's up to no good, I can tell. Inviting her out here all by herself…He could have been out here putting the moves on her where no one could see, or even–"

"As if he'd do that," she snorted. "Come on, let's go back inside."

"How do you know he…!" He suddenly let out a dramatic gasp, seeming to finally notice my disappearance. "Hey! Where'd he go‽"

"Oh, he's gone," Chen whispered, peering over the edge of the tiny bush as if she would be able to see better than she already could.

With endless amusement, I stepped up behind them as soundlessly as I could while Delun leapt to his feet and declared, "We have to find him!"

"Find who?" I softly asked when he whirled around to begin the search for me. He screamed in surprise and terror upon noticing me at last, which caused an ear-splitting chain reaction in the other three. Rather than having the time to laugh at their extremely entertaining response to my unexpected appearance, Delun suddenly tripped over a rock and tilted backward toward the pond.

"Be careful!" I yelled, reflexively grabbing one of his outstretched arms and yanking as hard as I could, pulling him back to safety. However, being a very scrawny person, the panicky effort to rescue him drew me forward just as forcefully as I'd drawn him back. With a very loud splash, I fell back-first into the pond in his place, and simply laid there in shock, staring up at the bright blue sky while my clothes swiftly became heavy with the fishy-smelling water.

This dinner certainly wasn't turning out to be what I'd been expecting.

"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID! WE'RE GONNA BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE, DÀGĒ!" Mei Rong roared, punching him on the arm. Never mind that they might be in trouble, I was going to be in a million times more once I got home. The useless wish that I'd stayed indoors started welling up.

"XIAO PA-A-A-ANG!" Shuang sobbed, flailing in Chen's grip.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Delun bellowed while Jiao ran up and slid to a halt at the rock-lined edge of the small pond.

"Shut up and pull him out!" Jiao snapped, joining in on the arm-punching.

"XIAO PANG'S SQUISHED! HE'S DEAD!"

"The koi are all fine, honey, calm down," Chen soothed, hastily patting Shuang's tear-covered cheek. "He didn't land on any. See? Xiao Pang is over there in the corner. Let's feed him the pellets you brought."

"O-o-oh." The mother and daughter walked out of sight, leaving the other three to retrieve me.

Xiao Pang…? They had names for the fish?

And really weird names, at that.

Slowly sitting up out of the cold water, I picked a leaf off the top of my head and sighed, looking at Delun when he offered me a hand. Already trembling quite a bit from the cold, I took his hand as firmly as I could and he promptly evicted me from the pond. "Are you okay?" Jiao and Mei Rong asked at once.

I gave a small nod, teeth chattering, but Delun started pulling me along behind him while he hurried back to the house. "You're not okay, you're freezing! You were only in the pond for like three seconds and it's sweltering outside, how can you even get cold‽ Good grief! Sneaking up on us like that…"

I wanted to point out that he'd sneaked up on me first—he'd tried, anyway—but I kept that fact to myself and unresistingly let him lead me back into the house. For the moment, he avoided his parents and instead took me to his and Chen's bedroom, pushing me in the direction of the bath. "Take a shower and warm up. You can wear some of my clothes until those have been washed."

Pausing just inside the doorway, I leaned back, popping my head into the bedroom to ask, "Do you have any thick winter clothes handy, or are they packed away somewhere? Sweaters, jackets, things like that."

He stared at me in confusion. "Isn't it kind of hot for that?"

"I get cold very easily," I explained. When he still didn't move to get anything warm for me to wear, I added, "Even without falling into ponds and even when the weather is hot."

Regardless of how he still looked like he didn't believe me, he nodded. "Okay. Well, I have some zip-up's in my closet. You can use one of those if you'd like."

"Thank you." Ducking back into the bathroom, I shut the door and quickly peeled off my uncomfortable, sodden suit, then took a brief, very hot shower. When I left the bathroom—wearing thick, gray sweat pants—thankfully they had a drawstring, or else they would have fallen off—a white t-shirt and a hooded jacket—I discovered that everyone had congregated in the bedroom, and they were all sitting in a circle on top of the large bed.

Mei Rong leapt to her feet when I emerged. "Warm now?"

"Not particularly," I answered truthfully, "but I do feel quite a bit better now, thank you."

"Here's your jacket," Jiao offered, holding up the other piece of my suit that I'd forgotten at the pavilion. "Your pocket's been ringing, I think someone's calling your cellphone."

Eyes widening with relief that I hadn't been wearing my jacket when I'd fallen into the pond, I hurried forward and quickly removed my phone from the pocket, flipping it open. Heng's number flashed across the screen. He'd sent me several text messages, asking if he could call me, so I dialed him and expectantly held it up to my ear, doubting the onlookers would rat me out to my father. They seemed like decent enough people, and, judging by Jiao's remarks earlier about how she and the others were glad that I'd turned out to be different than they'd been anticipating, none of them were going to go tattling.

Heng picked up after only a few rings. "_Hey, Al…_"

"What do you want?" I bluntly asked, still feeling somewhat angry with him for his behavior at the office. He'd been purposefully unresponsive the entire time we'd been working, nearly ignoring me the whole time unless it was absolutely necessary to acknowledge that I was actually there. The only thing he was doing was acting just like the child I'd been seeing him as this whole time. The child he told me not to treat him as.

"_Are you busy right now? You left the office early, all dressed up, so I wasn't sure if you were in a meeting or something, but, um, decided to call, anyway. I just wanted to talk to you,_" he quietly answered.

"If I was busy, I wouldn't have called," I replied, watching in bemusement while Mei Rong and Shuang began jumping on the bed, causing the other three, who were still seated, to bounce up and down on the abused mattress. "But I would rather talk later if I'm correct in my assumptions of what you want to speak to me about."

"_I'll assume that what you're assuming is correct,_" Heng replied, sounding somewhat amused. "_So–_"

"Ouch! Be more careful, you stepped on me!" Delun suddenly snapped, rubbing his knee.

"So-o-o-orry!" Mei Rong drawled in a very unconvincingly apologetic tone, bouncing away from him, toward the edge of the bed.

"_Where are you? That doesn't sound like a meeting._"

"I'm not in a meeting–" I began, but stopped in horror when Shuang suddenly launched herself off the bed and soared toward me, ecstatically cheering, "Catch me, Gēge!" I dashed forward and grabbed her before she could fall to the bare wood floor, and clutched her to myself, breathing heavily in fright. What was with children suddenly trusting me to catch them whenever they fell through the air?

"_Al?_" Heng's voice floated faintly upward from my hand.

"Shuang!" Delun scolded, holding out his arms to take her from me. "I said don't call him 'Gēge'!"

"You're being mean, daddy!" she pouted up at him from her new seat in his lap.

"I bet you're just embarrassed 'cause you wanna call him 'Gēge,' too!" Mei Rong remarked with a laugh.

"I DO NOT!" Delun bellowed, face flushing.

"I don't mind," I added, smiling. "Call me 'Gēge' as much as you'd like."

"NEVER!"

"It's okay to admit it, dear," Chen teased.

"THERE'S NOTHING TO ADMIT! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Delun gave a roar and fell backward with a very sulky expression while the others continued to poke and prod at him. This man was turning out to be incredibly fun to pick on.

Attempting to drown out the new fight taking off on the bed, I turned around and wandered over to the bedroom window. "Sorry for the noise," I said into the phone pressed to my ear again. Relocating myself further away hadn't done much good, and Heng was instead the one being drowned out by the sudden bursts of playful shrieks and yells coming from behind me.

"_Not busy, huh? I'm obviously interrupting…something,_" Heng irritably snapped. "_Bye._"

"Wait, Dib," I hastily requested, but there was a tiny beep as he ended the call. I glared at the phone for a moment before tiredly rubbing my eyes and sighing, closing the device. Rather than doing anything good, his call had simply made me angrier with him. Why would he even bother asking if he could call if he was just going to hang up on me? And why'd he get mad all of the sudden? Not even letting me finish what I was saying…

When I turned around, Chen looked up at me in slight worry. "We weren't being too loud, were we?"

Taking a deep breath, I strode toward them and shook my head, forcing myself to smile. "No, it's fine." Returning the cellphone to my jacket pocket, I took up their invitation to also sit on the bed—much to Delun's increased annoyance—and stayed there until my clothing had been washed and dried.

The way they treated me as just another sibling was quite heart-warming in contrast to the usual company I had for such dinners that my father sent me to with those "friends" of mine. Although, however nice it felt that I was being included in a family-like environment, I felt somewhat envious of them. It would have been wonderful if Gui Wen and I had the opportunity to be so close. We had been, as very young children, but that had only lasted a short while before we'd turned into what we were now. I could barely even remember those days. Things between he and I now made me wonder if they'd even happened in the first place, or if it was simply wishful thinking on my part.

When I was about to leave later that evening, the Lin parents unexpectedly pulled me aside into the sitting room next to the small entryway. Worry and repentance were clearly displayed on both of their abnormally pale faces.

"We apologize most sincerely for what our idiotic son has done to you…Making you fall into that pond is inexcusable," the father said quietly, inclining his head. Being treated so respectfully—especially by such people—made me extremely uncomfortable. Just what had my own father said or done to make them act in such a manner with me? They looked like they expected me to order Delun's head on a platter just because I'd fallen in a pond. It made me wonder how my father had managed to convince them to let me marry their daughter, if they thought I was so demonic. At least their children had already decided I wasn't horrible.

"It is fine," I assured, hastily gesturing for him to stop bowing. "There was no harm done at all—to me, to my clothes, and I think your koi pond is also, ah, relatively the same…It was simply an accident—one I am also responsible for causing, your son is not the one at fault. In fact, he was most kind to allow me to tidy myself up, as well as borrow his clothes until mine had been washed. Please, do not worry about it."

Their shock over my response didn't leave their faces for several frozen moments, but they finally smiled. "That is quite a relief," the mother breathed, patting a hand on her husband's arm.

He nodded in agreement, offering, "I do hope you come back and visit us soon."

"Thank you for your invitation. I would love to visit again." With a smile and a bow, I let them lead me to the door, said goodbye to everyone else, and then left, climbing into the waiting car and falling back against the cold leather upholstery with a sigh of alleviation that everything had ended well.

Although I'd been horribly nervous earlier that evening, I'd unexpectedly had a very nice time. Jiao seemed to have lived up to my hopes that she wasn't materialistic. After she'd finally relaxed, she was very kind and warm, really, and had a very engaging personality. It bothered me somewhat that the whole time she'd still seemed rather distant—like her brother and sisters, she had treated me more like a sibling than I would have assumed a fiancée was supposed to—but I supposed I shouldn't be expecting much from one meeting. Then again, a certain amount of distance between us made me feel much more comfortable. It put less pressure on me.

But the further away from that warm house I got, the colder things started to feel, like some sort of charm was steadily wearing off, becoming completely useless by the time the car pulled into my own drive. In the laid-back atmosphere of the Lin house, I'd forgotten—I had no doubts that _he_ knew about what had happened. I shouldn't have let myself relax after dinner. Yet another mistake…

Much as I predicted, my father led me into his office once I arrived, and that sickening fear filled me once again when I heard him lock the door behind us. It was deathly quiet and still for several moments until he placed himself directly in front of me and smiled. It was one of the most horrifying things I'd ever seen.

"Do you _enjoy_ humiliating me?" he asked softly. "You do it so often. Really…all you had to do was eat a dinner, and yet you abandoned the golden opportunity to get closer to your fiancée's parents, and instead went outdoors and, what was it, weeded a garden? The heir to my company doing servant's work. And then you nearly caused Lin Delun to fall in a pond, but generously allowed yourself to take his place." He took a single step closer, completely stealing all of my breath. "How _chivalrous _of you."

That night, for the first time in quite a while, he didn't hold back.

* * *

><p><em>Just in case anyone was wondering, Shuang's koi's name, Xiao Pang, means Little Fatty. lol xD I had fun picking it out.<em>

_Hope I didn't confuse anyone with the pile of new characters. Assuming the internets have not lied to me (they do that a lot) the names are as follows:_

_Delun (virtuous order) / the oldest of the three Lin siblings, 22 years old  
>Jiao (beautiful, delicate, tender)  the middle of the three Lin siblings, 20 years old  
>Mei Rong (beautiful countenance)  the youngest of the three Lin siblings, 15 years old  
>Chen (morning)  Delun's wifey, 21 years old  
>And also Zian means tranquil child, Heng means eternal, Shuang means lively. :P<em>


	20. Broken Silence

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>After a thorough and lengthy beating—this time, my father'd had enough sense to leave my face alone—he hadn't shown up in front of me since. And aside from the infrequent glances of concern, Heng had also continued to avoid me at the office, which was a relief, not having to explain the frequent wincing from the dull pain and the difficulty I was having with simply breathing. Nor had he tried to call or text me again, so for three silent and lethargic days I continued to wait for him to come back in-game, sitting in that patch of trees just outside Star City. Other than killing the moles I'd stumbled on wandering around the dark, star-lit woods, and running the other night's events over in my mind, I had absolutely nothing to do in my solitude.<p>

I still couldn't think up any way to apologize to Dib for what I'd done, either. Then again, with as immature as he'd been behaving over the past few days, I was also starting to feel rather childishly sulky. Was it really so terrible to him that I'd treated him like a kid—like I _always_ had? He was the one who told me to help him whenever he asked, and he called for me every single fight. Why would he suddenly say out of nowhere that he didn't like my interference?

But, my own indignation aside, I still felt rather angry with myself for making him upset, so on I waited.

When I was starting to contemplate flying back to the mountains to find Dib, I spotted he and the others approaching while I was circling over the scraggly little wood out of boredom, because I'd run out of arrows and didn't want to go back into Star City even for a moment in case I missed them on their way back, regardless of how I knew that a trip to the archery shop would only take minutes and traveling from the mountains to the city took over an hour by air, and much longer by foot.

Trying to ignore the rising apprehension, I flapped toward their steadily marching figures, easily spotting Dib as he walked along beside Gui. Dropping to a grassy knoll several meters ahead of them, I pulled in my wings and stood still, fearfully watching Dib's progress over the hill. I thought for a moment that he was going to pass me by without a hint of regard for my presence, but he lifted his hand and briefly tugged on my fingers while he continued walking. Feeling extremely relieved, I fell into step beside him, barely hearing the chatter of the large group surrounding us as they compared battles and gloated over loot.

**"You shouldn't underestimate Dib so much."**

My eyes nearly fell out of my head when I heard the deep voice coming to me through the game's messaging system. Of all people, he was the least likely to talk to me. Or so I'd assumed. It was more surprising since I'd been expecting Dib to say something.

**"I know it's difficult to watch, but he really enjoys fighting, regardless of the risks involved,"** Gui continued, a blank look on his face that refused to betray the fact that he was finally talking to me after giving me an eleven-year-long dose of the silent treatment. **"The only thing you can do in that sort of situation is sit back and let him have fun, even if you're about to explode with worry."**

**"Speaking from experience?" **I inquired with slight amusement, sending a glance in Prince's direction where he was talking animatedly to Lolidragon, a very excited Meatbun bouncing about on his shoulder.

**"Quite a bit,"** Gui acknowledged with a faint sigh. **"That aside, just let him do as he pleases, rather than trying to give unwanted help. That'll only make him mad, like what happened with the dragon king."**

**"You two talked about it?" **I asked slowly, annoyed that Dib had gone to my brother with his grievances rather than me. How was I supposed to apologize if he wasn't going to tell me how he was feeling?

**"Briefly."** Gui shot my displeased expression a glance. His eyes widened slightly and he looked forward again. **"Should I not have?"**

**"I just thought…I thought he would have talked to me first,"** I responded with a shrug.

**"It's not that he didn't want to,"** Gui said quietly. **"You should know, he told me he looks up to you quite a bit. He just wanted to help and fight beside you on equal footing, not get pushed aside."**

My mood suddenly dropped further into an irritable dimness at the familiar-sounding words. **"Why is it that I can empathize so easily with his situation?"** I wondered somewhat snappishly. Gui fell silent, not that I had been expecting an answer to my rhetorical question, and I ventured a small look at him. He'd gone blank again. **"I want to talk to you, you know. About–"**

**"I know,"** Gui interrupted in an angry tone, staring pointedly away from me. **"I know already. You don't have to tell me."**

**"When?"**

**"I don't know,"** he answered icily.

**"Soon?"** I pressed, feeling somewhat desperate, since it seemed as though he was about to refuse to talk to me again. I felt I was getting to be rather good at accidentally making people mad at me, but at the moment, I didn't particularly care.

**"I don't know!"** Gui repeated, shooting me a fierce glare. **"You can't just pop up out of nowhere and expect me to be all ready to reminisce about our oh-so-pleasant past."**

**"It's not my fault it was without warning!"** I retorted peevishly. **"You're the one who disappeared without a trace!"**

**"And whose fault to you think **_**that**_** is?"** With that bitter question posed, he started walking along faster, obviously to get away from me. I let him go without protesting and simply watched while he hurried up to Prince and Lolidragon, wearing a bright smile, and he effortlessly hopped into their conversation as if he'd been there the entire time. I looked down at my boots with a melancholic sigh. At least he'd talked to me, even if we ended up fighting yet again. It looked like he was still indeed holding a deeply lodged grudge against me like I'd assumed. But that thought couldn't quite blot out my relief over how _normal_ he'd sounded. Not at all the eccentric Prince-chasing bard he often flaunted. My brother was still in there somewhere.

Dib's fingers cautiously searched for mine. I glanced at him, and then pulled my hand out of his reach, crossing my arms over my chest. He was doing it again. First he tells me off for treating him like a child, and then he tries to hold my hand. His inconsistencies were starting to make me very angry.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked quietly after he'd let his hand drop forlornly to his side. His steps slowed, and I let mine follow suit, allowing the two teams to walk on ahead of us to give us a bit more secrecy.

"Yes, I am. For several things," I answered after a moment, not bothering to think up some way to sugar-coat my words, since, either way, it would be the same thing. "Are you?"

"Yes," he echoed with a definitive nod. "But I'm sorry for losing my temper. As happy as it makes me that you worry about me, you don't have to treat me like I'm made of glass. I really can fight just fine, you know."

"How am I suppose to know something like that when you always act so frightened‽" I angrily asked. "I tried leaving you be so you could fight on your own at first, but then _you_ told me not to ignore your requests for help. And even now you always…I'm very sorry that I made you mad with my protective sheltering, but you never…All this time, not once have you told me that I was being bothersome. You hate when I hold things back, but then you turn around and do the same. What am I supposed to do?"

"I'm sorry, Al…I know it was unfair. I won't do it again," he softly assured. "I was just annoyed that you always think that I'm the only one who needs protection. You always push me off to one side and tell me it's to keep me safe, but you act like you don't even care that you're taking all the heat…and that's not fair, either. You can't expect me to always let you shield me."

"You're the one who started it," I grumbled. "From the beginning, you've been forcing me to protect you from every little thing. That–"

Dib suddenly cleared his throat very loudly, interrupting me, then anxiously sputtered, "Um, Al…I know this is going to make you super mad, but…um, I was just…I was pretending."

"You were _pretending_ to be afraid?" I slowly clarified, hardly daring to believe what I'd just heard.

"Uhm, yeah. Pretty much," he reluctantly admitted. "At least, when we fought the small monsters. The big ones really are pretty scary. Especially since I'm so short, they're extra scary."

I halted in my steps, attempting to decide if I was furious or even more depressed than before. "You were lying to me this whole time," I murmured. First he assures me that he isn't simply messing with me for his own amusement, and then he goes and does something like that. Why had I even bothered…

He was quiet for a moment, and then he meekly continued, "I'm sorry."

"Why the hell would you even do something like that‽" I snarled down at him. "Not only did it greatly inconvenience me, it inconvenienced you even more! Think of all the things we could have done up until now if you'd…" I paused and sighed again. "Why did you do it?"

"Well, it was kinda funny at first," he cautiously replied, "how you willingly did everything I wanted you to do, even if it was something really stupid. And it was fun getting you all huffy. Anyway, you shoulda known a long time ago that I wasn't really so cowardly."

"I trusted you; of course I would believe what you tell me when you make it out to be so serious." Laughing slightly, I whispered, "I guess I really am stupid…Worrying about you this entire time while you were simply laughing at me."

Dib stared up at me, his eyes going very wide. "Al…I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah," I murmured, turning away to continue on over the dark hill to go to Star City. "Well, whatever. Make fun of me all you want. Everyone else does already, what's another person? And I won't interfere in your fights anymore, either. Do what you want."

An arm yank stopped me in my steps and I glared down at the inhumanly strong boy. "Stop walking away from me when I'm not finished yet!" he snapped, digging his heels into the ground to stop any further escape attempts. "Geeze! You really need to figure out the difference between teasing and ridicule! I wasn't trying to make fun of you, I was…Geeze, you're just fun to pick on, okay‽ You should know by now how much I like to annoy you! But that doesn't mean I'm being malicious! It's like…You're not trying to be really _mean_ when you pick on me, right‽ You weren't trying to drown me at the pond the other night, right‽ You were just playing, RI-I-I-IGHT‽"

"Um, right…" I nodded, wishing he would calm down.

"WELL, IT'S THE SAME FOR ME, STUPID!" he screamed, stomping his little feet in anger while his voice echoed in every direction through the crisp nighttime air. "SO STOP TAKING EVERYTHING SO PERSONALLY! YOU'RE SO TOUCHY! LIGHTEN UP!"

Wasn't I the one who was supposed to be screaming in this situation?

"STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" he repeated over and over while wildly punching and kicking my leg. I sighed and attempted to ignore him, hoping the others were far enough away that they couldn't hear him. They probably were able to just fine, but one could hope.

"OUCH!" I yelled in pain when he suddenly bit my hand. I took several steps away from him, and he stood still, breathing heavily after his one-sided duel with my arm and leg. "Quit it already yet!" I snapped, rubbing the spot where he'd chomped down on the base of my thumb.

"You-you're so s-stupid!" he wailed, unexpectedly bursting into very loud tears. Having no idea what was going on anymore, I cautiously stepped forward and knelt down in front of him, wondering if he would punch me more if I hugged him. Before I could come to a decision, he made it for me and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around—as far around as they would go, anyway—my chest, hysterically sobbing all the while still telling me how stupid I was.

Sighing, I patted him on the back. "Why in the world are you crying?"

"'CAUSE YOU'RE SO-O-O-O STUPID, STUPID AL!"

"Okay, I get it. I'm stupid. So why is that making–"

"DON'T CALL YOURSELF STUPID, STUPID!" I rolled my eyes at his command, and continued to silently hug him, hoping he would calm down if I simply didn't say anything else. Apparently it was okay for him to call me names, but I wasn't allowed. As usual.

With a loud sniff, he sat himself down on top of my bent knee and wiped his face off. I wanted to ask him if he was finished throwing his fit, but resisted the urge, since I knew it would probably set him off again. "You make me so mad," he grumbled.

"I'll try to, um, _not_." Having no idea how I was supposed to do that, I sighed again, glancing off in the direction the others had gone, wondering if they were getting impatient waiting for us.

Dib laughed slightly, patting my leg. "Well, you can start by not taking things to the extreme. Like interrupting my fights and getting in the way how you do. You can interfere sometimes. And spoil me a little, of course. Everything in moderation, okay?"

At my faint smile, he looked away, rummaged around in his pouch for a moment, and pulled something out. "Gimme your right hand," he ordered. I lifted my hand obediently, and he took the scuffed-up silver ring—one of the drops from those poisonous slugs I'd been training on a month ago—off of my ring finger, sticking it on my index finger instead. Where it used to sit, he placed a new ring made of thin, twisting threads of gold, with small amber-colored topaz set at regular intervals along the band. The delicate-looking piece of jewelry seemed to glow slightly, sending a soft, pulsating light into the darkness that surrounded us.

I stared at it for a moment in surprise, and then lifted my eyes to look at Dib's excited face. "Thank you."

"The dragon king dropped it. It has accuracy boosts, and also magical, electricity-based capabilities like that one head used," he explained quickly, suddenly looking very hyper at my pleased response. "The others wanted you to have it as a thanks for helping bring it down and saving Prince from getting his feet fried off. And," he paused, waving me closer. Raising an eyebrow, I bent over to get nearer to him, though the others were nearly out of sight and couldn't possibly overhear us now that we were talking so quietly. "Gui was the one who suggested giving it to you," he whispered, a smile stretching across his face.

Mouth dropping open slightly, I glanced again toward where the others were now standing on a large hilltop, waiting for us to catch up, not that I could make out Gui given the distance and the lack of light. I laughed for a moment. "I suppose I should thank him, too."

"It matches your gold eyes," Dib remarked, smiling wider and lifting a small hand to touch the side of my face, carefully running one finger around my left eye.

"Oh, yes. It does," I agreed, glancing down at the elegant ring. That hadn't crossed my mind. While I was very careful to organize my outfits in real life so the colors matched, I didn't care very much about that in-game. As long as whatever it was I was wearing wasn't hideous and had the bonuses and stats I wanted, I wasn't particular with how it looked.

Before I could stand up again, Dib wrapped his arms around my neck and refused to let go. "Carry me!" he commanded.

I stayed in my kneeling position in the grass and looked at the side of his head in bemusement. "Aren't you the one who just told me to stop treating you like a child? You're a grown man…" I paused with a smirk. "Well, some of the time. Anyway, you can walk by yourself."

"This'll be an exception!" Dib insisted, hopping up and down impatiently. "Come on, please? Carry me, carry me!"

Shaking my head in resignation, I wrapped my arms around him, and lifted him in the air as I straightened. He leaned against my chest and comfortably rested his head on my shoulder with a contented smile on his face as he closed his eyes. "You're so inconsistent," I grumbled, taking off over the damp grass to rejoin the others.

"I know," he agreed with a slight yawn, pressing his forehead against my neck. He then fell asleep in my arms. I hurried as fast as I could to catch up with the waiting teams while trying not to shake Dib too much, sending many bewildered looks toward the softly snoring boy as I went. I hadn't known people could fall asleep in-game. After all, everyone was already asleep in the real world, what would be the point of doing it in here, too? I did get slightly tired at times, but a sip of stamina potion fixed that straight away. But he had been fighting dragons for several days, so I supposed it wasn't too surprising that he was sleepy.

Walking with the others through the chill, evening air, we entered Star City again, finally stopping in the marketplace so everyone could sort through and divide the accumulated loot from the dragons. After they all went in and out of what seemed to be every single shop in the market, they had finally sold everything they wanted to sell and restocked on their supplies. Prince, Doll and several other people then announced they were hungry, so we went to one of the nearby taverns.

I watched from one side as the others dragged several of the small wooden tables together—much to the protestation of the NPC workers—to form one large table everyone could sit at. While they annoyed the waitresses, I glanced down at Dib, wondering if I should wake him. He'd definitely be angry with me if I let him sleep through a meal. But I didn't want to interrupt his sleep, either.

Carefully lowering myself into the chair Lolidragon had waved me at, I shifted Dib into a more comfortable position and reached around him to pick up my menu the very huffy waitress had nearly thrown at me. I shot an irritated look at her as she gruffly tossed menus at the others as well, demanding that we put the furniture back the way it was before we leave.

"What are you gonna get?" Doll asked brightly from her seat on my left.

"Probably just some fruit or a glass of water," I replied, disinterestedly running my eyes down the lengthy list of food.

Prince stared incredulously at me, as if he thought my choice of meal was completely ridiculous. "What‽" He frowned and slapped his hand on top of the three-course section. "Who the heck only has a glass of water for dinner when there are all these choices to pick from‽"

"I don't like eating very much." My blandly delivered answer made his face contort with shock.

"Hm, we'll have to fix that," Lolidragon decided, snatching my menu away from me and throwing it at the waitress. "Hey!" she yelled as the NPC clumsily caught the unexpectedly lobbed menu.

"No, wait," I started to protest, but Lolidragon ignored me.

"Two steak dinners with all the sides for these guys!" she called, waving a hand at Dib and I.

"Wait, I don't–"

"Oh!" Prince enthusiastically exclaimed, staring down at the pictures. "I want that, too!" he announced, handing his menu away. "With the pasta meal set, as well!"

Ugly Wolf sent me an apologetic look as I watched helplessly, feeling like I was getting washed away by their overwhelming energy while the others made their choices and the waitress left. I didn't want an entire dinner. I'd never be able to finish the whole thing, especially not with every single side dish they offered, as Lolidragon oh-so-helpfully ordered for me. I probably still had that honey bread in my pouch somewhere from when Dib and I last ate in Star City.

Clutching Dib tighter against me and wishing he was awake so I had backup, I stared guardedly around at the others as they settled themselves down. As if on cue, Dib let out a sigh against my neck, scrunching his eyebrows up for a moment before his eyes cracked open blearily. "So loud," he muttered, rubbing his face sleepily as he sat up slightly and glanced about the group in mild surprise. "Oh, is it dinnertime?" he asked me drowsily through a yawn.

"It is," I affirmed with a nod.

"What'd you get me?" he questioned, looking much more awake at the promise of food. "Pie?"

"_Lolidragon_," I corrected, frowning somewhat before continuing, "got you and I steak dinners and all the sides. Not a pie, but we can get one of those, too, if you want it," I added.

He laughed in amusement for a moment and sent Lolidragon a smile. "Ah, looks like I finally have help in my ongoing mission, Make Al Eat More Food."

"Did you really have to make a mission out of it?"

"He _always_ eats like that?" Doll asked with wide eyes as she turned in her chair to face us. At Dib's nod, she frowned and made a tutting noise. "That's no good!" she scolded, suddenly standing on top of her chair so she could look down at me. I forced an amused smile to stay off my face when I wondered if she was also an adult like Dib who decided to shrink herself for whatever reason, or if she was just really tiny. Well, not exactly _tiny_ but more along the lines of small, seeing as how she was a head taller than Dib. I supposed her puffy dress also helped in terms of making her look bigger.

"I thought maybe you'd just eaten before we arrived, or something!"

"No," I denied, shaking my head slightly, "it's been quite a while since I last had anything to eat."

"How do you _survive_‽" Prince cut in, once again looking at me in utter disbelief. "I always bring food with me everywhere I go, just in case I get hungry!"

"Which he always does," Yu Lian added, smirking.

"Okay, quit picking on Aeolus," Ugly Wolf said reprovingly to Prince and Doll. "Not everyone has a black hole for a stomach like you two." His eyes flickered up to Meatbun who was sitting on Prince's head. "Three," he corrected himself.

"His Highness needs to keep up his strength so he can gallantly cut down all enemies in his path!" Gui declared, shooting Prince an admiring smile.

"Exactly!" Doll yelled, balling her hands together into fists and suddenly looking extremely determined about something. "We have to eat a lot so we can keep the forces of evil at bay!"

Somehow, eating dinner had become a method of fighting crime.

I sighed in surrender and Dib rested his head against my shoulder again, patting one hand on my chest and chuckling slightly. "Don't worry, Al. I'll eat whatever you can't finish so the money doesn't go to waste."

"Are you really able to eat that much?" I questioned skeptically. "There are around ten sides on the menu here."

"Twelve!" Doll corrected.

"I can," Dib assured. "Running around so much while training takes up a lot of energy, you know. I've gotta eat a lot." I made a noise of concession, though I still wasn't sure why he didn't just use stamina potions. They were so much faster for energy restoration than eating a meal.

He yawned again, closing his eyes. "Wake me up when the food arrives. And don't forget to order a pie for me, too. An apple one."

"Okay."

"Aeolus, would you like to join us for training again after we're done eating?" Ugly Wolf invited cheerily. "We're going to go back to the mountains to train on ice trolls."

My eyes widened and I shot Gui a cautious look. He was still pretending I didn't exist.

The beastman followed my gaze and smiled warmly. "Don't worry, you won't get in the way. You were a big help taking down that dragon king," he complimented. "We couldn't get many clear shots until you joined us. Your positioning helped us correct ours so we could attack more effectively. And Dib was quite good, too, when we attacked it after it respawned."

"You battled that horrendous thing a second time?" I questioned dubiously.

"Eight times in total, actually. It drops a lot of good loot," Prince explained. "It's pretty risky, but the reward is worth it. Plus it's good experience, and we need all of that we can get for the Grand Melee next month."

"So, want to come?" Ugly Wolf repeated, looking between the snoring Dib and I expectantly. "Dib already told us he doesn't mind."

I hesitantly looked at Gui once more. I didn't really want to go with them, since being there would definitely annoy him further, and that in turn would make him want to talk to me even less, but if I stayed out of his way, I supposed it would be okay.

"Yes, thank you," I quietly accepted, nodding to the wolf.


	21. Companionship

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>Ever since Dib and I first met, he had been using me as a method of transportation. Infrequently at first, only when we were traveling long distances and I offered to carry him, or if he needed an escape route from some monster or another. But he gradually got more and more demanding as we got to know each other better, having me carry him wherever we went, even if he was perfectly capable of walking on his own. Not that I minded, really. After all, if we walked everywhere rather than flying, it would take quite a bit longer.<p>

Plus there were obvious Squishing Hazards if we had to go through the crowded shopping districts of the towns. Being rather tall, I had no problems pushing through streams of people if I so needed, but Dib—a teensy weensy halfling—had no such advantage. Due to his high agility, he could maneuver the less-dense crowds on his own with little trouble, but very busy places were rather dangerous for him.

And carrying him didn't do much to my stamina levels—he and his relatively light-weight armor weren't heavy. After so long of letting him ride on my shoulders, I'd gotten used to it.

But I hadn't predicted that my burdens would multiply when Dib and I went training again with the Odd Squad.

As we left the restaurant after dinner, we parted ways with Dark Phantom to train separately. The majority of their teammates had looked very relieved over not having to be around the Odd Squad anymore, but Wicked seemed quite reluctant to leave Prince with Gui, regardless of the fact that it wasn't going to just be those two alone.

While we exited the city and hurried over the dark path toward the mountains, I was wishing Dib and I had gone with Wicked's team rather than Prince's. Or perhaps gone to train just us two, instead of in a group. But Dib still looked so excited over training with teams, I consented to staying in their unusual company for a bit longer.

However, training with the Odd Squad didn't mean I was comfortable around them just yet. It took me ages to get used to having Dib around me constantly, I wasn't going to be used to six new people in only a few days. But, Gui aside, they seemed just fine with me. A little too fine with me, I discovered, when Doll asked if I would carry her as well while we traveled to the section of the mountains where the chosen ice trolls resided.

Did I have some sort of tiny person magnet? Why couldn't she summon a skeleton to carry her if she refused to walk by herself? Why not ask Ugly Wolf, who was much burlier than I and more familiar with her? Didn't she have two perfectly good legs?

Looking at her expectant smile, I could hardly refuse. I didn't particularly want to carry her, but I also didn't want to make her mad. After all, didn't women usually have some sort of complex over their weight? What if she thought I was calling her fat? Not that I thought she was, extra weight to carry or not.

Fat or skinny, I found myself carrying the little girl in my arms while Dib was sitting on my shoulders and Meatbun was riding on my head yet again. Perhaps my main reason for giving in was for the sake of keeping myself in good light with Gui, but I supposed it was also because I simply didn't want to cause problems. Dib liked them, therefore I was determined to like them as well, in one way or another. What else could I do? Skulk in the background the entire time? Uncomfortable with them or not, socializing seemed a better option than being excluded yet again for my solitary attitude, as I had been so many times in the past.

"Aeolus," Ugly Wolf called softly, looking down at me with a concerned expression on his hairy face. His eyes flickered from Doll, to Dib, to Meatbun, back to me, and he gave a sigh.

"Yes?" I asked, attempting to resist the urge to look up at him, since that would probably cause Meatbun to fall off my head and get angry at me again. The bun had only just stopped glaring at me as if it was all my fault he was separated from Prince that day in the marketplace—regardless of my denials, he was still under the impression that I'd "bun-napped" him—and we were now on, not good, I supposed, but neutral terms with one another.

Never had I thought that I would attempt to gain a meat bun's favor. Then again, during the past few months I'd been doing a lot of things I'd thought I would never do. Not that trying to make friends with a bun of any sort had ever even occurred to me before…

"If your arms get tired, you really don't have to carry Doll," Ugly Wolf pointed out hesitantly.

"He doesn't mind, I'm sure!" Doll decided for me with no hesitation whatsoever.

Smiling slightly at how confident she sounded, I carefully shook my head. "I'm fine, I have an absurd amount of stamina for when I have to fly, after all. And she's very light," I assured, and allowed myself a small look of gratitude up at the beastman. "But thank you for your concern."

Ugly Wolf gave a short nod and turned back to where we were walking with a more relaxed air. I often found myself being very much at ease with the enormous wolf, regardless of his rather fierce appearance. Next to having Dib with me, he was probably one of the main reasons I felt slightly less overwhelmed with the rambunctious group of people. Other than being somewhat gullible at times, he was one of the most normal and calm members of the Odd Squad. I could see why they referred to him as "Wolf-gē" rather than his in-game name. He was very kind, considerate and older-brotherly.

Now if only I could get Gui to let me refer to him as my brother.

Lolidragon heaved a sigh from my other side and glanced at me with a slight frown. "I'm still not used to this," she announced, looking me up and down. I refrained from telling her that the feeling was mutual, and settled for returning her frown with a blank stare. "Other than your eye color, you just look too much like Gui to make this seem normal. You're even both archers."

"I'm a bard, not an archer!" Gui corrected hotly, glancing with an annoyed expression over his shoulder at Lolidragon. "They're completely different!"

"You shoot things with _arrows_ from your guqin, while singing," she added with a smirk. "Big difference."

Gui looked extremely offended and turned back around as he crossed his arms. "So what if I shoot things?" he grumbled. I tried very hard to keep myself from feeling hurt by his reluctance to be even the slightest bit similar to me.

"Can you sing, too?" Doll asked up to me, eyes shining with curiosity.

Was it really so important to them to find affinities between my brother and I? Why was singing even relevant? I didn't have to, or want to, for that matter, go around serenading monsters while killing them. That would do nothing but hinder my sneaky attack methods.

"I can, I suppose. Not that I would choose to do so," I added onto my reluctant answer, wishing the conversation would go in a different direction and away from comparing me with Gui. I'd had quite enough of that growing up. I didn't want more, especially not now when I was trying to patch things up with him. Not that they were trying to be malicious, but it was still a very touchy subject for us both.

Doll gave my diffident attitude and I a disappointed frown, and settled back into my arms with a sigh as if she'd been expecting me to demonstrate my singing abilities right then and there just because she'd asked if I was able.

"Other than that, they're pretty much complete opposites," Prince observed, and then added under his breath, "Thank goodness."

"A demon and an angel," Doll said, sounding somewhat amused.

"Flamboyant and reserved," Yu Lian continued.

"Stubborn and willing," Prince added.

"Impertinent and polite," Dib said, seeming to be all-too-happy to join in with their verbal thrashing.

"Annoying and–"

"Stop picking on me!" Gui whined, interrupting whatever it was that Doll was about to label me with. The team's flow of teasing slipped into bursts of laughter at Gui's indignant face. And there I noticed another glaring difference between my brother and I. He was so good-natured all of the time with his friends, taking their jokes and teasing in stride. I wondered if I could be like that with a group of people. I felt as though it would simply make me angry. I was too serious, I reminded myself yet again. Often too serious. Dib's teasing was more than enough for me to handle already.

As the others slowly quieted their laughter, Dib wrapped his arms around my head and leaned forward. "But whatever the similarities and differences are, Al is Al, and Gui is Gui," he murmured into my ear, and I smiled, giving a grateful, one-handed tug to one of his tiny booted feet dangling over my shoulders.

"Hey! May I call you 'Al,' too?" Doll asked, looking up at me eagerly. "It's easier than 'Aeolus.'"

In amusement, I took a breath to answer, but Dib interrupted before I could agree. "NO!" he yelled, suddenly sounding very angry. Doll and the others, surprised at his abrupt and very violent denial, turned and looked up at him in alarm as he tightened his grip on me, smacking my forehead with both hands and making me flinch. "That's _my_ nickname for him! No one else is allowed to use it!"

Doll glared at him. "It's his choice if he wants to let me! Not yours!"

"It is too my choice, 'cause I'm the one who came up with 'Al!' It's mine!" Dib countered heatedly, yanking hard on my earring and firmly commanding, "Al, don't let her!"

Silence fell as everyone stared hard at me, waiting for my opinion on the matter. Glancing awkwardly about myself and wishing they would stop looking at me, I attempted to come up with an answer. I really didn't care either way, but if Dib didn't like it…

"Please, don't," I requested quietly, giving Doll an apologetic smile.

She stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "What, he gets special treatment?"

"Of course." My prompt answer sent Dib into triumphant chuckles as he finally loosened his grip from around my squished skull. Doll, obviously displeased with my decision, made little huffing noises as she glowered into space, but didn't attempt to argue any further. I hadn't known choosing something to call me with was so important.

The others finally stopped looking back to us, and we continued on across the rocky ground about the roots of the mountains we were finally entering. Prince quickly took the lead and rushed on ahead, followed closely by Gui and Lolidragon. Though Yu Lian yelled at them—namely Prince—to come back before they got far. Apparently the young elf was a bit directionally challenged and shouldn't be let out of sight.

Rather than scaling the mountains, we took a different path through the gullies in between, far below where the dragons lived, though every now and again we could hear a faint, echoing roar from hundreds and hundreds of meters above our heads.

Everyone fell silent as we walked, having to keep our concentration to where we were going. The ground was covered in many loose stones, and there were spontaneous, gaping chasms here and there, sometimes hidden under a shelf of rock that would give way and swallow us up were any pressure applied.

Not particularly wanting to fall to whatever most-likely-horrible death may have been awaiting us at the bottom, I focused everything on my footing, though it was hard to see around Doll, as we progressed to the caves under the mountains where the ice trolls were, tightly clutching Doll against me and hoping Dib wouldn't slip off my shoulders if I tripped.

Meatbun had that helicopter thing that sprouted from his head, so I wasn't at all worried about him.

After almost falling down for what seemed like the millionth heart-stopping-time, I frowned and paused in my steps. "Is the entrance to the caves much farther?" I called ahead to the others, who were all having a much easier time walking, since they weren't carrying two players and a bun.

"Nope!" Prince answered confidently as he waved a hand in a very vague way. "Just around this next bend. I think…"

Giving a wondering glance to Ugly Wolf, I waited until he nodded at me and smirked slightly. "Dib, would you hold Meatbun for a bit?" I asked, turning my head a little now that I knew the entrance really was where Prince had said it was.

"Are you gonna fly?"

"Yes, I can't see where I'm going very well," I explained in a mumble. Dib carefully slipped off my shoulders, onto my back, and then took the bun off my head. Extending my wings after he was settled, I glanced down at Doll. "Try not to move, please." At her excited nod, I shifted her in my arms to get a better grip without squishing her, and then lifted all four of us off the ground. Flying with some difficulty, because I wasn't used to the awkward load or vertical position, we made our way over the heads of the others.

"HEY!" Lolidragon suddenly screamed from behind us. I probably would have jumped in surprise if I wasn't in the air already. Slowly turning us around, I shot her an annoyed look as her call echoed all around the chasm. "That's not fair!" she snapped indignantly, pointing a finger at us.

"I was unaware that reaching the cave was a contest," I countered, giving her an amused smile. "Now then," I breathed, continuing onward and ignoring her continued yells, though it was rather difficult to do so as they repeated themselves several times reverberating off the mountains. I was glad there wasn't a lot of snow in this particular section of the range, or else we would have been buried in an avalanche a long time ago.

A few minutes later, the large, gaping entrance to the ice caves came into view from around the side of the mountain. Giving one more burst of energy, I beat my wings quickly for a few seconds to cover the last stretch and lightly let us down to the ground, standing still as Dib scrambled up my back to sit on my shoulders again.

Afterward, I gently set Doll on her feet and she shot me a triumphant smile twirling her necromancer's staff around her fingers for a moment. "We win!" she chortled, tapping the staff's end on the rocky, frost-covered ground. "ONWARD, FOR–" she began, unexpectedly attempting to rush into the cave, but I grabbed her around the middle before she could enter.

"I think we should wait for the others," I suggested, picking her up again so she couldn't escape.

"Come on, Al! Let's beat them inside!" Dib urged playfully, tugging lightly on a lock of my hair. I humored him by taking a single step into the cave's entrance. "That's not what I meant!"

"I'm not going any farther until they get here," I said with finality, feeling rather protective of the two child-like, trouble-seeking players. "It will only be a moment, anyway."

"Time is money!" Doll insisted. "That's what Yu Lian says! They'll understand, so let's go!"

"And they will also understand if we wait. No means no."

"Most of the time," Dib added. Even without being able to see him, I felt sure he was smirking at me. But regardless of their continued imploring, I refused to move.

True to my word, it barely took five minutes for the others to scramble onto the wide ledge where we were standing in wait. Ignoring Lolidragon's outraged expression, I turned around and at last walked fully inside, glancing about the wet, ice-covered walls cautiously as we went. They looked like they were coated in a thick layer of blue-tinted glass. A very pretty sight, but not one I particularly wanted to stop and appreciate.

"Do we just walk around until we stumble on an ice troll, or do they have some sort of gathering spot?" I asked quietly over my shoulder, trying to keep my voice low in case any trolls were nearby. Although while I was doing my best to keep silent, no one else seemed to share my caution. They were all talking loudly to one another and stomping along like they were still outside.

"Mm," Prince hummed for a moment, hurrying forward to walk beside me. "The low-leveled ones kinda just litter the tunnels, so there are those we can fight if we come across any, but there's also a main room deeper in the mountain where the high-leveled trolls and the troll king hang out."

"Is that what we're aiming for?" I continued, hoping he wasn't going to say yes.

He shot me a mischievous smile and nodded, much to my annoyance. "Of course! The troll king drops the best stuff, after all."

"I see," I murmured faintly, wondering why he was so eager to fight something that was most likely going to be horrible. But I hoped it wouldn't be as bad as the dragon king. I'd only been around that monstrosity for fifteen minutes or so when I helped take it down, and it had made me permanently paranoid that every roar I heard while walking to the caves was the dragon king coming for vengeance against us. Whether or not a NPC was actually capable of plotting revenge was another matter.

"What sort of attacks does the troll king use?" I inquired after a moment. If I really had to fight the stupid boss monster, I wanted to be as prepared as possible, since I'd flown head-long into the dragon king fight without having any idea what was going on, or what to do. Unfortunately, I doubted my new ring and its electric attacks would be much use in this particular ice-filled situation.

"It can use attacks from all three sides of the combat triangle," Prince began. "The magic attacks are all ice based; blasts of ice that can freeze players for a certain number of minutes, and spontaneous blizzards that limit visibility while it regenerates its health points.

"As for range; it throws rocks, chunks of ice and whatever else it can get its hands on—it even threw another troll at me, one time—and lastly it can punch and bite and kick, obviously, and it has a giant spiked club it swings around," he listed, ticking off each attack on his fingers while a cloud of his breath in the cold air nearly made him disappear from view. "Probably other stuff, too," he ended with a shrug.

"Any weaknesses? Places I should specifically shoot…?" I furthered, trying very hard to keep my feet moving forward when they suddenly felt like they were attempting to turn me around. Dib's old cowardice seemed to have rubbed off onto me. Or maybe it was just because these people seemed to aim for the deadliest monsters possible, while I aimed for ones I could take out while hiding, regardless of whether or not they dropped lots of expensive loot.

"Sunlight is any troll's major weakness," he supplied, "but since we're, well, _under a mountain_, we use fire instead. You could light your arrows using Doll's flaming skeletons, or ask Yu Lian to light them with her magic.

"I'm not really sure where you should shoot, though. Gui just kind of…shoots everything. Maybe the stomach or legs. Their heads are pretty thick, so you should ignore those. Just as a warning," he added, holding up a finger, "they sometimes charge you head-first. Step to one side when they do, they probably won't notice that you got out of the way. They usually crash into the wall and stupidly deal damage on themselves."

Laughing slightly at the thought, I nodded at him briefly and hoped I'd be able to retain all of that information for later. "Thank you for the explanation. I should be able–"

"Prince," Gui called in a cold tone, which easily outmatched our icy surroundings. I didn't dare turn to look at him, since his frosty voice alone told me what sort of expression he was making at that moment. The unspoken jealousy in that one word nearly made my blood freeze.

"What?" Prince lightly replied, not seeming to notice anything.

"Come here, please," Gui requested, softer than before, but not any less murderous. "You should look at the map of the tunnels."

"What‽" Prince repeated in annoyance, but paused to wait for Gui to catch up. However, I didn't dare stop. "I just looked at it earlier!"

"You could have looked at it two seconds ago and you'd still get lost," Lolidragon remarked with a chuckle. Her intentions to lighten the suddenly very dark atmosphere were obvious. I kept walking as Prince grumbled a retort, and tried my hardest to calm my pounding heart.

Love certainly had the potential to make people frightening.

"That was scary," Dib whispered over my shoulder.

I nodded in response, not trusting myself to form words just yet. I wondered if my conversation with Prince had just smashed all my efforts to stay on Gui's good side. It wasn't as though I could ignore the elf—Gui would probably get angry at me for being rude to him—but apparently I wasn't allowed to talk to him, either.

All I'd done was ask about a troll, it wasn't as though I'd been flirting with him. In fact, I was fairly certain that talking about trolls left a person no room whatsoever to flirt in the slightest. Why would I want to flirt with a man, anyway? Or anyone else, for that matter?

Sighing, I continued along the ice-coated tunnel, wishing I could figure out a way to make amends, hopefully sooner, rather than later. It was getting increasingly difficult to hold myself back from demanding an audience with Gui. I knew that would only make things worse, but waiting for it to happen was even more anxiety-inducing.

Prince suddenly flashed past me with a slight laugh and an eager gleam in his red eyes. With bewilderment over what it was he was doing, I followed his swift progress visually rather than trying to keep up on foot, feeling increasingly confused until I noticed what it was he was running toward.

He pulled out his black dao almost faster than I could see and ran it through an unsuspecting troll that had been blending in with the tunnel wall several meters ahead of us.

Now that I had time to observe his fighting, I could finally understand what Dib had told me when he described the "horror movie style" Adventurers' Tournament matches the Odd Squad had been in.

Dark blood spattered all over the walls and floor—and all over Prince himself, not that he seemed to care—as he lopped off the troll's limbs one by one, a cruel smile dancing on his lips the whole while. The echoing shrieks of pain and anger coupled with the blunt noises of sword meeting bone made an all new set of goosebumps form on my skin, joining the ones from the chilly air blowing through the tunnel.

When the troll finally collapsed, Prince gave a satisfied sigh and flicked a bit of blood off his dao before sheathing it and crouching down amongst scattered, hacked-up body parts and piles of bloody organs to pick up the loot the pitiful creature dropped after its abrupt and very violent demise.

The whole process had taken a matter of seconds, but I felt as though everything had gone in slow motion. In my daze, I wasn't sure if I wanted to feel impressed at Prince's courage and fighting skills, or to feel sorry for the troll. Feeling sick was also a rather tempting choice.

A hand on my shoulder made me jump slightly and I turned, wide-eyed, to look down at Lolidragon. She stared at me for a moment, then started laughing at my horrified expression. I stood still while she slapped my arm a few times and sighed deeply, chuckling off and on. "I know. It takes time to get used to Prince in his 'Blood Elf' mode."

"Stop _calling_ me that!" Prince snapped, his voice reverberating noisily through the air as he stood up and shot Lolidragon a frown before starting off down the tunnel again, wiping a bit of troll blood off his cheek. Taking a shaky breath, I reluctantly followed after.

Several hours later, we'd managed to kill the troll king twice, and countless other trolls as well. Perhaps Dib had been correct in thinking it was better to train with a team, since we'd gotten quite a bit more experience and loot than if it had been just us two.

Though Gui had looked as if he'd been trying to kill me with his eyes the entire time, I'd actually enjoyed myself. The team's friendliness was quite heart-warming. Unlike my previous experiences with groups of people in real life where everyone treated me like some sort of glorious deity simply because of my forced social status, the Odd Squad, like Dib, had accepted me as an equal and a friend.

Companionship, something I'd thought I would never need, had suddenly become like air to me.


	22. Potential Teammates

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>Several days passed in an oddly calm manner. My father had gone somewhere—all he'd told me was that he would be back in a week—Gui Wen had been much more quiet after we'd actually started training in <em>Second Life<em>, and Heng and I hadn't fought yet again, either. Without the pull from those three that had been yanking me back and forth, I had a great deal more ease than before. Plus that cough and stomach ache had completely disappeared, leaving me as my usual, healthy enough self. Apparently it was simply some little bug, and not ulcers at all. I was very relieved.

My relatively cheery day was further brightened when an unexpected guest appeared in the doorway to my office when the lunch hour was about to begin. "Hey," Delun greeted, waving one hand as he strode inside. It seemed he was in one of his much more mellow moods, rather than having his Protective Older Brother switch on, but that was probably only because his family wasn't there.

"Hey," I returned, smiling up at him as he stopped in front of my desk. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm working on a project with the construction department here. Had some blueprints to drop off and I heard your father was gone, so I figured it would be safe to come by over lunch." He gave a sweeping glance to the neatly arranged papers stacked all over my desk, then raised an eyebrow. "Unless you're too busy to go to the cafeteria?"

"Ah…" I set my pen down and rolled my chair backward. "No, I have…time." Frowning in bewilderment, I looked past Delun's shoulder to where Heng was curiously eying Delun around the edge of the door frame, then started staring at me instead. Didn't he have anything better to do than find excuses to come into my office? And why did he look like he was trying to hide?

"You may come in," I said after he didn't, inwardly smirking at his weird behavior. Looking somewhat embarrassed that he'd been spotted, Heng straightened with a cough and entered the office, quickly holding out the usual report to me. "Thank you," I told him, setting it to one side. Standing up, I sent another smile to Delun and stepped out from behind the desk. "Okay, now we can go."

"Alright. I've got a little over half an hour to waste before I've gotta leave." He gave a glance back to me while I followed him out of the office area and toward the elevators. "So what've you got here that's tasty?"

"I have no idea. I have only been to the cafeteria once or twice, and those times were only to get tea. Sorry to be so unhelpful."

At my apology, he smiled slightly and shrugged while I pressed the down button on one of the closed elevators. "Oh, well. We'll find out."

He and I stepped into the elevator and I lifted a hand to press the button for the third floor. Before the doors could close, Heng suddenly hurried inside. I gave him a reproving look and he grinned, then placed himself in a corner, still staring questioningly between Delun and I. I felt like I was being followed. But perhaps he was simply going to the cafeteria as well. It was the lunch hour, after all, so it wouldn't at all be strange. And at least it was Heng that had come into the elevator. That way I could drop the polite act. The relentless staring was getting on my nerves, though.

"Zian, are you busy tonight?" Delun asked me when the elevator began to move, the numbers flashing from the nineteenth floor to the eighteenth.

"No, why?"

"Want to come over for dinner?"

I laughed faintly at the unexpected invitation. "After you looked so angry the other night when I arrived, _you're_ asking me that?"

He rolled his eyes and huffed, "Yes, _I_ am. My parents keep going on and on about how they'd just lo-o-o-ove to see you again, and they knew I was coming here today, so they wanted me to ask. Chen and my sisters, too. Although Shuang seems a bit reluctant to have you over after you nearly killed Xiao Pang."

"I did not," I grumbled. "As I recall, Xiao Pang got away from that little accident completely unscathed, as did the rest of your koi, unless they have perhaps somehow gotten some sort of psychological trauma from it. Anyway, yes. I'd love to come over for dinner. Shall I bring a change of clothes this time, just in case you decide to muddle up my suit again?" I inquired with slight amusement. "Even with a thorough washing at your house and at mine, the fabric still smells slightly of pond water."

"That wasn't my fault!" Delun snapped. "You fell all on your own!"

"You're the one who fell first," I pointed out. "I was simply rescuing you. Or would you rather I'd let you fall in? Then Shuang-mèi would be mad at _you_ for almost squishing poor Xiao Pang."

"If you hadn't sneaked up on us, I wouldn't have tripped," he growled, glaring at me out of the corner of his eye.

"And again, you are the one who sneaked up on me first." I smiled when he looked extremely annoyed. "I assure you, the whole time Jiao and I were simply talking. And also weeding the flowerbeds. I am sure she would have been more than willing to have you there as well. You should have just asked."

"I was going to," he murmured sulkily, "but then Chen stopped me. She and Mei Rong-mèi kept yelling at me to let you two have time alone."

"Well, if we go for another walk about the garden tonight, you all should come with us. I'm sure Jiao would love to have more people there to help with the weeding. Then again, I don't want to fall in the pond a second time, so maybe we should stay indoors."

"Should be fine if we stay on the paths, right?" he mused, smirking, then he added, "Going outside while it's so hot seems like a good idea for you, rather than staying inside where it's all air conditioned." He pulled on the lapel of my black suit jacket, gave a glance at what I was wearing on the inside, then clicked his tongue. "Really, a dark-colored, three-piece suit in this weather would roast anyone but you…What are you, ectothermic?"

"It does feel that way sometimes," I murmured, shrugging while the elevator door finally slid open.

"I'm sure my family will be relieved to know that you didn't get sick, at least," Delun commented while we walked down the long hallway, Heng still stubbornly following along behind at a distance. Delun gave me a sidelong glance, frowning slightly. "You didn't, did you? You sounded like you had a sore throat already."

"No, I am fine now. I did not—Ah, it is right here," I said, patting him on the shoulder when he almost walked past the glass double doors leading into the bustling cafeteria.

"Hm? Oh." He quickly changed directions, following me inside. The people in our path immediately came to a halt, and then got out of our way, many not looking at us, others at a distance giving me the usual looks with varying levels of curiosity, annoyance and disdain. Delun glanced around in bewilderment, sticking close to me and whispering, "What's up with these creepy people‽" while we easily strode through the clear path we now had to the lunch counter. All I had to do was appear, and the crowds parted for me like the same polar ends of magnets repelling one another.

"They are always like this. Ignore them," I muttered tiredly, pushing a red, plastic food tray into his hands. "Give me the tray once you have chosen. I do not have to pay. It will save you money."

Delun snorted and held the tray away from me. "Have you treat me to lunch? I'll buy it myself, thanks."

"Is there something wrong with an older brother treating his younger brother?" I teased.

With a frown, he huffed, "Quit getting ahead of yourself. You're not my older brother."

"What, do you want to be the elder? That will not quite work if we go by age, but if we go by seniority of time spent being part of your family–"

"Shut up," he snapped, sticking his nose in the air and stomping off to choose his food. Quietly laughing, I followed after him, scooping up a warmed bottle of tea off the counter as I went. I was definitely looking forward to having the chance to pick on him whenever I had the chance in the years to come. It was a lot of fun having a brother-type figure in my life, even if he was extremely reluctant to admit that that's what we were going to be.

After he ate and left, I made my way back to the elevator, half-empty bottle of tea in my hand, still laughing to myself as I pressed the button for the nineteenth floor. I sighed when, yet again, Heng—he'd disappeared somewhere after Delun and I went into the cafeteria—squished himself through the doors before they could close. I nearly told him to stop stalking me, but stayed silent and kept my eyes on the shiny metal door instead.

"Al, can we meet after work?" he quietly asked, staring at my reflection.

"You know I already have plans tonight," I mumbled in annoyance over his determination to bother me. Not that I didn't want to spend time with him, but I was more than happy to settle with only seeing him at night if it meant the danger level would be at a minimum.

"I know, but I meant before you have to go to dinner."

"I have no time in between. I'll be leaving for his house right after work."

"Tomorrow, then? It's Saturday, so we have more free time," he offered, giving me a hopeful glance. "And that guy said your father is gone, so…"

"I'll think about it."

"Should we meet at the cake shop?" he eagerly asked, acting like I'd already agreed.

I shook my head, slowly unscrewing the cap to my tea bottle. "No. My father told me not to go there anymore."

Heng's eyes widened while I took a long drink. "He already found out?"

"Yes. He confronted me about it the morning after," I informed, rolling my eyes. "I told you he would know about it right away, didn't I?"

"Geeze." With a sigh and a determined frown, Heng nodded. "I'll think up someplace else."

"You do that," I murmured under my breath, quickly stepping out of the elevator when the doors smoothly slid open. Until work was over, I closed myself in my office, completing as much as I could so I would be able to meet with Heng tomorrow afternoon—assuming I felt it was safe to do so—and then left for the Lin house. After another somewhat awkward, but much less anxious dinner with the entire family, I found myself sitting once again on Delun and Chen's bed, placed between the Very Guarded Delun and Mei Rong in the circle of people, Chen and Jiao sitting on either side of the other two. Maybe this was some ordinary thing they did every day, having little sibling conferences in the bedroom, but I wondered why they simply didn't use the sitting room downstairs. Perhaps they felt the bed more comfy than the couches and armchairs or something.

"So!" Mei Rong chirped, roughly slapping my back. "Gēge, did your dad say anything about the wedding yet? Date? Location? Color scheme?"

"Ple-e-ease," Jiao sighed, "don't start up this conversation again…"

"Aw, come on, Jiĕjie," her sister pleaded, bouncing up and down on the springy mattress. "You don't have to be that reluctant!"

Jiao glared at her and fell silent, obviously not wanting to continue discussing the topic. Having no idea what was going on in Jiao's head, I didn't say anything and instead stared down at my hands as I twisted them around themselves, wondering why she was so evasive to talking about the wedding. Did she really not like me? Was it something I did? Or maybe some I didn't do? I'd never tried to make a girl like me before, so I was at a complete loss for correcting the situation. She was plenty friendly and polite, but there was nothing at all beyond that. To be honest, I wasn't particularly interested in her in that way, either; she was turning into more of a sister-type person, but I felt obligated to force myself to see her as a romantic partner.

It wasn't working very well, and the results were obviously mutual.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to let myself to relax with the laid-back atmosphere of the siblingness, or if I wanted to panic about our future, which was starting to look not at all like I'd been hoping.

Well, perhaps the wedding wouldn't be for quite some time, so maybe we would have more chances to close the gap ourselves before it was forced shut.

"Okay, something else to talk about…" Mei Rong tilted her head back to stare up at the ceiling, her long hair brushing the blankets behind her.

"Hobbies?" Chen suggested, smiling brightly. "What do you do in your spare time, Gēge?"

Ignoring the glance of annoyance that Delun lobbed at me, I thought for a moment. _Second Life_ was the only thing that came to mind. That was a topic I wanted to avoid. Fewer people knowing I played meant less of a risk of that fact reaching ears I didn't want it to reach. Although I didn't think these people would tell my father about it. They hadn't told him about my call with Heng the other night, so they seemed trustworthy. However, I was still very hesitant to disclose such things.

Anyway, I wasn't sure how they would react to the fact that I played a game all night long. Weren't games like that usually associated with kids and teenagers? Not that I was an _old_ person, and, if Heng, Gui Wen and some of the others were any indication, plenty of adults played _Second Life_ as well.

"I don't do much of anything, aside from work," I finally offered, feeling like a very boring person.

"So you do _something_, just not very much," Delun concluded, smirking slightly as he also slapped my back—the same spot Mei Rong had just hit, causing my poor skin to sting. They all stared at me, obviously expecting an answer, but I kept my mouth shut, feeling somewhat frightened under the oppressive attention.

Giving my reluctant expression a sigh, Chen continued, "It is not like we're going to make fun of you if you tell us, you know."

"I'm not concerned about that," I mumbled in reply, wondering if I was telling the truth.

"Okay, let's go around the circle then, starting with me!" Mei Rong declared, importantly clearing her throat. "I take dance classes! Jazz! It's super fun. I also love listening to music!"

Chen, the next in line, looked rather flustered as if she hadn't prepared an answer yet. "Oh, ah, um…I like to read, and play with Shuang—then again, that's more like a job, not really a hobby…I also like to garden a bit, but nowhere near as much as Jiao-mèi. Just raising some flowers and stuff."

Jiao's answer was prompt, brief, and predictable. "Gardening."

"Hm," Delun hummed. "I also like to read. And I draw a lot, but it's usually things for work, designs for buildings and whatnot. And in my spare time I like messing around with wood work and carpentry type stuff."

Once he'd finished talking, all eyes were once again on me, staring expectantly. I took a deep breath and worried my fingers along the thick cuff of my jacket sleeve. "Well, with as much as I work, I don't really have any spare time other than in the evenings, but, um…Would it be odd to say I play a game?" I questioned hesitantly, locking my gaze on the wall to avoid looking at their responses.

"No," came the response from all four, giving me a small, knowing smiles while Chen added, "We do, too!"

I nearly smiled at the mental images of Delun playing _Second Life_, another place where I could annoy him, but I managed to keep a politely interested look on my face.

"What game is it?" Jiao asked.

I glanced at her for a moment before returning my stare to the wall and reluctantly murmuring, "_Second Life_…"

"You play _Second Life_‽" Mei Rong suddenly exclaimed, and I jumped in surprise, accidentally crashing into Delun. Feeling extremely frightened at her reaction, which I wasn't sure as to whether it was positive or negative, I nodded wildly. "That's the one we play!" she continued, grinning widely.

"You do?" I replied in a very small voice, settling back down in my seat.

She nodded, and Chen asked, "Which continent are you on?"

"Central," I answered with a great deal of relief now that they seemed to be taking my activities lightly.

"What city?"

"Star City as of right now, but I've never really settled down in one."

Jiao's eyes widened. "Where the Grand Melee will be? Are you going to be competing?"

"No!" I denied quickly, feeling sick at the thought, but then paused, calming myself down. "No, I'm not."

"Are you on a team?" Chen inquired.

I shrugged, laughing slightly. "If my one friend and I count as a 'team,' then yes, I suppose I am."

Mei Rong made an "ooo" noise and Delun suddenly started shaking his head and waving his hand, hastily snapping, "No! No!" but she ignored him and asked, "Could we come and train with your two-person team?"

"If you would like," I answered, giving an amused glance to Delun's fuming expression.

"We're near Moon City," Chen supplied, scrunching her eyebrows together for a moment. "If we go there, we can teleport to Star City and meet up with you. We've been meaning to go there, anyway, to watch the competition. Since it's still a few weeks off, we weren't planning on going just yet, but now we will."

I made a noise of agreement as a slight annoyance filled me. I wondered why I hadn't thought of the teleportational facilities in each of the cities back when I wanted to return to Sun City. Then again, Heng hadn't said anything to me about teleporting when he and I were leaving Sun City, and we flew the entire way to Star City for five days straight. Knowing how much more knowledgeable at games he was than I, he definitely knew about that particular method of transportation.

That little brat…

"Is that good?" Jiao interrupted my rising anger at Heng's withholding of such important information.

"Ah, yes," I agreed, nodding quickly. "But I'm training on ice trolls with my brother's team at the moment. We should be finished the day after tomorrow, so we can meet you guys then when we return to the city."

"Sure," she said with a wide smile.

I involuntarily smiled back, feeling happy I'd finally found Heng and I some teammates. Not only would he finally have more company, as he liked, but they were also people I actually knew, and in turn, I'd also be able to spend more time with Jiao and give Gui more space, since Heng and I would be able to train on more difficult monsters without having to rely on the Odd Squad for help. It seemed like a rather nice situation, all around, assuming the four of them fit in with Heng and I. He may have wanted more teammates, but I knew it wouldn't be good to offer them anything concrete other than training together before Heng and I decided if they would be beneficial to team up with.

I hoped they were.


	23. Cautionary Thoughts

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Although I was very reluctant to do so, I met with Heng the next afternoon. Since the cake shop had been crossed off our list of suitable meeting places, we decided to meet up at a small café for tea, sitting outdoors at a small wrought iron table underneath a giant white umbrella. I didn't much like the idea of sitting with him right out in public where we would be completely exposed, but he arrived with his usually all-over-the-place hair neatly parted, clad in more formal-looking clothing than he would normally be on a day off work during the weekend, and was also wearing his sunglasses again, this time on his face instead of on top of his head. With the different way he looked, I hoped he wouldn't be easily recognized by anyone watching me in my father's absence.<p>

"So," I breathed, looking at Heng while he ate a large spoonful of chocolate ice cream, "what is so terribly urgent that you just had to meet with me?"

"Nothing," he replied, frowning. "Since all we've been doing in _Second Life_ lately is fight monsters nonstop, we've barely had any time to talk or anything. I just wanted to hang out with you in real life. Is that so wrong?"

Sighing, I gave an uneasy glance around the crowded sidewalk outside the café's closed-in dining area. "For us, yes, and you know that perfectly well. Just because my father is gone for a week doesn't mean we can drop all of our caution. He'll simply find out about this later than he would if he was home."

"I know. But it's just a little outing, and I dressed differently than usual…Anyway, yesterday you agreed to have dinner with that other guy right away."

"Of course. I had no reason to decline. Rather, it was beneficial for me to accept."

Heng's face took on an even sulkier turn. "You looked all chummy with him. Who is he?"

"Have you heard of the Lin family?" I asked, taking a sip of my hot, fruity tea while I wondered what yesterday's dinner had to do with anything. I had assumed that he was already aware that I went to dinners with business partners. Not that that was a business dinner from my view, but to my father it was, and other than wanting to get to know the Lin siblings on a more personal level, my father's approval for getting closer to them was also one of the reasons I'd accepted.

"Yeah. I know of a lot of stores and stuff they've built. Their company does business with yours a lot, don't they?"

I nodded. "That man was Lin Delun, the heir of the company and one of their most skilled architects."

Heng's eyes widened slightly in surprise behind his dark glasses. "An important guy, huh?" he remarked, falling silent for several minutes while he slowly stirred his spoon around in the small bowl of melty ice cream. "I sometimes forget that you're…" With a small sigh, he smiled up at me. "So were you exaggerating when you described your so-called 'friends' to me? He didn't seem like he was sucking up to you."

"Oh, no, Delun's not one of them," I corrected, laughing. "He isn't like them at all. He's rather rude, really. Hasn't tried to smooth talk me even once. And I only just met him and his family for the first time earlier this week. I was at his house that day you and I spoke on the phone…and then you hung up on me before I had a chance to tell you," I suddenly remembered, frowning in annoyance. "Why'd you do that, anyway? I really _wasn't_ busy. Unless you count watching while his younger sister and daughter jumped on a bed as a very in-depth activity requiring a great deal of attention, which it didn't."

His cheeks turned slightly pink while he looked away from me, slowly eating another bite of ice cream while he muttered, "Well, you sounded like you were…all relaxed and having a lot of fun…It made me mad. I hung up without thinking. Sorry."

I gave him a blank stare of disbelief. "You got mad at me because I was having fun?"

"No, I mean…I wasn't mad _at you_. I don't mind that you were enjoying yourself. That's a good thing. But it made me mad that…" He paused, his face flushing even more. "Don't laugh, but…I know it sounds stupid, but I was kinda mad that you were having fun while _I_ wasn't there. And…and also yesterday…I didn't know what you were talking about with Delun in the elevator. It was annoying."

When he finished his scattered explanation, I couldn't help but smile at the familiarity of his irritation. I'd been thinking those same things after I'd seen him chatting so happily with that man at the cake shop, feeling so annoyed that he had someone else he enjoyed spending time with. But I'd just thought I was being conceited. It was nice to hear that the feelings were mutual. And although I didn't really want him to be mad, it made me happy nonetheless.

"Wh-what're you looking so amused for over there_‽_" Heng heatedly grumbled, glaring at me after I didn't reply right away.

After draining my teacup, I set it back down on the small saucer and rested my chin on my hand, staring down at the tabletop. "It's not amusement. I was just thinking…My father is so convinced that people like you, who aren't ridiculously rich and powerful, are so lowly and insignificant. And yet here we are, two people whom he thinks are so different from one another, thinking the same things."

Heng looked confused, so I continued, "To be honest, that evening we met at the cake shop, I was also rather annoyed, meeting someone else who's a friend to you. Since you and I are always together in _Second Life_, I hadn't ever really given any thought to what you do and who you spend time with outside the game. It made me jealous, I guess, seeing that other side of your life that I can't be a part of. Not being able to be with you openly like you can with him. And then I was all mad at myself that night, because—Now why are _you_ all amused_‽_" I snapped after looking up to see him gleefully grinning from ear to ear. Here I was telling him all these embarrassing things, and he looked like he was about to laugh.

"I'm not amused, I'm happy," he corrected, attempting to hide his up-turned mouth behind his hands. "Geeze, Al. Saying all that mushy stuff with a straight face." He chuckled, and then leaned over the table, a teasing look dancing over his face. "You were jealous of him, huh? You're so cute."

Face flushing in humiliation over his reaction, I quickly slid my chair back and got out my wallet, striding over to the café entrance to buy another cup of tea to leave with, determined never to tell Heng anything like that ever again. I knew he was only playing, but it made me mad all the same.

"Al, wait!" Heng called, hurrying up behind me. "Sheesh, not even asking if I was done yet."

"I'm done, so I'm leaving. Go ahead and stay here to eat more ice cream and get fat or whatever you want to do," I told him, angrily crossing my arms as I stood in line for the cash register. I immediately uncrossed them afterward, feeling more embarrassed when I suddenly realized what a childish thing that was to do. Dib had been a bad influence on me.

"You don't have to be that mad," he pouted. "Come on, let's stay a little longer. It's barely even been ten minutes."

I ignored him while I bought a small styrofoam cup of hot oolong tea, then walked back outside and out onto the crowded walk with Heng at my heels, still grumbling things under his breath. I went in the opposite direction from where I'd parked my car down the road. I may have been very annoyed with him, but I didn't want to actually leave yet. After all, it was a rare opportunity to spend time with him and I wasn't about to toss it just because he'd riled me up again. It was a daily occurrence anymore.

After we'd gone several blocks, once again taking turns at random just like in T City, I decided to stop pretending that I couldn't hear him. "Anywhere else you want to go?" I asked when his mumbles of the usual "You jerk," had finally subsided.

He seemed somewhat surprised that I wasn't attempting to get rid of him, but suddenly took my hand and pulled me down a smaller side street with much fewer people and cars crowding it. "I've got an idea," he said, immediately looking very cheery again.

"Where?" I glanced at the street sign, and then at my surroundings, not recognizing anything.

"You'll see when we get there." With a childish smile, he refused to tell me anything else, so I didn't bother asking anything more and instead quietly drank more of my tea, hoping I wasn't going to get caught. It was one thing to meet out in the open in a not-suspicious place, but another thing entirely to meet out in the open in a place I wouldn't normally be seen in.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, suddenly remembering last night's conversation in Delun's bedroom. Heng glanced at me with a quirked eyebrow. "I forgot to tell you," I hastily said, patting Heng's arm. "Last night Delun, his wife and his sisters said that they wanted to meet you and I in _Second Life_, and I agreed. I hope you don't mind. I mean, I didn't offer to be actual teammates, because I wanted you there to discuss those sorts of things, since they're important, but I did agree to meet up with them. We haven't made any plans yet for what we should do after we leave the ice trolls, so I figured it would be okay."

Heng slowly shook his head, eyes widening. "No, it's fine. I don't mind. Wasn't expecting something like that, though…Only met him earlier this week and you've already told him about _Second Life_, huh? He must be really different from your other friends to be trusted so much so fast."

"Mm," I muttered, shrugging while I took another drink of tea. "Well, as I said, he's not like them."

With a nod, Heng went silent, his cheery face darkening somewhat while we continued on down the quiet street. Feeling somewhat afraid of his abrupt mood change, I looked about the scenery and tried to distract myself from the increasingly gloomy person at my side. The tall buildings of glass and metal, which filled the downtown area, were steadily being replaced with smaller stores and houses, and the passerby were much more sparse, and consisted of women and children and the occasional man, rather than the trendy teenagers and the professional-looking adults going about their business. Wherever we were headed, it was definitely not a place I'd been before.

Starting to feel annoyed that he wasn't saying anything, I glanced up at his blank expression. "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer right away, but finally shrugged and let out a long sigh. "…It's just that you were so suspicious and closed off with me before, even though I told you over and over again I don't have an agenda for befriending you, but now you've gotten all friendly with Delun after a measly few days. You even told him about _Second Life_, and I thought that was supposed to be a really big secret."

"It wasn't like I wanted to tell them," I said, frowning. "They forced it out of me. Anyway, it would have come out sooner or later, because they told me that they're coming to Star City to watch the Grand Melee. We probably would have run into them, even if I hadn't agreed to meet."

"I guess," he allowed in a sulky tone. "I think…I got used to being your only _real_ friend. Not that I don't want you to make more friends, because I still do," he quickly added, "but…Ah, I dunno. It's just really sudden."

"Now who's being jealous?" I quietly teased, biting down on the plastic lid of my tea. When he gave me an annoyed glance, I lightly patted him on the back. "Don't worry, it's not like I'm close with him or anything. I doubt at this stage we could even be called friends. More like acquaintances. But the title of one and only and first best friend is all yours, and hopefully always will be."

Heng tightly pressed his lips together and looked like he was attempting not to smile while he crossed his arms, face once again turning red. "Geeze," he mumbled, the enormous smile taking over as he shook his head. "You're so mushy today."

Not knowing how to reply, I shrugged and returned my attention to my tea. It was just the truth, and not something particularly embarrassing like the stuff I'd been saying earlier about how I'd been irrationally jealous of Cake Shop Man and his friendship with _my_ friend.

My eyes narrowed thoughtfully when I ran those last two words through my head a second time. Hadn't Meatbun told me something like that before? And about the same person, at that. I'd never been particularly possessive of or selfish with anyone or anything before, and yet here I was being clingy with another person for the first time. It was a confusing feeling, but not an unpleasant one.

"Just so you know," Heng suddenly blurted, "the guy you mentioned earlier, the one at the cake shop, he's just a friend. And I barely see him. A couple times a week, and only for a few minutes at the cash register while I'm buying whatever…I mean, sometimes I stay to chat if we both have time, but I don't try to hang out with him like I do with you. Just so you know that he's only a friend," he repeated, sounding anxious for some reason. After a moment of silence, he said, "Okay?"

"Okay," I replied, smiling faintly in bemusement. What else would the guy be, if not a friend?

Heng suddenly yanked on my elbow and pulled me off the sidewalk. "We're here!" he chirped, finally lifting up his sunglasses and perching them on top of his head. In confusion and slight interest, I glanced around, wondering why he brought me to a place like this.

A children's playground, complete with many screaming children.

"I used to come here when I was a kid and had time to waste," he excitedly explained, tugging me over to a squeaky swing set covered with peeling bright blue paint. "Also used to bring my little brothers a lot, but now they're all tough and grown-up twelve-year-olds and don't really like playing here. Or at least, that's what they say."

"Oh," I muttered, watching intently while a little girl swung to and fro, high into the air. It looked extremely dangerous and I was filled with an urge to remove her from her seat before she had a chance to fall and hurt herself. Past experience with being required to catch Dib and Shuang had begun to make me paranoid that any children nearby were going to come flying at me without any warning.

Heng patted a hand on an empty swing, then grabbed the chains, roughly shaking them around and making them noisily jangle together. "Sit! I'll push you!"

Clutching nervously at my tea, I slowly stepped forward. "Let go of it first," I ordered, "I don't want you to push me." Not that I knew how I was supposed to make myself go, but that little girl was doing just fine on her own, so I could, too. I hoped. Anyway, Heng was so strong he would probably push me way too high. Or push me right off the swing.

When he obediently released the chains, I sat and stared down at the hard-packed, dusty ground for a moment, wondering what I was supposed to do first. "Al, have you ever done this before?" Heng asked, regrabbing the chains and leaning over me with a small, amused smile that was bordering on superiority.

"No, I've never been on any sort of playground equipment before," I admitted, then pulled myself forward a bit to make him let go again. "But it's simple physics. Should be easy," I mumbled more to myself than to him. I jumped and tilted my head backward to glare up at him when he put his hands on the small of my back and began to push me into the air. "Stop that! I want to do it myself! Hold my tea!"

He laughed and took the cup from me while taking a few steps to one side, watching while I tightly held onto the chains—I didn't have wings to save me if I fell off, after all—and used my feet to move myself backward. But then I dug my heels into the dirt when Heng once again attempted to assist. "No! Stop, Dib! I said _I_ want to do it! I don't need help!" I huffed, twisting around to wave my arm at him, then pointed at the swing next to me. "Sit there, so I can keep an eye on you!"

Sighing and rolling his eyes, Heng seated himself on the appointed swing, smirking at me as he started easily swinging one-handedly back and forth. "Fine, you jerk. See if I try to help you anymore." That being said, his face took on a smug turn as he swung all the higher. I watched his movements with great concentration for a few moments, then looked forward again, copying what he'd done. Technically I supposed that observing him was still getting help, but whatever. As long as he wasn't trying to push me.

After an experimental couple swings, leg pumps, and arm pulls, I managed to get the hang of what I was supposed to do, and, feeling very proud of myself, I watched as the ground underneath me fell away and zoomed back up over and over. Swinging was sort of like flying, only nowhere near as high, and I wasn't actually going anywhere. It was still quite fun, though.

My pleased smile fell off when I looked at Heng.

He was drinking my tea.

"Hey!" I snapped, turning to look behind myself as his swing flew off in the other direction.

"What, do you want it back?" he asked when he whooshed past. He held the cup out between our swings, but I kept my hands locked around the chains, not wanting to let go just in case I lost my balance.

"No, never mind. You may keep it," I muttered sullenly.

"I don't have any horrible, contagious diseases, you know," he told me, leaning way back as he swung forward. "Or are you too scared to let go of the chain to take it?" I stayed silent, not wanting to admit that was the case. However, he seemed to know, even without my saying so. "You wimp. Here, catch!" he offered, tossing the cup at me. Eyes widening, I reflexively grabbed it with one hand while I flew forward, and then hastily took hold of the swing's chain with my elbow. Frowning, I shook the cup, which was much lighter than before. He'd drank all of it, that brat. I shouldn't have trusted him with something edible.

"Thanks, Al. It was tasty," he said, smiling playfully when I glared at him. "You're so thoughtful, buying that for me and carrying it a-a-a-all the way here, giving it to me just when I was feeling thirsty. And you even drank some to make sure it wouldn't easily spill when I was swinging."

Feeling very annoyed when he started laughing, I let my feet drop to the ground and slowed myself down, sending a cloud of dust into the breezy air. When I came to a halt, I stood up and strode away toward the nearest garbage can. With a loud thump, Heng leapt off his swing and hurried after me, still chuckling. "Aw, come on, Al," he called when I tossed the cup into the trash. He smiled down at me as he gently patted me on the shoulder, soothing, "Don't be mad, I'll buy you another cup of tea on the way back. Okay?"

I made a grumbly noise in response, not really caring anymore if I had tea or not.

Heng gave a quick, sweeping look around the area, then suddenly yanked me into a brief hug, giving me an even more brief peck on the cheek before stepping back, grinning gleefully as he casually walked toward the park entrance, hands shoved into his pockets and looking as if he hadn't done anything at all.

Staring after him, I stood there in somewhat of a daze, once again wondering just why it was that he did that to me. That was the third time. He was getting bolder, too, seeing as how we were right in the middle of a playground and not in _Second Life_ where there were no spectators. But I supposed that was why he looked around first, not that that really made me much more willing to let him kiss me out in public, or hug me, either. But when we were alone…

I froze at that thought before I let it go any further—why didn't I mind when we were alone? I could have told him not to do that anymore the first time he'd done it. I could have easily told him to stop hanging all over me in-game. The hugging and touching and teasing and everything else that had seemed so normal between us suddenly didn't seem very normal anymore in terms of people who were just friends, best or not. Comparing that behavior to other pairs of friends I knew, such as Gui Wen and his teammates—Prince aside, of course, since he seemed to consider their relationship something beyond friends, although Prince obviously disagreed—he was never so physically close with any of them.

When Heng looked back to me with a warm smile, beckoning me to follow him, my mind wandered into the territory I'd never allowed it to go before; having "that sort" of relationship with another person. A slight understanding that I didn't want to have suddenly filled me when I ran through his side of our conversation from earlier and his behavior up until now. I very much wanted to ask him about it to confirm things, but at that moment, I decided to drop the subject entirely. Why he did it didn't matter, as long as I didn't let him do it again.

For the first time in all of the years I'd been engaged, I had to remind myself that I had a fiancée.

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><p><em>And once again—the chapter at which the story has passed 100,000 words. xD Yay! Thank you, all of you old and new readers, and all of you lurkers, and all of the people who've given me suggestions and comments and support :D You guys are awesome.<em>


	24. Parting Ways

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>"A-ha-ha!"<p>

I turned my head to look blankly at the source of the extremely loud laugh. He was starting to sound like Lolidragon. I wondered if I should have felt surprised, or maybe somewhat sad at the thought, but they had seemed rather similar to begin with, anyway, so I decided to simply take it as it was. They were both weird, however they acted.

"Finally getting yourself into the heat of the fight, hm?"

Without answering his humor-lined question, I slowly drew a hand across my face and wiped off the numerous streaks of dark blood that were running down. I relocated them to Prince's forehead, smirking at him afterward. "No, that wasn't my intention. That last troll simply took me by surprise, spawning behind me like it did."

"Yeah." He nodded vaguely, not seeming to care that he now had even more blood on him. "They do that sometimes…Good thing I was here to chop it for you."

"Right," I agreed half-heartedly, very much wishing for a bath. I doubted I'd ever come to even a sliver of understanding about Prince's love for causing his prey to gush blood everywhere. He seemed to know exactly where to stab to create the biggest blood-spray possible. And only a few moments ago, he had nicely done it right behind me. I'd stupidly turned around to see what he was doing and had received a faceful of the thick, warm liquid.

For some reason, he thought it was endlessly amusing that I didn't like getting even a little bit of blood or anything else on myself or my equipment. Lolidragon and Doll had begun to make it a game to count the drops that had managed to land on me every fight. I wasn't sure, but I wondered if they were making bets about it behind my back.

I jumped slightly in surprise as Dib suddenly leapt on me without warning. He wrapped his arms around my neck and chuckled for a moment as I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure why I wasn't used to his surprise attacks yet, though he'd been doing it for so long. A small voice in my head told me to push him away and tell him not to do that anymore, but another voice stilled my hands as it told me that this much contact was fine. The swirling conflict went on for several seconds in my head, and afterward I still didn't know what to do, so I simply decided to leave things as they were for now.

"Thought I was another troll, didn'cha?"

"At first, but I don't suppose a troll would hug me," I pointed out with a shrug and involuntarily smiled with fondness as he started laughing. Standing up, I stretched out my wings and waited until Ugly Wolf blessed the two of us, and then took off, landing on top of a large ice shelf, far over the swarming trolls.

"Dib," I called in a firm, confident tone.

"Al," Dib answered just as boldly, though the effect was somewhat different with his childish voice.

"No running away this time," I ordered again, as I'd started to do before every fight over the past few nights. I shuffled my boots to the slippery edge while tightening my grip on my longbow. "I'm not going to come and rescue you, unless you really need me to do so."

"I know, I know. I won't," he mumbled, slapping the side of my head.

"Stop hitting me. I need all of my health for this."

"Shut up and get going! They're already fighting!"

Without another word, I fell forward into the frosty, open air over the ice cavern, Dib tightly clutching my back. In a want not to get in Gui's way, I flew us over to the other side of the cavern where the Odd Squad wasn't fighting. Stilling my wings, I glided over the lumpy, blueish troll heads and did my best to keep myself steady while Dib stood up on top of my back and unsheathed his swords. With his high-pitched battle cry, he jumped off and fell toward one of the bulky ice trolls.

Smiling faintly in amusement, I watched for a moment as he landed deftly on the troll's shoulders and began chopping wildly at its neck. Drawing an arrow back, I shot the troll's right knee, distracting it from its attempts at throwing Dib off.

**"Incoming on the left!"** Dib yelled, glancing up at me before returning to his activities. Without looking at what was coming, I dropped two meters and circled around behind the troll, seeing a large chunk of ice harmlessly fly off out of the corner of my eye. I was grateful for Prince's warning from a few days ago that the trolls threw things. I'd already been clobbered several times when I hadn't been watching out for the ranged attacks, but now I was on-guard and ready.

Drawing back another arrow, I shot the back of both of the troll's legs. It dropped to its knees and Dib messily ripped its head off. I shot another troll into the fight, glancing about the ground. Several more trolls were approaching, though I hadn't pulled them. Darn aggressive monsters.

Swooping toward the closest one, I kicked it on my way by and knocked it to the ground. Using the head of an arrow, I stabbed through its eye and roughly dug it around in the troll's eye socket, then launched myself back into the air before the other trolls could grab me. Dib darted forward once I flew off, finishing off the half-blinded troll.

**"Behind you,"** I warned distractedly through my arrow-shooting. Dib immediately whirled around and slid himself through the legs of a troll that had been sneaking up, chopping his swords at the monster's legs as he went. Shooting one last arrow, I turned and flew toward him as he climbed on top of the collapsing troll's head and leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding getting snatched by several other trolls that had him surrounded. I caught him by the arm, swung him upward, and he climbed onto my back again, breathing heavily.

"That was close," he gasped, sheathing his swords and laying down. "That last one bonked me with its club before I could jump."

"Are you okay? Do you want to go to Ugly Wolf‽" I anxiously turned myself in the priest's direction just in case he needed healing.

"No, it's not that bad. Little bit of potion and I'll be fine," he assured, patting my back. Nodding with relief, I lazily circled about far over the cavern floor, watching the Odd Squad as they continued to battle the trolls, and waited for Dib to finish recharging.

Lifting us up near the ceiling, I interestedly looked about the large, transparent and blue-tinted spikes of ice hanging down, and felt rather glad that they weren't falling. Glancing downward, I smiled slightly and raised a hand, curiously prodding the nearest icicle, wondering what would happen if one really did fall.

"Al," Dib cautioned, "don't stab any of the others with that."

"They won't get hit, they're way over there." I waved my bow toward the other side of the cave and continued to poke at the icy spike. Giving it one last forceful push, it came loose with a loud snap and fell point-first toward the trolls below, stabbing one through the top of its shoulder. Its arm fell off a moment later and the troll wildly looked around, roaring in a frustrated manner as if it couldn't tell what had just attacked it.

"Whoa! I wanna try!" Dib suddenly exclaimed, bouncing around and excitedly yanking on my hair. "That big one! I wanna make that one fall!" He pointed toward an icicle nearby that was easily twice as long as I was tall, and several times as wide. It would definitely do a lot of damage to anything it landed on.

Laughing slightly, I obediently flew toward it. Dib began to punch at the thick, frosty ice. With as strong as he was, it took little time for the icicle to come loose, and it fell to the floor with a deafening crash, squishing two trolls underneath and killing them instantly as the sound waves rippled through the air, sending vibrations through icy floor and walls.

"Whoa!" Dib repeated, chuckling in amusement. "This is fun, let's do it again!"

I started flying toward another one, feeling somewhat excited over our new-found attack method, but paused and fearfully looked up, noticing the little crackling noises coming from above. The ceiling was shaking.

Eyes widening in horror, I darted toward Prince and Lolidragon, screaming, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

They glanced up at me, their initial looks of confusion at my behavior quickly slipping into realization and terror when they noticed what I was flying away from. Without hesitation, they turned and ran away toward the other four's refuge under a shelf of ice.

Dib started roaring with laughter as I swooped this way and that, dodging countless icicles falling from above. Fearing for his safety, I yanked on his boot and pulled him underneath me while I continued to fly all over the place, attempting to get to the Odd Squad while not getting skewered. Retracting my wings once we got close, I dropped to the floor and slid the last few meters, crashing into the wall and falling over.

Tightly hugging the still-laughing Dib, I watched in shock as the icicles continued to fall throughout the room, sending crash after crash through the air and stabbing the few remaining trolls—and also Doll's summoned skeletons—to death. The rippling waves of falling ice continued for several more minutes, but the last spike finally fell, shattering into many pieces to join in with the mess all over the cavern floor.

"W-well," Dib chuckled, slapping a hand on my chest as he gasped for breath. "That's o-one way to…to…" He took another moment to laugh. "Very thorough cl-clearing of the room, huh, Al? They're all dead."

"It's not funny!" I snapped, more out of terror than anger. "_We_ could have died!"

"But we didn't," he pointed out, smiling up at me.

Hardly daring to breathe, I cautiously glanced toward the others, wondering if they were mad at us for almost causing their untimely demise. Much as I was expecting, several of them looked rather angry.

Ugly Wolf suddenly stepped forward. On reflex, I re-tightened my grip on Dib and fearfully stared up at the tall priest. "Aeolus," he sighed, "give us more warning next time you decide to cause a spontaneous shower of icicles."

I hastily nodded.

He crouched down and I flinched, wondering what he was doing, but then gasped in surprise as a stabbing pain burst through my leg. Ugly Wolf held up a thin icicle. "You had this poking out of your calf."

"Oh, I hadn't noticed," I shakily replied, frowning down at my wound.

He stared at me a moment as if he didn't believe me, and then ripped out a second icicle. He quickly cast a healing spell—fixing my leg, but unfortunately leaving two large, bloody holes in my leather chaps and the blue cloth leggings underneath—and he then looked toward Dib. "Are you okay?"

Dib nodded, leaning against my chest and sighing. "Stupid Al used himself as a shield, as always. I'm fine."

I stood up and stared over the chaos Dib and I had caused, wondering if we were supposed to go pick up all of the loot. "Now we have to wait for them all to respawn," Gui complained, impatiently tapping his fingers on the side of his guqin.

"Well, this gives us a chance to heal," Ugly Wolf offered with a good-natured smile.

"I don't need healing," he grumbled, frowning in irritation.

"It's not like they're gone forever," Dib snapped at him, "so quit whining!"

Gui glared at the tiny boy in my arms. "We need all of the experience we can get for the Grand Melee, and you two just killed all of our trolls!"

Dib matched his expression. "Who cares‽"

"I DO!" Gui yelled furiously. "YOU TWO ARE GETTING IN THE WAY!"

"THEY–"

"I'm sorry for the trouble," I quickly interrupted. Clamping a hand over Dib's mouth before he could rile up Gui any further, I hurried out from under the ice shelf and carefully stepped over the broken icicles.

"Wait!" Yu Lian called after us. I paused and glanced back as she slowly stumbled over the icy floor. "We have half an hour until the trolls start to respawn in here. Let's pick up the loot before that happens, and go back to Star City. We were already planning on going back tonight, so we might as well leave now while we have the chance. Anyway, there'll be more trolls in the tunnels leading outside."

Reluctantly nodding, I lowered Dib to the ground and sighed as I crouched beside to the nearest troll corpse, picking up the useful items it dropped. **"Why do you let Gui push you arou****nd****‽****"** Dib huffed after a moment of silence. **"You should defend yourself. It wasn't like we meant to do that, and he knows that perfectly well."**

I shook my head as I hurried to the next troll. **"It's better to just leave him be. Nothing good will come out of arguing further."**

**"I know, but still,"** he mumbled, **"he shouldn't talk to you like that. It makes me really angry."**

**"It does bother me,"** I agreed quietly, **"but I just don't want to make him angrier, okay? Please, don't keep fighting with him."**

**"Fine."** Dib shot me a frown and ran off.

Within a few minutes, we'd managed to fill all of our pouches with the loot, and we gathered together at the entrance to the cavern. I crouched on the floor, allowing Dib to climb onto my back. Doll hurried up to me a moment later and I quickly scooped her up in my arms. It had become an unspoken law over the past few days that I was now her chauffeur as well as Dib's. It had been somewhat inconvenient as we wandered the tunnels hunting for trolls whenever we were waiting for the trolls in the cavern to respawn, since I would be carrying her and she'd leap out of my arms without any warning, but I'd slowly gotten used to it. Somewhat.

I stood up, causing my knees to pop noisily. I was feeling very sore from the nearly-nonstop fighting.

I shifted Doll into a more comfortable position and ran my eyes over the rest of the Odd Squad while they all prepared to leave the mountains at last. I was looking forward to being thawed again. Though the relentless training did work up quiet a sweat, I never got really warmed through in the frozen caves like I did outside in the sunshine.

As for frozen things, Gui had once again taken to pretending I didn't exist, and I'd decided to ignore him as well. That probably wasn't a good way to patch things up, but I had long-since become tired of his childish attitude toward me whenever I so much as breathed the wrong way, and had discovered it was much easier to simply match his apathy rather than take everything he did to heart and feel depressed over it. It was his own problem if he wanted to be constantly angry. This would, hopefully, be the last I'd see of him and the others until the Grand Melee, anyway, so he would have plenty of me-free, Prince-filled time after we parted in Star City. Assuming Doll would let me leave.

Once we exited the winding, icy tunnels and got back out into the much warmer, open air, I quickly spread my wings and took off, determined not to walk along that stupid path I'd almost died of fright on a few days ago. Walking was nice, but flying was nicer, especially when there were no deadly factors involved in the process. Though Lolidragon's continued yelling, about how unfair my advantage was, was rather annoying. I was just glad she didn't try to get me to carry her as well.

Regardless of everyone else having to walk, it didn't take us long to leave the mountains behind, and enter the rocky area by their roots.

Lolidragon sighed as she stretched herself out. "I definitely could use a nap."

"I think I could, too," Ugly Wolf agreed blearily, scratching his muzzle for a moment before yawning widely.

They both looked at me in unison, eying Dib with feigned jealousy as he snored quietly from his place on my shoulders. Raising an eyebrow, I turned away from their expectant stares. "No way," I muttered. Doll nodded fervently in agreement, staring at them threateningly as if she would summon skeletons to beat the two off if they tried to climb on me.

They laughed quietly to one another as we walked on. Lolidragon made a "tsk" noise, and patted Ugly Wolf's arm. "Sorry, Wolf-gē, but you're too big for him to carry. He'd snap like a twig under your weight. Dainty Little _Me_, on the other hand–"

"I wouldn't!" I interrupted with a frown, disagreeing more because I didn't like how that sounded, than out of confidence that I would indeed not snap in two or more pieces if I attempted to pick up the enormous wolf, who was probably several times my own weight and over a head taller, besides.

"He doesn't need to be carried. He's so strong, he can do it himself!" Yu Lian declared, causing Ugly Wolf to look extremely embarrassed as he grinned bashfully at his wife. I supposed if he hadn't had fur all over his face, he would have been bright red at that moment.

"Exactly," I agreed with a nod, hurrying along slightly faster to help prove her point. Or perhaps I just wanted to reach Star City sooner so I'd be able to sit down with a nice stamina potion. Our training over the past few days had been fun, but it also had been very taxing on my energy, since I wasn't quite used to the Odd Squad's quick and somewhat chaotic pace. It was nice to train with a team, but I was missing my slow nights alone with Dib.

I didn't bother to listen very attentively as the others began planning a new training schedule for when they'd restocked their supplies and rested up, since I'd already told them Dib and I wouldn't be joining in. I was somewhat glad we'd decided that, because it sounded like they were about to battle something horrible that lived in a swampy area to the west that Dib and I had never explored.

While wondering what Dib and I should go train on, it suddenly hit me that I'd forgotten to ask Delun and the other three where we were supposed to meet. I assumed that they were already in Star City, but would Dib and I be able to find them easily? They'd refused to tell me their in-game names, because the women had wanted to surprise us, so I only had their real-life appearances to base my search on. Knowing how much a person could change their appearance, I wasn't going to assume they looked the same.

After several hours of walking, we arrived at Star City. We made it all the way to the marketplace without running into anyone who resembled the four, so Dib and I decided to have dinner in a tavern before searching some more. The Odd Squad apparently wanted to meet them as well, so they stuck around. But first I wanted to visit the archery shop to get my armor repaired, since I doubted the holes in the leg of my chaps were going to magically fix themselves. I myself had always managed to become clean and unwounded every night without trying, but sadly my equipment still needed tending to every once and a while. Especially now that I'd been training on monsters that could actually retaliate.

Before Dib, who was awake again by then, and I had gone very far through the noisy crowds, an angry shout and a yell of pain from behind made me turn back. My eyes widened in shock when I saw Gui once again flying through the air after getting punched like he had so many times already. However, for once the attacker wasn't Prince, but a black-haired man my height wearing silver, European knight-style armor and a billowing red cape, an enormous long sword hanging at his left hip, and a red-painted broad shield slung across his back.

Regardless of his much-different-than-usual attire, I immediately knew who the person was.

Delun was attacking my brother.

Whirling around, I dashed through the crowded marketplace to see what was happening and, most likely, intervene.

"You damn bastard!" Delun's _Second Life_ avatar screamed, grabbing the front of Gui's purple shirt. "What do you think you're doing flirting with that pretty boy person‽" He wildly waved a hand in Prince's direction. "And here I was stupidly thinking you were a decent guy! I should have left you to freeze to death in that koi pond!"

Everyone on the Odd Squad looked extremely confused at his furious words. Delun's sisters and wife began pulling on his arms in an effort to rescue the oblivious Gui.

"Isn't that Delun?" Dib asked into my ear, laughing slightly as if he found the situation to be amusing.

"What koi pond‽ Who the hell are you‽" Gui demanded, attempting to pry the plate mail-covered fist off of himself. "Let go of me, you maniac!"

Rather than letting go, Delun began to fiercely shake Gui back and forth. "AS IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO I AM! I'LL KILL YOU FOR CHEATING ON MY SISTER!"

"Dàgē, just calm down! Let go of him!" the _Second Life_ equivalent of Jiao ordered, digging her heels into the ground as she tried her hardest to pull him backward.

All of Gui's teammates suddenly sighed in a tired manner as if they weren't surprised in the slightest. Gui, however, looked even more perplexed than before. "I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU OR YOUR SISTER BEFORE IN MY LIFE, AND NEITHER AM I DATING HER! NOW LET GO OF ME!"

I finally reached them and hastily took hold of Delun's drawn fist before he could punch Gui a second time. "I would appreciate it," I began as he turned and looked at me in surprise, "if you would stop groundlessly attacking my brother."

"Zian!" he exclaimed, glancing between Gui and I several times. Afterward, he let go of Gui and backed up a few steps to stand with his relieved-looking family. "Oh, there you are," he blandly remarked as if nothing at all had just happened.

"You again‽" Gui snapped, standing up and wiping the blood off his lip as he glared at me. "Dammit, stop causing trouble for me right and left!"

At that moment, my patience with Gui's nonstop animosity took on a whole new low.

I took my time removing a full health potion from my pouch, and then nearly threw it at him, not that he really needed it for such a small injury, but if he was going to be a big baby about it, then he could do just that. "I'm sorry," I said levelly, barely refraining from keeping the sarcasm out of my voice. "But you know, it's not like I've never been mistaken for you in the past; Wicked was continually hateful toward me for no reason; Dib and I spent an afternoon in T City fending off throngs of university students, who all thought I was their professor; Prince even punched me, because he thought I was you."

"As if all of that's my fault!" Gui roared.

"Of course it isn't. But if you really think that way, then why do you claim that _this_ is _my_ fault?" I quietly asked, glowering at him. After one more murderous, raging stare, he turned around and strode off without another look back.

"Oh," Ugly Wolf sighed, glancing worriedly between Gui and I. "I guess we'll be, um, going…then." He chuckled nervously and scattered goodbyes rang out around me as I silently watched my brother leave. I wished he would turn around and come back. I wished he would just talk to me. Explain what he was thinking. Tell me what to do to make things right again. Yell at me, argue with me, say anything worthwhile, instead of treating me like I didn't matter. He was so warm toward his teammates, but like a block of ice when it came to dealing with me. My deep-seeded fear of being pushed to one side was starting to rise up again.

"So much for eleven years to grow up," Dib murmured with a sigh, wrapping his arms around my head and resting his chin on top.

I finally looked away from him, and ran my eyes over the silent group surrounding me, their faces looking slightly bewildered at what just happened. I forced a smile onto my face. "Hello, everyone. I see you've met my older brother, Gui Wen."

"Sorry," Delun belatedly said, looking a tad remorseful. "I didn't know you had a twin."

"I don't," I denied tiredly, "and please, try not to say something like that to him; he'll get angry again…as usual. I would probably manage to offend him somehow by simply asking about the weather. Anyway, Gui Wen is two years older than I am, though we do look a lot alike."

"'A lot'?" he echoed, smirking as he looked me over. "Try identical. But again, sorry for the trouble. I'm Wei Bo here in-game. A human warrior, level forty-eight."

"Dàgē, I wanted to go first!" Mei Rong's _Second Life_ character indignantly exclaimed as she pushed him out of the way to place herself in front of me. Perhaps it was because she was the youngest of the siblings, but it seemed that she _always_ had to be first.

"I'm Avila, an elf from the warrior class, level fifty-two," she promptly informed, patting one of her gloved hands on the tasseled hilt of a long, wide nan dao hanging at her armored hip. Her thin, golden armor looked to be quite light-weight, much like Dib's. Her long, straight and pale pink hair was securely tied up at the back of her head, leaving no strands to fall in her face.

"I'm Xiu Chen, but you can just keep calling me Chen!" Xiu Chen said quickly from Wei Bo's side, waving a small hand and hugging her husband's muscular, armored arm with the other. I nodded at her, smiling slightly. It made things less complicated, not having to remember a new name for each person. Not that it would be terribly difficult.

"I'm a human from the priest class, level forty-six," she continued, holding up a thick, green book that I assumed was used for blessings or something of that sort. She had airy, dark green robes to match her "weapon" and her bright green eyes. Her short, bobbed black hair looked much like it did in real life, neatly trimmed bangs hovering just over her eyes, and the rest falling about her rounded face.

Dib laughed, bouncing the back of one of his booted feet off my chest. "If they stay, you won't have to carry around so many health potions, Al."

"You're right. I'll have more room for _stamina_ potions," I agreed. He sighed in return, apparently thinking having a priest would make me carry around something to consume other than the contents of potion bottles.

"I'm Jiū," the last of the four announced, a smile crinkling her gray eyes, hands neatly folded in front of herself. "An elven magician specializing in illusions and enchantments. And I'm level fifty." She was entirely white from her pale skin, to her long, curly hair, to her loose-fitting, slightly billowy sleeveless shirt and puffy shorts, to her sandaled feet. A thin, wooden wand was attached to her woven cloth belt.

"Well, Dib," I called upward, forced relief filling my voice. "We finally have a magician, like you wanted."

He laughed again, bouncing both of his feet off of my chest with renewed vigor. "Yeah. Now we just need a 'whoever we want.'"

Smirking, I grabbed his ankles in a want to make him stop kicking me. "I'm Aeolus, an angel from the archer class, level forty-two. And this," I paused to wave a hand at Dib, "is my lone teammate, who I mentioned the other night."

"I'm Dib! A halfling warrior, level forty-three!" he chirped. When all four of them didn't reply, but rather continued to stare at him as if he was an extremely cute, small animal, he suddenly re-grabbed my head and hastily ordered, "Just so you know, I refuse to let you pinch my cheeks! And no super tight hugging allowed! And no petting! In fact, no touching at all! And no baby voices, either!"

**"What kind of a list of rules is that?"** I messaged in bewilderment.

**"Hey, they're serious dangers,"** he replied in a dark tone. **"Being so adorable is a double-edged blade! When I first started playing outside of the halfling's newbie village, you wouldn't believe all of the creepy people that seemed not to be able to talk at all unless they were using cooing baby talk. My cheeks nearly fell off from all of the pinching and pulling! Why do you think I was training alone****‽**** Geeze!"**

**"Oh. So that was why…"** Smiling in amusement at the very clear mental images of such occurrences, I silently sympathized with him. However, I felt slightly confused for a brief moment when I wondered why he hadn't ever given me those restrictions. In fact, he'd done the exact opposite. But, once again not wanting to allow my thoughts to go in that direction, I quickly returned my focus to where it was supposed to be and switched back to the public chat, relaying, "Ah, Dib apparently has had…traumatic experiences in his past, when such things happened all the time."

"Um, okay. Conditions accepted," Wei Bo slowly agreed, making the women look somewhat disappointed, but Dib let loose a long sigh of relief, apparently trusting that they would keep their word and not smother him with annoying behavior. The other four all had Shuang to lavish such affection on in real life, so hopefully Dib would be spared.

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you again." With a single step to one side, I gave one last glance in the direction Gui had stormed off in. "Dib and I were going to stop at a tavern before heading out to train, is that okay?" At the scattered agreement from the other four, I nodded. "I suppose we should choose a different one now, though, rather than the one the Odd Squad is at. Gui Wen would probably throw another fit, thinking we're following him or something…"

Silence and open mouths met my words as the four shifted their gaze from me, to where the other team had gone. Jiū swallowed and looked back at me for a moment. "Your brother's team is the Odd Squad…?"

"I was surprised, too," Dib chuckled.

"Wow! That's like being related to royalty!" Avila remarked in wonder, then abruptly looked very angry and stomped one foot, hands curled into fists. "DAMMIT, DÀGĒ! I DIDN'T GET A GOOD LOOK, BECAUSE YOU WERE BEING STUPID AGAIN!"

"Stop swearing!" Wei Bo scolded, crossing his arms. "It wasn't my fault!"

"That's what you _always_ say!"

To halt any further arguing, I loudly cleared my throat. "I'm sure you'll have plenty more chances to, um, inspect them up close," I assured Avila, mentally apologizing to Prince—the most likely target. He already got enough attention as it was and probably didn't need more fans, but if it pacified the situation, then whatever.

Taking another step away, I smiled and gestured down the crowded road. "Shall we?" The siblings gave each other another glance of annoyance, and then seemed to calm down slightly, conversation thankfully slipping into food and training spots, rather than yet another fight. I'd had more than enough of that to last me for the rest of my life.


	25. Holding On and Letting Go

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

* * *

><p>The amount of power held by one little, seemingly straight-forward question was surprising to me. Perhaps the answer given was extremely important to other people, but I had assumed that it would be easily decided upon. Then again, I seemed to always take questions related to <em>Second Life<em> in such a disconnected way.

"Do you four have any place you would like to train?" was what I had asked after we—well, everyone else—had eaten at the tavern, we'd stopped to get my armor repaired, and then left Star City, heading in a northern direction, stopping only once the star-strewn sky had been left behind and we were in a sunny meadow. Nearly an hour had passed since then.

That one question had set off a full-blown argument between the four Lin siblings, and at some point Dib had also joined into the verbal war, leaving me as the lone spectator in their ridiculous debate. I sat in the sweet-smelling grass off to one side, quietly mixing together some potions while I wondered in slight irritation when and if they were ever going to come to a decision.

While I carefully lined up the twenty little full bottles—twelve stamina and eight health—in front of myself, I squished corks into their tops, giving a brief glance upward when Jiū detached herself from the others and walked over to me, sighing tiredly as she sat down on my left. "What, you don't want to join in on the shouting?" she asked somewhat hoarsely, smiling slightly as I picked up one of the bottles and began shaking it to give its contents one final mix.

"Not at all," I softly replied, moving on to the next potion once the first was turning the correct shade of red. "Where we train doesn't really matter to me, as long as we actually accomplish something."

"I suppose," she sighed, shrugging. "Avila-mèi wants to go to the lake east of here to fight mermaids, but Dàgē and Dàsăo want to go to the gorge west of here to fight eagles, and your little friend Dib wants to keep going north."

I raised an eyebrow, picking up another potion. "He and I were training on boars quite a ways north of here not long ago. That may be what he's thinking of. But I was hoping we would choose something more challenging than those. They weren't difficult to fight while there was only two of us. With six, they seem far too easy."

"'Something more challenging'?" she repeated, leaning forward to run her eyes over my line of vials. "Is that why you're making so many of these?"

"I always make sure I have plenty on hand, regardless of whether or not I'll actually need them."

Jiū laughed at my explanation, making me feel a bit embarrassed, but she nodded afterward. "It would be better to have them just in case. It's good to…to think ahead. Helps a lot with…" Her voice dropped off mid-sentence and a troubled expression settled over her face as she stared at the ground in front of herself. Not wanting to interrupt whatever it was she was thinking about, I busied myself with the bottles, giving her a concerned glance out of the corner of my eye. It seemed whatever she'd become mentally distracted with quickly passed and she gave me another small smile. "Well, hopefully they'll be finished arguing soon. Sorry if it's annoying. We always seem to be fighting about something."

Holding back a long sigh, I shook my head and began to stow away the finished potions in my pouch. "No…I don't mind. Such empty, flippant fights that will be forgotten in a moment are, um, I guess _refreshing_ in comparison to the ones I have with my own brother. It makes me feel a bit jealous to watch all of you interact so closely with one another, even if you are fighting," I quietly confessed. "I often wish Gui Wen and I could be like that."

Jiū was quiet for a moment, thoughtfully staring at me, then asked, "Why aren't you?"

"We used to be," I whispered. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach as I ran my mind over all of the years we spent together as children. All of the stolen hours we'd played with one another while we were supposed to be doing something else; Gui always had been very good at evading our tutors, taking me along with him. But that was before my father intervened, turning us into competitors instead of siblings.

I took a deep breath, wondering how to phrase what had happened in a way that was brief and less personal than my lengthy explanation that I'd given Dib. "As for why we changed, it was sibling rivalry at its worst. To put it simply."

"Oh." She looked a bit like she wanted to ask more, but thankfully didn't press.

Letting out a small sigh, I looked at her, wondering if she would be any help in my ongoing struggle with Gui. Close or not, she and her brother or sisters must have genuinely quarreled at some point or another.

"If…" Jiū silently watched as I ran a finger over the smooth leaf of a plant I sat beside. "If you had a serious fight with your brother and he refused to speak to you afterward, what would you do?"

Silence stretched on for several minutes while I gave Jiū time to think. She shrugged slightly. "I can't really answer you in the way you want. _My brother_ isn't the same as yours, after all, so even if the situation was similar, the outcome of any approach you take with him might be drastically different." She fell silent again and I nodded at her words. Perhaps I was hoping for something more, but I felt as though I'd gotten what I'd been expecting.

"However," she continued after a moment, sending me an encouraging smile. "Generally speaking, if I had a fight with one of my siblings, I would give them some space. Literally at first, since being around one another would probably spark more arguments. But once we're both calm, simply talking to them about other things will help relieve the tension until they're ready to speak to me of whatever the fight was about."

"And what if the other person has had a very, very long time to think things through, and they still refuse?" I inquired hesitantly.

"Leaving things unsettled for too long may be worse than trying to clear things up too quickly," she answered slowly. "Thoughts can stagnate in that time, making the fight seem worse than it really was, and bad feelings might sprout up when they could have been avoided." She sighed and frowned. "It might be much harder to reconcile like that."

"Yes," I agreed faintly, giving a sigh of my own, "it seems to be that way. Not to make excuses, but I really didn't have a way to try to clear things up after the fight…But now I'm trying to do so. I just need the cooperation of Gui Wen, who seems to see me as nothing but an annoyance."

"Mm." Jiū gave me a light pat on the arm. "Just allow him a bit of time to think things over. I'm sure he'll speak to you when he's ready. Give him room until he calms down a bit. But not too much. That might make him think that you've given up. In the mean time, you could drop him little messages about frivolous things or something of that sort."

"Small talk?" I asked, smiling slightly.

"Yes!" she answered with a quick nod. "It will relax him."

"It can't make things much worse than they are, I suppose." I sighed again, wondering if Gui would actually read any messages I sent him, or if he would just delete them from his in-game message box upon seeing the sender's name. Knowing how angry he was with me, it would probably be the latter.

With a glance at my faltering expression, Jiū gave my arm another pat. "Sorry if I wasn't much help…"

"Oh, no, you were," I assured, smiling warmly at her. She looked somewhat relieved as I continued, "I have somewhere to start now, anyway."

She laughed for a moment. "That's good to know. I wish I could do more, but–"

"Jiū," Dib suddenly interrupted, causing me to jump slightly, as I hadn't noticed his arrival, "your brother wants you to go back over there."

"Okay." Jiū exhaled slowly, grinning at me for a moment. "Back into the battle I go."

"Good luck," I said in amusement, waving as she walked away. I looked back to Dib once she'd rejoined her siblings. "Have you all decided on somewhere yet?"

Dib shook his head and quickly climbed onto my lap, arranging himself into a comfortable position. I was about to ask him to sit somewhere else, but before I could say anything, he quietly observed, "You two look like you're getting all…um, getting along well. All close an stuff."

I paused at his faltering words and my eyes widened. "We do? R-really‽" I asked, abruptly feeling extremely happy. After having Jiū purposefully distance herself from me so often, it was a huge relief to hear that we had become somewhat closer. Maybe she was finally warming up to me.

"Why do you look so gleeful over it?" Dib asked, irritatedly frowning up at me.

Or maybe Dib was just being jealous again and was exaggerating things.

"Because…" I started, but paused again, feeling somewhat reluctant to tell him the reason. What would his reaction be to hearing about Jiū and my relationship? I doubted it was going to be anything positive, based on my assumptions due to his behavior toward me, but it was going to come out sooner or later, so…

"Because I'm trying to get closer to her," I carefully answered, "so I'm happy to hear that I'm making progress. She's been a bit standoffish, but I hope she'll come around soon."

He was silent for a long time, staring off into space and making me feel uncomfortable. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again and quietly sat for a while longer before finally murmuring, "You're…interested in her, then? You like her?"

I sighed, shrugging one shoulder. "Well, no. Not exactly. I want to like her."

"Why?" His soft voice had a sharp edge to it.

After taking another moment to inhale, I replied, "Because she's my fiancée. It's just an arranged marriage, and I suppose that it's not really crucial that she and I like one another, but I think that would be better for us both later on."

Several more minutes dragged on, and he finally whispered, "That explains why Wei Bo got so mad at Gui for flirting with Prince…He…he did mention he thought you were cheating, huh…Why didn't you tell me earlier that you're engaged?"

"It was never relevant to our conversations."

"Something that important you could have just told me, even if we were talking about something different…" A forced smile made its way onto his face, throwing me further into my steadily worsening mood. "When…when did you get engaged to her? Recently?"

"No. My father and her parents arranged it during my last year of high school, actually," I admitted. "But she and I hadn't met before until earlier this week. That was why I went to their house for dinner the first time; my father wanted me to properly greet her parents and the rest of her family."

"That long ago and you never said anything." Dib snorted with dark humor. "I guess I shouldn't be so surprised about it. You never tell me anything unless I ask directly. And even then, you say things in such a round-about, vague way…'Beneficial to accept' Wei Bo's invitation to dinner…I thought it was for business, but I see why now."

"Well, keeping up the good business relations was one of the reasons I accepted," I added, "and that's the important one, in my father's opinion. In fact, to him that's probably the only reason. I doubt he cares in the slightest if Jiū and I are close on a personal level, unless my motive was using her feelings to get closer to Wei Bo, since that would be beneficial to the two companies." I smiled faintly, despite my fear of Dib's imminent wrath. "But I'm not using her for anything. I just want to make her happy for as long as I'm able."

That last sentence seemed to be all it took to make Dib's emotional control snap, and tears started flooding down his face, but he somehow managed to keep his smile on. I nearly moved to hug him, but held myself back. He would probably push me away if I tried to comfort him. Anyway, I couldn't keep babying him. I should have stopped a long time ago. I never should have started, for that matter. It had only misled him.

And me as well.

"S-she seem—She seems…n-nice…" he finally choked out, rigorously rubbing his eyes as he laughed. "I'm hap…ha…Well, cong…I hope…" Without finishing any of his trembling sentences, he took an enormous breath and hopped off of my lap, giving one last rub to his face as he turned to beam at me. "Let's ask the others if they've chosen someplace to go. I'm getting bored, sitting around doing nothing."

"Dib." I grabbed his hand before he could walk away. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" he tonelessly asked, staring down at the ground.

"You know what for," I murmured, unwilling to say it aloud. "I'm sorry…"

"Quit it," he angrily snapped, tearing his hand away from me with a furious glare. "I don't want to hear it. There's nothing for you to apologize for. There was never anything. Nothing at all. So just quit it."

I miserably watched while he ran away toward the others, once again smiling brightly. Having never been in a romantic relationship with anyone, I wasn't sure what it felt like to break up, but I wondered if that feeling was similar to this—lonely, regretful, painful to the point of having difficulties breathing. _"There was never anything. Nothing at all."_ It was what I thought I'd wanted, but to hear him say it felt horrible. It wasn't nothing to me.

However, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up my relationships with both Jiū and Dib. I would have had to choose between them eventually, so it was better to do it early on before anything else had a chance to develop. Having he and I revert back into simple friends was what was best for everyone, even if I really didn't want to.

I once again had to remind myself that I'd already made the decision not to let things from _Second Life_, Dib _and_ Heng included, get in the way of my real responsibilities. Jiū was the one who I had to focus on. She and my work were most important.

…Or so I tried to convince myself as I slowly stood up and walked over to the other five to see what they were doing. Judging by the raised voices and what they were saying, they were still arguing over whether they wanted to go to the mermaids or the eagles, so I pulled a silver coin out of my money pouch and offered it to Wei Bo. He paused, giving me a questioning glance. "Instead of wasting time on arguments, flip the coin to choose where to go first," I suggested. "We have nearly two weeks until we'll have to go back to Star City to watch the Grand Melee, so we have plenty of time to go to both the lake and the gorge."

His eyebrows shot upward like he was surprised. He took the coin and stared at it for a moment, muttering, "Oh, good idea." He cleared his throat, holding up the coin in preparation to flip it.

"I choose heads!" Avila hastily announced, pink eyes glued to the coin in her brother's hand. With a sharp metallic tinkling noise, the coin went flying into the air, twirling around several times before coming back down to land on Wei Bo's palm. Everyone leaned forward to look at the result.

A frown covered Wei Bo's face when he thrust the coin back at me. "Heads…" he muttered reluctantly, sending Avila into cheers of triumph.

I refrained from sighing in relief that we finally had a destination, and put the money away again while we all turned east. Out of habit, I almost picked up Dib, but without a glance at me, he hurried on ahead with the others, so I let my outstretched arms drop to my sides and slowly followed after, trying very hard not to feel disappointed at the distance between us.

We spent the remainder of our game time walking to the lake for several hours, and then, without any time left to actually fight anything, we all said our goodbyes and logged off. Unwillingly opening my eyes, I slipped my game helmet off and let it fall to my side on top of my blankets, sighing deeply as I stared up at the high ceiling of my bedroom, simply listening to the repetitive sound of my alarm clock beeping.


	26. Doctors and Mermaids

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** I've finally gotten around to calling the father by his name. xP Good old Kuo Li!_

_Or, well, not so good._

* * *

><p>The days and nights passed calmly, uneventfully, and agonizingly slowly following the morning we'd all gone to the lake in <em>Second Life<em>. Dib and Heng both had barely even looked at me after our conversation, much less spoke to me—he never said anything unless it was necessary. He still acted as cheerful as he always had, but underneath he was completely different than normal.

Perhaps he was simply being considerate to Jiao and I, distancing himself for our sakes, but it was extremely irritating. It made me wonder why I'd ever wanted that distance in the first place. I caught myself over and over regretting how I'd scolded Heng so many times for being stubborn about seeing me in real life. Now I knew how he'd felt every time I'd brushed him off so thoughtlessly.

Every time I saw him at the office, a part of me inwardly screamed at him to stop ignoring me. To stop acting like we weren't anything but strangers who happened to work together. But I never brought it up. It was what I'd asked him for, and it was what he'd finally given me. It was what I needed.

But it wasn't what I wanted.

And so an entire week passed. I spent my time working and also visiting the Lin house nearly every day. My weak attempts at easing my loneliness with the company of the other four never worked, however, and the more time I spent trying not to think about Heng, the more he popped into my head. What was he doing? How was he doing? How were his brothers?…When were things going to be even slightly normal between us again?

It had only been a matter of days, and I still saw him all the time, but I missed him terribly.

However, two distractions arrived home one evening in the forms of my father and the usual doctor who examined me every few months. Apparently that revolting tea my father had given me for my cough wasn't the entire treatment.

Without a greeting, my father went to have dinner in his rooms, leaving me to be examined in my bedroom. I watched nervously as the doctor pulled out the usual clipboard and pen, and then proceeded to stare at me with one of his polite, somewhat eager-looking smiles. "So, Zian…how have you been since I saw you last?"

"As I usually am," I replied, watching in slight annoyance as he nodded and wrote something down. Before Heng had mentioned seeing the results of my tests, I'd never been particularly curious as to what the man had written. But now I really wanted to know what it was he was writing. However, not wanting to get in trouble so soon after my father came home, I held back my questions.

"Kuo Li told me that you had a cough recently." His wrinkled face looked even more expectant than before, nearly to the point of being child-like, regardless of his ridiculously poofy and wispy white hair and bushy gray mustache.

"Yes, I did," I replied, unconsciously leaning away from him. "I was on a business trip for three days and the cough appeared the morning after I came back home."

"Hrm," he grunted, nodding. "That could have just been a common virus, since you came into contact—directly and indirectly—with quite a few other people. Could have picked it up anywhere. On the plane, in a taxi, at the hotel, around the people you went with, even back at the office before you left. The possibilities could go on and on.

"Did you have any other symptoms? Anything unusual about the cough?" His right hand was nearly quivering with the want to write something else.

"I also had a stomach ache. And, um, I was coughing up blood. I assume that is not normal…" I paused in fright when the man's face suddenly went very pale, then hastily added, "But my father gave me some tea and both the cough and the stomach ache were gone nearly right away."

A long, pent-up breath blasted out between the man's lips as he rolled his eyes, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "That moron." He took a moment to scribble something else on his clipboard, leaving me to wonder who he had directed that insult at, and then he stared at me again. "And you're feeling fine now? Nothing unusual?"

"No, nothing." I shook my head. "Just the usual; lack of appetite, feeling cold all the time…"

"Uh-huh, normal stuff. For you, anyway." Another second passed to write. "On the business trip," he continued, dark eyes narrowing in an annoyed look, "were you eating regularly_‽_"

Feeling somewhat guilty, I slowly shook my head again. "Just some fruit and tea. Oh, and a bowl of congee."

He sighed again. "Well, that explains it. Was anyone else roomed with you?"

In bewilderment I replied, "Yes, I shared the hotel room with one of my employees." Explained what?

"Ah, so he's not a total moron, but the tea…" came another, almost inaudible mumble, throwing me further into my confusion and curiosity. Was he directing those things at my father? If that was the case, he certainly was daring. He hadn't ever really been very cautious around my father, but insulting him was another matter entirely from simply being relaxed.

He glanced up. "The tea, did your employee have some as well?"

I nodded.

"Then they wouldn't have used that…" He abruptly and very loudly cleared his throat, startling me somewhat. "Well, have your meals here at home—they don't have to be big, but just be sure you eat every day."

I nodded again and he crouched down to flip open his large bag, pulling out a stethoscope. Before he could ask, I quickly removed my jacket, vest, tie and shirt, attempting to suppress the immediate onslaught of shivers from having nothing covering my torso.

The doctor noisily clicked his tongue when he stared at my chest; it was still faintly mottled with the bruises of my last beating. "Stupid idiot…Did it again, did he?" he softly asked, but didn't wait for an answer as he pressed the freezing cold end of the stethoscope to my skin. I took a deep breath nearly automatically, slowly letting it back out afterward. After having gone through these examinations so often, I already knew what I was supposed to do, and we breezed through several parts of the exam until he had me laying down on the bed.

His thin and gnarly hands pressed down on the bruised spots and he frowned, glancing up to my face. "Does that hurt?" he asked, and I shook my head. He hummed and moved lower, once again pressing down. That time I flinched in discomfort as a dull pain shot through my chest. "I take it _that_ hurts," he muttered, moving away from me to write something down yet again. "When did he do it?"

"Slightly over a week ago," I answered slowly.

"Mm, right before he left, then." The noise of pen on paper went on for a while longer, then he reappeared over me. "I didn't bring any of my equipment to scan you with, since Kuo Li didn't tell me about that little incident—no surprise there—but has the pain lessened since then?"

"Yes, quite a bit, although it still hurts a little from time to time. But nothing like it had been at first." I could barely sit up or breathe the morning after it had happened.

"Ah, good. Nothing broken, in that case. Just some bruised ribs. Pain killers'll fix you up just fine, and everything'll heal soon enough." With a frown, he shook his head. "Really, we've told him over and over to be more careful with you, and he never listens. That stupid blockhead."

I was now convinced he was calling my father all of those names. The wondering thought of if the doctor said those things to his face went through my head. I could only imagine what would happen to me or anyone else if such things were said in his presence. He would probably explode. No, he would _definitely_ explode. Very loudly and violently.

"I'm going to tell him off after this…" the doctor unexpectedly grumbled as he bent down to pull out something else out of his bag, falling silent as he proceeded with the examination. Half an hour later he left with the usual cheery smile and completely insufficient explanation of "You're fine!" while he strode out my bedroom door, taking all of his stuff with him. Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of what I assumed was about to happen, I hurried out into my office, locked the door after him, then went back into my bedroom and locked that door as well. My father and a few members of the house staff actually had the keys to the doors, but locking them still made me feel a bit safer.

After waiting another hour to make sure my father wasn't going to come bursting into my rooms to blame me for getting told off, I changed into my pajamas and logged into _Second Life_, taking a long, relieved breath of the moist air as I glanced around the misty lake. The enormous pine trees scattered along the bank were barely visible through the floaty vapors, and weak rays of sunlight pressed down from above, giving everything a slightly eerie illumination. The water around me was dark and calm, not a ripple in sight, and added to the serene atmosphere…

"GET OUT OF THE WAY, GĒGE!"

…Or not so serene…

I was suddenly slapped across the face with a wet mermaid fin that came flying out of nowhere, nearly causing me to tip off the slippery rock that I was perched on. Avila—soaking wet from head to toe—agilely hopped up next to me while I shakily righted myself. A loud splash came from my left and a small wave of water washed over the top of my boots. "Sheesh!" Avila exclaimed, frowning up at me. "What a place to login; the mermaid was flying right at you. And now I lost it! It took me forever to capture, too!" She agitatedly waved her nan dao over the water, which was once again smooth and calm as if the ripples one would expect had been magically suppressed. The mermaids were very skilled at concealing their location. However…

"I'm sorry, I'll get you another one." I gave her a tiny smile as I crouched down, placing my right palm on the cold surface of the lake. I glanced upward. "Is anyone in the water?"

"No." She shook her head, water dripping all over the place. "No one else is online yet. Dib always logs in so late—I guess you know that already, though—Dàsăo and Dàgē are putting Shuang-mèi to bed, and Jiĕjie is wi—AH! I mean, she'll be on a bit late tonight!" She gave me a fearful, wide-eyed stare.

Nodding in slight bewilderment over her very loud, guarded explanation, I looked back down, watching carefully for any of those pale, clammy, and scaly mermaid hands that might shoot up and drag me under the dark green water—that had happened several times now to our three warriors and myself—poor Wei Bo and his heavy armor had a very difficult time staying afloat—no wonder he didn't want to train here—I let some of my mana flow into the gold ring on my finger, waited for the moment when Avila jumped safely into the air as high as she could, then I shot the magic out into the water. With a bright flash of light, a sizzling, electrical noise buzzed through the churning water, then everything was calm again.

With this water-filled location, my ring from the dragon king was extremely useful. It had been very startling the first time I'd experimented with it—also having been the first time I'd ever used magic, I was even more clueless as to what I was doing—and had idiotically used all of my mana, sending giant lightening bolts shooting off through the air all over the place while deafening thunder crashed against our ears, scaring everyone, myself included, nearly to death. But with some more practice, I could now control where the electricity went and how many mana points I used.

"THERE'S ONE! GET IT! GET IT!" Avila shrieked in excitement, shaking me back and forth with one hand, wildly pointing her wide sword with the other. The temporarily paralyzed body of a mermaid had floated upward near our rock, the greenish water giving its actually colorless skin a bizarre tint.

Extending my wings, I moved myself over the mermaid and grabbed it by the arms, removing it from the lake. With a burst of strength, I whirled around and threw the limp monster as hard as I could to the grassy bank. Avila bounded after it, using the rocks jutting out from the water as stepping stones. While she busied herself with that one, I flapped over to another mermaid, pulling out my bow and an arrow as I went. I shot the unconscious monster through the neck and watched blood seep out through the water, shooting it several more times until it was dead. I felt somewhat bored over how easy it was to attack them while they were stunned.

However, the ring's effect only lasted thirty seconds before they were awake again.

A tiny splash from behind alerted me to the presence of another one launching itself at me. I shot upward, twisting myself upside down to face the merman who had attacked. Its wide mouth was fully open in a high-pitched scream, numerous pointy teeth bared and completely black eyes narrowed into a furious glare.

When its jagged-edged sword came swishing toward my head, I leaned to one side, turning myself right-side-up and shooting the monster's back with two arrows before it went into the lake again. I waited, holding my breath for several seconds while I watched for another attack, but nothing happened. Lowering myself down until my boots were nearly touching the glass-like surface of the water, I continued to wait, knowing they would attack when I was so close; they always stayed under the water and hid when I was too far away.

Barely a second later, several hands shot out of the water and swung at my feet, but I lifted myself out of reach. However, while I was evading them, a mermaid flew out of the water behind me and latched onto my back, dragging me into the lake. Keeping hold of my bow with one hand, I unsheathed my dagger with the other and irritatedly sawed at the arm that was wrapped around my neck.

While I was doing that, a second mermaid attacked me from the front, running a sword all the way through my thigh. Wincing in pain, I kicked that one's face with my uninjured leg and gave one last chop at the other's arm, tearing it off. Not held down anymore, I sheathed my dagger, swam to the surface and gasped for air once I was above the water again, heading for the bank.

Landing on one foot, I balanced myself and watched for a moment while Avila repeatedly stabbed a mermaid she'd lured to the bank on her own. Wei Bo and Xiu Chen had also logged in while I'd been fighting, and were helping Avila in her battle. I peeled off the mermaid arm from around my neck and used it to wave hello at the other two when they shouted some greetings over to me, then I fell back to sit on the ground, pushing my sodden hair out of my face.

"You should tie it back."

Jumping in surprise, I questioningly looked up to see Jiū standing beside me, smiling in amusement.

"Tie what back?"

"Your hair," she added. "It gets in the way while fighting, doesn't it? Especially underwater."

"Oh, yes. Sometimes," I replied, wondering why I'd never thought of that before. "But I have nothing to tie it with."

Jiū opened up her pouch, inserted a hand, and then pulled out what looked like a long, white string. She knelt at my back and carefully gathered together my damp hair. "I bought this in Moon City. Avila-mèi was buying a pink one for herself and forced me to get one as well. But I don't use it often, since I'm never actually in the fights like the warriors and you. So you may have it," she told me, gently drawing her fingers through my hair.

"I see, thank you," I murmured, laughing slightly. I probably wasn't going to use it very often, either, since I had no problems with my hair getting in my face while I was above the water and the wind could keep it out of the way, but it was still nice of her to offer it.

"Your hair is so silky," she remarked. "It would be nice if hair in real life stayed like this without any treatment or anything." I would have nodded in agreement, but I didn't want to move my head, so I settled for a small humming noise. As her hand smoothed over the top of my head, my eyes widened in horror when Dib suddenly materialized out of nowhere in front of us. He stared at me for a long moment, face blank.

Logging in just when I didn't want him to. Why was his timing so terrible?

"Hi, Dib!" Jiū greeted cheerily from over my shoulder.

"Hi," he said simply, and then hurried off to join the other three without giving me a chance to say hello as well, although I doubted I'd be able to. My tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of my mouth while my mind reeled in an attempt to come up with a coherent explanation to tell him. But, knowing he'd still be upset even if I told him it was nothing, I stayed silent and gave Jiū a grateful smile when she patted me on the shoulder and said, "All done."

While I carefully stood up, taking that mermaid's arm with me—I would have thrown it back into the lake, but the scaly skin was apparently worth a nice amount at the armory—Jiū gave a concerned glance toward the other four. "Is Dib okay?" she quietly asked, glancing up at me. "He seems kind of down."

"Yeah," I murmured while I stuffed the arm into my pouch, "yeah…he and I had a…a bit of a fight, I guess." More like a very long, drawn-out misunderstanding, but the outcome seemed to be the same if not worse than a fight.

"Oh." Jiū sent me an encouraging smile. "Well, I hope you two make up soon. I'll tell Dàsăo about your leg, by the way," she said, then hurried off to join the others. I glanced down, feeling somewhat surprised to see all of the blood dripping down onto the grass. I'd forgotten I was injured.

After Xiu Chen healed and blessed me, I quickly flew back out to the rock I'd been standing on earlier, determined to drown all of the dark thoughts in the fight. I landed beside Wei Bo—however he got all the way out there, I had no idea—and gave him a quick smile. "DON'T POP UP SO SUDDENLY!" he bellowed in terror. "YOU'LL MAKE ME FALL!"

"Um…sorry," I replied, staring at him in bewilderment. If he was so afraid of falling, why'd he come out here to the middle of the lake in the first place? Anyway, he didn't need me to help him fall off the rock. There were plenty of grabby mermaid hands for that.

"What did you do to your hair?" he asked, staring up at the ponytail, a confused look on his face.

"Jiū did it. My hair gets in the way when I go underwater, so she offered to tie it up."

"What_‽_" he huffed. "You can't tie up your own hair_‽_ Why are you making my sister do all the work_‽_ I'll have you know that—A-A-A-AH!" Wei Bo's ankle was suddenly yanked on and he fell over with a large splash. Sighing, I folded up my wings close to myself and dove in after him. Quickly swimming downward, I pulled out my dagger and ran my eyes over the nearly pitch black lake. A tiny glimmer of silver told me where he was, and I used my wings to shoot toward him. Like had happened to me, a mermaid was holding him from behind, so I quickly began to chop off the cold arm from around his neck.

He opened his mouth, causing several bubbles to pop out when he yelled something incoherent, and suddenly unsheathed his longsword, stabbing it into something behind me while I continued to work on severing the limb from the irritatingly determined-to-drown-people mermaid.

Once Wei Bo was free, I grabbed him and propelled us upward as fast as I could manage, feeling very thankful that I didn't have to use my arms for the job. We broke the surface several seconds later and inhaled deeply. After taking a couple ragged breaths, Wei Bo glared at me and slapped my shoulder. "Put me down, I don't need your help!"

Smirking as I wondered just how he was planning on escaping by himself, I continued onward to the bank. "Think of this as a thank you for pulling me out of that pond. Also, you wouldn't want Chen-mèi to be worried about you, right? So allow me to help you ease her anxiety over how you were nearly drowned."

"Shut up," he replied, frowning in annoyance as he mumbled, "Could have done it myself just fine."

My amusement quickly died off at his words, my mind unwillingly floating back to the first time I'd met Dib when he'd yelled, _"I had the situation under control! I coulda taken all four of them down, no problem at all!"_ He'd looked so indignant when I'd rescued him from those bears. At that time, I'd been extremely irritated with him for being so ungrateful, but now…now I wished quite a bit that he and I could go back to the way we were then; when we were just friends, no messy confusions or unwanted feelings. I felt somewhat jealous of the me from the past, and how I'd never really appreciated the time I'd spent with him. I'd taken him for granted and had simply focused on the negative side of things.

Holding back my melancholic sigh, I dropped Wei Bo and I to the bank, wishing I knew what to do to make everything go back to normal. Whatever normal was anymore.


	27. A New Accomplice

_****Disclaimer **–** ****½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

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><p>"You can't be serious." Delun's face was smothered in absolute disbelief as he looked me over while I walked toward him. He extended a hand when I came to a halt, tugging hard on the collar of my mid-thigh-length trench coat—buttoned up and tied tightly around my thin waist for maximum warmth conservation. "Take this off right now! I'm going to fry just looking at you!"<p>

Hastily shaking my head, I took a step away from him. "Then don't look at me. I need it on."

"You do not need it!" he snapped. "You're wearing _another_ jacket under that, plus a turtle neck sweater. And everything is black—absorb the entire sun, why don't you? I wouldn't be surprised if you're wearing thermal underwear, too! How can you _possibly_ be cold enough to wear all of that when it's this hot‽"

"I told you about this already, why are you so surprised?" Feeling annoyed, I grabbed his hand and pressed it to my forehead—irrefutable evidence that I was indeed still abnormally cold, regardless of my numerous layers. With the sun beating down on my thick, dark clothes, for once I was actually feeling nicely warm. Even if Delun was wearing light-weight, light-colored clothing and was still looking overheated, and even if I was getting countless strange looks from other people for my out-of-place attire, I didn't care at all as long as I was comfortable.

Delun was quiet for a moment, looking extremely confused, then turned away with a huff. "Fine, you weird person! Wear whatever you want!"

"I will," I mumbled, frowning as I followed him down the sidewalk. As if I would go all the way back home and change into something else just because he didn't like what I was wearing…Anyway, it was already late October. Autumn and a cold front had come in, so the heat apparently wasn't as terrible as it had been lately. For everyone else, it meant a bit of relief from the sweltering weather. For me, it meant more clothes.

He gave me a small glance as I fell into step beside him, sticking my hands into my pockets. "So why'd you call me? It was unexpected," he remarked. It had always been him or the women inviting me over to their house or for outings downtown—where Delun and I were now. This was the first time I'd called him, and I had implied the women were free to join us, but apparently they were all busy.

I replied, "Because I have something important to ask you." Hence why I didn't mind that the other three hadn't come with us. Although I had already asked Mei Rong and Chen their opinions, they hadn't been very much help at all.

"And what's that?"

"What sorts of things does Jiao like?" I asked hopefully. I wanted to give her a return gift for the hair band she had given to me, but, never having bought a gift for someone before, I had no idea what to get.

Earlier that day, Mei Rong and Chen had told me over the phone in ecstatic tones that I should buy jewelry, because in their opinion that was what "every woman on the face of the planet wants as a gift! The more expensive, the better!" But then Mei Rong had pointed out that Jiao rarely wears jewelry, so that idea was tossed out in a matter of seconds, completely contradicting their previous remark.

When I mentioned I wanted to buy something that Jiao would actually have use for, they had given me the very shocking and unexpected suggestion of "Bras and underwear!"

It was true Jiao would get a lot of use out of something like that, but…I had immediately and very firmly said no. I didn't want to know what Jiao and Delun both would do and think if I gave her such a gift. Anyway, that would be something horrendously embarrassing to buy. Plus I didn't know her sizes, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask.

I had finally told them I would figure it out without their help and hung up the phone after they both had suggested and turned down—sometimes not even asking my opinion on the matter—lots of different sorts of makeup, random feminine hygiene products, some of which I would never want to buy, clothing, stuffed animals, food, gardening tools, pets, and a great deal of other things that got more and more extreme as they went, like pricey cars and exotic vacations.

While Delun and I got tea at a small outdoor café, and then continued on down the sidewalk, I explained my predicament to him.

He laughed at first, but gave an understanding nod. "Shopping for a woman; one of the most difficult tasks a man has to go through. However," he said around the plastic straw poking out of his ice-filled cup, "just pick something based on what you already know about her. For example—you say you want something she'll use—whenever I'm looking around for something to surprise Chen with…" Delun paused a moment, surprising me as a very warm, loving expression settling onto his face while he continued, "I look for things like new books she would enjoy, or packets of her favorite tea or candy, or even things for Shuang, since Chen loves spending time with her. It doesn't have to be something big, expensive and impressive. You just have to put some thought into it."

While Delun fell silent and went into some sort of Doting Husband Mode I'd never seen him in before, I stared down at the little hole in the lid of my styrofoam cup, wondering what I knew about Jiao. I didn't know very much, but I had picked up a few things over the past couple weeks. She was very pretty, but never flaunted it; her clothes were always rather simple, plain, and in pale colors. She wore very little makeup, if any at all. Whenever she had on jewelry, it was the same set of earrings and a necklace, each decorated with tiny, light blue gemstones.

Thus I decided not to get anything wearable.

She was quiet and reserved most of the time, but could easily get rowdy around her siblings. She liked spending time outdoors and had no qualms at all with getting her hands and feet filthy, wandering around with no shoes on while she enthusiastically weeded the gardens. A very active person when she wasn't swamped with her studies.

An idea popping into my head, I smiled faintly and took a drink of my hot herbal tea, feeling relieved. Ten minutes with Delun had been more helpful than an hour on the phone with his wife and sister.

Since we were in the area of town where there was the mall containing the cake shop where I'd met up with Heng, I dragged Delun inside and looked up and down the line of stores, trying to remember where I'd seen the one I wanted to go to. I'd wandered around the first time I'd gone there, but I hadn't really been much interested in what was where, so I only knew where the confectionery store was, and that wasn't any help at all.

Nothing coming to mind, I decided to go in the opposite direction of the forbidden cake shop, Delun at my side, still slurping on his iced tea, a bored expression on his face while he inspected his surroundings.

That end of the mall gave me no results, so I turned around and went in the other direction. "Where are we going‽" Delun complained in annoyance.

"This way," I answered promptly, not knowing where we were going.

"Oh, thanks for the explanation." He gave my completely insufficient reply a grateful look before rolling his eyes and chomping down on his drink's straw, but I ignored his sarcasm and continued glancing into the shops we passed one after the other.

It wasn't until we'd gone a little ways past the cake shop that I spotted what I was searching for—the looping letters of pale pink gradating into white spelling out _Lotus_ in English over the open entrance leading into a small retail store that sold bath products. It was close to makeup, I thought, but different enough that it would be useful to Jiao.

Delun and I stepped awkwardly through the wide glass doors and into the woman-filled shop, coming to a halt on the rich, green carpet. I ran my eyes over the spotless, white walls that were covered in shelf after shelf after shelf after shelf of hair care products, an absurd variety of sponges, towels, bathrobes and slippers, and bottles of who knew what that seemed to come in every shape, size and color imaginable, among other things. It was overwhelmingly confusing and I had absolutely no idea where to start. And it really didn't help that the air was filled with a heavy, stifling perfume-like smell, which made me feel a bit dizzy. Delun aside, no one else nearby seemed to be effected by the overpowering aroma of femininity.

"I'll be outside," Delun suddenly announced, turning around to escape, but I grabbed his shoulder.

"Don't you dare leave me in here all alone," I whispered threateningly, glaring. "Anyway, you've known Jiao twenty years longer than I have. You're useful in this sort of situation."

Looking away from Delun's slightly offended frown, I watched in relief—a feeling that lasted a grand total of four seconds—as a shop employee stepped forward and gave us both a not-so-professional smile, sweetly asking, "May I help you two find something?"

"Yes," I quietly answered, not liking the look on her face at all. I'd already seen it far too many times gracing the features of many other women—and the occasional man—who had talked to me in the past. That irritatingly obvious expression one has when they are eying something they want.

"I'm looking to buy a bath set." Something Jiao could use to relax with after a day full of romping with her siblings, studying for her classes, and working in the garden.

That creepy smile never faltering, she nodded and gestured with her hand. "If you would both follow me, our bath sets are right over here." Delun gave me a very unhappy look for forcing him to stay, but obediently shuffled after the girl and I while she led me over to a corner of the store filled with even more bottles, many arranged neatly inside ribbon-covered baskets.

"They're right here. If you would like to test any of their scents, we have samples you can use."

Sighing softly, I gave her a short nod and attempted to concentrate. It was difficult. Why did there have to be so many choices? No wonder there was a well-known assumption that women took a long time to shop. One of the reasons was obvious. If one wanted to find just the right product, they would have to spend hours searching unless they knew just what they wanted. And even then, it would take effort.

Perhaps creating so many different flashy-looking products with so many different scents and purposes was a scheme to make people like me spend more money than they needed to, just because they had no idea what to buy when faced with the sheer number of options they had. I doubted the store clerks had any problems with suggesting and selling an armload of bottles to every clueless customer who walked into the store.

"Is it a gift?" the woman asked with a sidelong glance, interrupting my mental cursing of the companies that had made me so confused with their stupid bathing products. Normally I wouldn't have minded that sort of question, but her tone and behavior were unsettling and made me feel like she was simply prying into my personal affairs.

"Yes." I managed to plaster on a faint smile. "It's for my _fiancée_."

Much to my satisfaction, she said, "Oh," and her face fell slightly while she took a small step away. At least she wasn't the sort to keep it up even after she knew the other person had a significant other.

However, it seemed she wasn't quite finished and moved onto Delun. Upon noticing her unwanted attention, he looked extremely annoyed and purposefully used his left hand to lift his tea up, then took an unnecessarily long drink. The woman's eyes dropped to the white gold wedding band on his ring finger. She made no effort to hide her glower of disappointment over the fact that he was already married. I was probably going to get an earful about all this from Delun later, but at the moment I was simply happy that he and I would hopefully not get flirted with during the remainder of our stay, which was hopefully going to be short.

Refocusing my attention to the store's products, I carefully read the labels, then flipped over the bottles to see the ingredients. Not wanting anything perfume-like in scent, I moved on and on over the brightly lit shelves until I found the bath sets that were more "organic" like I wanted. However, the flowery scents were just as numerous as the perfumey ones, so I gave an anxious stare to Delun and held up two bottles—one lavender and one rose. "What's Jiao's favorite flower?"

"Um…" His eyebrows drew together as he thought for a moment. "Lilacs, I think. She certainly has planted more than enough of them in the garden. Likes to go out and sniff them whenever they bloom."

Smiling triumphantly, I put down the bottles and grabbed a pale purple one that was labeled with _LILAC_ on the front. I held it out to the shop employee. "I want to know what this smells like."

After assuring myself that the scent wasn't strong—as I'd hoped, it was nice and soft, quite unlike the countless Death to Your Olfactory System options I'd passed over—I bought the entire set and watched in excitement while everything was put into a matte white gift bag, then handed to me. I was very eager to give it to Jiao right away, but I decided to wait until the following week when I next went to her house.

Striding out of the store and hoping I wasn't going to smell like perfume forever, I sighed in relief and gave a happy glance down to the bag in my hand, hoping that she would like it. I didn't know if she was even expecting me to give her something in return for that hair band I'd probably never use again now that we had left the lake of mermaids—we'd already arrived at the gorge and began training on eagles like Delun and Chen had wanted—but I still felt like it was the proper thing to do.

"This was all I wanted to get, so I'm finished now," I told Delun before taking a long drink of my tea. "Is there anywhere else you would like to go before we leave?" Silence came from the man beside me, and I gave him a questioning look. He was staring at something across the mall's open area. "Delun?"

"That kid over there looks kinda like Dib," he remarked with a small frown of confusion. My good mood was gone in a flash.

"Huh?" I wildly turned my head to look as well, my face paling. "Where? What kid?" Panic filled me when I spotted the child in question—a decade older-looking than Delun and my toddler-sized teammate, but the similarity between the two was easy to see. Was Heng here with his brothers? Why hadn't I predicted that something like this would happen? What was a good way to nonchalantly evacuate the premises without getting noticed by Heng? Given what I was holding, I very much didn't want to see him at that moment. Nor did I want Delun to go digging around in Dib's real identity.

"Want to go say hi to him?" Delun asked, making me want to clobber him with the bath set for suggesting such a horrible thing. "Oh, never mind. I think he's coming over here."

I momentarily froze in horror at his addition, then turned to watch with wide eyes while the boy made a bee-line for Delun and I. Through the crowd, two more boys who looked exactly like him, except their clothes, suddenly appeared, followed closely by Heng, who looked somewhat frustrated as if he was trying and failing to keep his brothers rounded up in the crowded area.

"Dib's a triplet?" Delun continued, sounding very surprised. "Which one is he? Do you know?"

"I know which," I answered miserably, wishing I could vanish right then and there.

The boy, smiling eagerly, finally came to a stop in front of us. "Al?" he inquired, nearly making my heart stop. Why in the world had Heng told him about me? And how did he know what I looked like, anyway?

"Yes…?"

His round eyes, so very much like Heng's, went wide at my unwillingly given answer. "Wow, you really do wear winter clothes all the time! How weird!" When I frowned in annoyance—apparently he only came up to Delun and I because I was the only one anywhere wearing a coat—he whirled around and waved an arm at the other three. "It's really him, Dàgē! Told you so!"

And apparently Heng had been trying to stop him from coming over here.

Heng mouthed an apology at me while he came to a stop behind his far-too-excited brother.

With all three of the triplets lined up, I looked from one to the other to the other as they chirped, "Hi!" all wearing the same curious grin.

"Hello," I replied, smiling as best I could.

"I'm San!" the one who had approached us first suddenly informed.

"I'm Yi," added the one on his left.

"And I'm Er," ended the third.

I gave Heng a look of perplexity and his face flushed, knowing what I was thinking. He made a huffy noise and crossed his arms as if I had wordlessly offended him. "Don't look at me like that. My parents let me name them and I had very little imagination back then, okay? I was only twelve, geeze. Give me a break."

"We're twelve and we have more imagination in our fingernails than you did in your whole body," Er mumbled loftily with an air of annoyance as if this hadn't been the first time this conversation had taken place. Heng lightly shoved the back of Er's head, then the boy turned around and gave him an indignant glare.

"Would it really have been so difficult to think of proper names?" I mused.

"Well, no…But these were easy to remember," Heng mumbled in embarrassment. "And these names do have their good points. This way people never have to ask them the order they were born in."

"They still do sometimes," San told me with a small sigh.

"And which of you is Dib?" Delun repeated his inquiry from earlier, since I hadn't answered. When all three of the boys immediately pointed a condemning finger at Heng, Delun raised an eyebrow. "…What?"

Sighing deeply in resignation for whatever was coming next, I also waved a hand at Heng. "Delun, this is Shi Heng. Or Dib, if you would prefer. You've actually sort of met him before when you came to have lunch with me at the office…he and I work together."

"Hey, Wei Bo," Heng greeted sheepishly, chuckling in a nervous manner, "nice to meet you in person."

Delun's mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing coherent came out for several minutes. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be amused over the situation, to be frightened that another person knew of Heng and my secret friendship, or to be understanding of Delun's shock over the fact that the tiny and cute Dib had become a man who was taller, older and more muscular than either of us.

"You're," Delun murmured, squinting as if he was trying to find Dib in Heng. "You're all grown up."

"Yeah…I noticed."

They continued to stare at one another for a while, then Delun suddenly snapped in fury, "And you're taller than I am! What's up with that‽ And here I was thinking you were all…WHY ARE YOU SO OLD‽ AUGH!"

Heng flinched in surprise at the bizarre noise, and then frowned. "Well, excu-u-u-use me for being an adult! Anyway, I'm only a few months older than Al, it's not like I'm someone's hundred-year-old great-great grandpa! And besides, I never _said_ I was a kid, did I?"

"YOUR APPEARANCE AND BEHAVIOR IMPLIED IT!" Delun roared, completely overreacting. Then again, I had also thrown a fit when I'd discovered the connection between Dib and Heng. But that had been for a different reason, and in the privacy of a hotel room, not in the middle of a bustling mall's atrium.

Having no free hands to hit Delun with, instead I sharply—well, as sharply as I could through three layers of clothing—elbowed him and gave him a reproving look. "Save the yelling for later. We're in public, in case you forgot."

Delun inhaled deeply, turned and stomped away toward a rectangular indoor fountain, then sat on the edge and glared into space while he drank down the remainder of his tea, his blazing appearance earning himself many frightened looks from the people passing him by. Sighing at his tantrum, I gave a glance to Heng and the triplets, murmuring, "Bye," before starting off after my fuming brother-in-law.

"Al, wait," Heng quietly called, following me. I glanced back, but he kept walking and passed me by, stopping beside the fountain. "You guys, could you sit here with Wei Bo for a little while? I'll be right back." Delun and the boys looked somewhat annoyed, but they obediently sat down. Afterward, he motioned for me to follow him and took me to the other side of the fountain. We seated ourselves and he proceeded to silently stare at the floor.

After several minutes had passed without a word, he chuckled and began to speak so softly that the bubbling fountain behind us nearly drowned him out. "We're together everyday, but it feels like it's been ages since the last time I've seen you. How are you doing?"

"Same as always," I replied halfway-truthfully. Actually, I'd been feeling extremely tired since the conversation between he and I in-game. Even with getting the normal amount of sleep every night, I was still becoming increasingly worn-out and stressed. Previously I would have thought that more distance between Heng and I would have relieved me, but it had the opposite effect.

"What's in there?" He tapped one finger on the side of the gift bag I had on my lap.

"A present for Jiao," I answered at once, not bothering to think up an excuse, "in return for the hair band she gave me in-game the other night."

"Oh…I see." He took a deep breath and shifted slightly on the cold stone of the fountain wall. "Since my brothers are probably getting impatient, I'll just skip to my point," he swiftly mumbled. "I wanted…wanted to ask if we could meet next Saturday. I know I said that…that I would back off if your father started to get suspicious, and I guess he did, since he banned you from the cake shop, but…" His face took on a desperate turn. "But this'll be the last time I'll ask…so please?"

My hands tightened around my cup of tea while I tried to make a decision. I'd been waiting and hoping for this, but when faced with the question itself, I had a difficult time choosing.

On the one hand, for the usual reasons I didn't want to at all. It would once again put Heng in danger, and indirectly, his brothers. It wouldn't be fair to Jiao. My father would know about it and I would get punished.

But on the other hand, I wanted to very much. I'd been extremely miserable without getting the chance to spend time with him alone. I missed him. I didn't want to hurt him yet again by scolding him about meeting like I had in the past.

"When and where?" I finally answered.

I wasn't looking at Heng, but I could feel how relaxed he suddenly became. He was probably smiling. "Saturday after work. It can be in the evening…At my house."

I nearly hissed, "That's a terrible place to meet," since my father would know without any problems at all where I'd gone, but held myself back, an idea immediately coming to mind. I got to my feet, hurrying around the edge of the fountain, a confused-looking Heng following along behind. I came to a halt in front of Delun. "Delun, I have a favor to ask."

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><p><em>For those of you (like me) who don't know how to count in Chinese, the triplets' names are: Yi (one), Er (two), and San (three). Heng named them in the order that they were born. xD<em>


	28. Facing the Consequences

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p><em>"Delun, I have a favor to ask," I announced, Heng sidling up to my side. Delun, Heng, and the triplets glanced at me with curiosity.<em>

_"What?" Delun eyed me suspiciously._

_"Pretend I'm at your house on Saturday evening."_

_"Why?" My request was obviously a bewilderment to him, but Heng's expression settled into understanding._

_"I'm actually going to Dib's house," I explained. "Since he is my employee, my father doesn't approve of our friendship, so Dib and I have to be very careful about our meetings outside of _Second Life_. If it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, I want to drive to your house, leave my car there and have you drive me to where I'll meet Dib. I'll collect my car again afterward."_

_Delun fell into contemplative silence for several moments and I patiently waited for his answer. If he refused, I would just find some other way, but I hoped he would help. It seemed like a good enough plan to throw people off my trail._

_"And," Delun began skeptically, "what happens if we get caught? I've never met your father, but the horror stories my parents have told me have made me never want to do anything to upset him." He waved his hand at Heng and I with an addition of, "Not that I'm personally against you two hanging out, but…I really don't think this is a good idea."_

_"Whatever your parents have told you about my father is most likely true." I gave him a humorless smile. "But if we do get caught, I can assure you that he won't do anything to you or your family, if that is what you're worried about." If my father did anything to them, that would only disrupt the business partnership he valued so much, thus inconveniencing himself, and that was out of the question._

_"Partially," he admitted, "and that's relieving to hear, but I'm also worried about you two. What–"_

_"We're prepared to deal with the consequences," Heng stubbornly interjected._

_Delun glanced between the two of us, thought for a bit longer, then let loose a long sigh. "Fine…If you're both sure about this, I'll help you."_

I took a deep breath, staring around the small, unexpectedly neat room I was sitting in on a wide-seated, black couch. A black shag rug—it felt very nice underfoot—covered the middle of the shiny, hardwood floor, and a low, rectangular table was set on top of it, not so far away that you couldn't reach anything set on it, but not so close that you would bump your knees.

Placed against the wall across from me was a television set encased in shelves. On the shelves was a great number of video games, the required game systems, movies, and music discs. The wall to my left had another set of shelves, but that one was full of picture frames—containing several pictures of Heng's parents and the four siblings in varying stages of growth—and a very large amount of comic books. Next to the shelves was the door leading to the front hallway.

To my right was two more doors, one leading upstairs and the other leading to the kitchen, where Heng was currently making tea.

He and I had arrived only a few minutes ago. The procedure to get ourselves here had, seemingly, gone just fine. Delun, who was apparently very unused to doing such sneaky things, had been extremely nervous the entire time he was driving me to where Heng was meeting me. In an effort to relax the poor man, I had teasingly pointed out that his hands had been shaking. He had violently denied any accusations of being even a tiny bit afraid, and after I'd playfully told him that I hadn't said that, he'd threatened to turn around and take me back to his house, so I had hastily stopped picking on him and had left him alone for the rest of the car ride.

After he had dropped me off near that children's playground I'd gone to with Heng, he'd given me one last concerned glance before driving away and I'd gone the rest of the way on my own. I'd found Heng sitting on top of the playground's slide, then we hurried on to his house, which I'd discovered was right around the corner. A small—well, I supposed it was a normal-sized house for someone like Heng to live in, but when compared to my father's house, there was little that didn't look minuscule—even the Lin house looked somewhat modest in comparison—brick building walled on either side with other houses, a small car port—containing his red car—and little hanging potted plants by the front door.

Heng had scowled in annoyance and embarrassment when I'd called it all "cute."

And so there I found myself, sitting cross-legged on the couch and waiting for Heng to emerge from the kitchen. It took nearly ten minutes, but he finally strode into the room, carrying in both hands a wide tray, on which was perched a fat black teapot and two matching mugs, plus a steaming plate of little meat buns—something I wanted nothing of, both from my lack of appetite and from the fact that I had a slight fear that they would start screaming in terror if I so much as glanced at them. My opinion of all buns, alive or not, had apparently changed for the worst after my run-in with Meatbun.

Once Heng had set down the tray and poured the tea, he plopped himself down on the other side of the table from me. Not wanting to question his reluctance to also sit on the couch, I thanked him and picked up my mug, wrapping my fingers around it and letting the heat seep comfortably into my hands while I gave another scrutinizing look about the oddly tidy room. "Did you clean before I came over?"

"Are you implying that I'm a messy person?" Heng returned in an offended tone, crossing his arms as if the thought was ridiculous, regardless of his extremely sloppy habits in-game. Dib was constantly spilling food and potions all over the place, falling into mud puddles I didn't even notice were there until he'd somehow become all filthy, smudging and scratching up his armor while we weren't even fighting, getting stuff hopelessly tangled in his hair, leaving his pouch unorganized so it took him longer than necessary to find things, and on and on.

"I might be." I smiled playfully.

"I'll have you know that I keep everything as clean as possible," he announced huffily. "Not to your sterilized extent, but plenty clean. And I've been tough on my little brothers when it comes to doing chores, keeping their bedrooms nice and stuff, so they're also really good at keeping things in order, though they do get pretty snippy with me sometimes. So anyway, no, I didn't _clean_ in the way you're probably thinking—scrubbing the house from top to bottom. But I did pick up a few things that had been left out, did the dishes, little things like that."

"I suppose it isn't so surprising. Your desk at the office is always very organized."

"Well, yeah. It's easier to find things that way," he mumbled around a bun. "Better to throw out trash and put things back in the right place as you go along, than to leave everything until it's a big mess."

"It's a good habit to have," I agreed with a nod, then fell silent. Too bad Heng's neatness wasn't uniform around our department. Some of my employees had the habit of leaving the chore of cleaning up the food crumbs, wrappers and cartons, out-dated documents, scraps of paper, old memos and other such useless trash that was piled on their desks until it became so terrible-looking that I stepped in and forced them to clean.

When I caught Heng anxiously glancing between me and the mug I was gripping tightly, I took a quick sip of the fruity tea and smiled reassuringly, thinking perhaps he was wondering why I wasn't drinking. "It's good."

He looked relieved and nodded, blushing a little. "Mm…I wasn't sure if you would like it or not, with the expensive stuff you're used to having every day."

"The price doesn't always determine the flavor," I countered, taking another long drink and enjoying the nice feeling of my throat and stomach being warmed. "Anyway, I'm not particular when it comes to tea. As long as it's hot and prepared correctly, it's fine with me."

With small grin, Heng picked up one of the buns and popped it into his mouth, taking the time to slowly and thoroughly chew it before musing, "Before I got to know you, I always thought rich guys were all pretty much stereotypical—stuck-up and snooty. Buying expensive things just because they're expensive, and then showing them off."

I snorted in slight humor. "Oh, your assumptions weren't entirely incorrect. There are plenty of rich brats who flaunt their parents' money as if they themselves did all of the work. But I suppose I am part of the minority who believes he has nothing to show off. My father pays for all of my expenses, although I rarely use the spending money he gives me, unless it's for computer equipment or small things like drinks whenever I go out. Aside from the suits my father's ordered to have tailored, I can't even recall the last time I got new clothes. Probably not since I was a teenager…I suppose they're all out of style now."

Heng dramatically feigned shock. "A rich guy wearing out of style clothes‽ How embarrassing. You people are the ones who're supposed to set new trends for we commoners to follow, not get left behind in the world of fashion," he teased in a scolding tone.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm afraid I don't set or follow trends. Regardless of the years spent wearing them, my clothes still fit, they're still in good condition, thus they're fine with me, so there is no point in receiving more." I gave him a slight smirk. "Anyway, as for not being snobby because of my father's money…even if I used my own wages to support myself, that's something everyone does. It's nothing to get prideful over."

Heng's smile stretched wider as he laughed, propping up his chin on one hand and staring down at his tea. "That's one of the things I love about you," he murmured. "No arrogance at all, even when so many other people, if they were in your place, would get all full of themselves."

Feeling happily embarrassed by what he'd unexpectedly said, I concentrated on the mug in my hands to avoid looking in his direction, letting the conversation drop. I never really knew how to handle compliments, especially ones coming from him. In my opinion, such things weren't so praise-worthy or admirable. There were plenty of people who weren't egotistical, even if they were better off than others in terms of their finances.

But it still felt very nice to hear him say it.

My eyes automatically flew upward when he noisily set down his own mug and proceeded to stare in a remorseful manner up at me. "Well, jokes and all aside…I wanted to say sorry…for how I've been behaving. I wanted to apologize a while ago, really, but…there was always someone else around, so I never knew when to bring it up…I just had no idea how to react to hearing all that so suddenly. There was no time for me to, um, ease out of what I thought things were like and ease into how things really are, I guess."

With a pained grin, he gave a hollow laugh and slipped his chin from his hand to put his forehead in its place. "I was so angry at you and your fiancée…and it's not even your guys' fault. Felt all betrayed and disappointed, but…well, as I told you, there wasn't ever anything. Officially, anyway. Just in my head…Now everything I'd been stupidly hoping for ended before it even had a chance to start. I feel like an idiot for getting my hopes up in the first place…"

I was quiet for a moment, feeling my face heat up quite a bit as I gained that longed for confirmation of the questions that had been building up since the morning in _Second Life_ when he'd first kissed me on the cheek. A small part of me was happy beyond words to find out that he really had those feelings for me, but the rest of me was simply distressed at how everything was so complicated and conflicting. I doubt I would have hesitated if I didn't have so many responsibilities to deal with, if people weren't expecting so much from me, if I was an average person like him. But wishing for those "if's" was pointless.

"Well, that makes an idiot of us both," I slowly admitted. Heng's head jerked upward in surprise. "However…as terrible as it is to say," I continued miserably, "even if I wasn't engaged, I still wouldn't have chosen you."

A look of extreme hurt flashed over his face when I spoke. "Why not‽"

"Isn't it obvious?" I stared vacantly down at my unsteady reflection on the surface of my tea. "Look at what my father's reaction is to us simply being friends. If we became anything more and got discovered, do you really think that my father would stop at simply firing you and yelling at me? He would probably lock me away at home and never let me leave again.

"I'm not willing to be with you if everything's just going to be taken away from us permanently in a matter of moments, since we can stay together as friends indefinitely." Taking a shuddering breath, I looked back up at him. "I suppose it's a selfish and one-sided decision, but I wouldn't have chosen you because I don't want to lose you."

"Would he really go so far as locking you up?" Heng questioned, frowning in a somewhat disbelieving way, regardless of how he already knew, to a certain extent, how extreme my father could be.

"Yes. He's done it before."

His eyes went very wide with shock at my matter-of-fact tone. "What‽ When?"

"As far back as I can remember until I was nearly nineteen," I answered quietly. Heng's face became paler and paler while I continued, "I was rarely allowed outdoors, and I was never allowed outside of the grounds. The first time I put even one hair past the front gate was my first day of university. I doubt anyone except my family, the house staff, and my doctor even knew I existed until then."

"Wha—What…But…but…Keeping your kid locked up for two decades is on a whole other level of child abuse from hitting and yelling! Why the hell would the bastard do something like that‽" Heng snapped furiously.

"I don't know. I've never asked. And even if I did, I'm sure he wouldn't answer."

"Why do you never ask about anything‽ Geeze. Aren't you ever curious about all this weird stuff‽"

"Of course, from time to time. However, curiosity isn't a good enough reason for my father to answer me about anything," I told him simply. I knew if I asked, I would just be told to shut up.

"Did he do that to Gui, too?"

I slowly shook my head. "No. Although Gui Wen was also tutored at home, he was allowed to leave whenever he wanted, assuming he had done his school work and everything. But most of the time he seemed to prefer keeping me company at home. The time we spent together lessened quite a bit after my father expressed his displeasure over how, in his opinion, being friendly with Gui Wen meant I was holding him back from his studies and all. Gui Wen stopped making time for me completely in the month after…that other stuff happened between us…understandably."

"More favoritism," Heng growled. "No wonder you have no social skills whatsoever!" He nearly slammed his fists down on the table, but it seemed that he decided against it at the last moment and he punched the shaggy carpet instead. "Dammit, I could kill that guy for the shit he's done to you! Here I was getting all mad at you for being suspicious of me, but given how you grew up…The people you were surrounded with…Everyone back in college just thought you were snobby for keeping your distance, I thought you were just shy and quiet, but…you didn't know how to interact with us." With that observation thrown between us, his mood suddenly became morose.

A slight twinge of anger pricked at my mind as I took in the way he was looking at me. "Are you pitying me? If so, don't. It's degrading."

He glared and threw a meat bun at me. "How can I not pity someone who's been kept in captivity and abused for so long‽ I'm not trying to be degrading. I'm just concerned! And super angry!"

I roughly lobbed the bun right back. "You may not be trying to do so, but you still are. Anyway, it's all in the past, so there's no reason to get all worked up about it. Now I'm allowed to come and go from the house relatively as I please. That's all that matters to me."

In bewilderment, he shook his head. "I can't understand how you can just brush all of that horrible stuff away like you don't even care."

Staring blankly at him, I assured, "I have never expected you to understand."

His face fell at my sudden display of cold distancing. "Maybe you haven't, but I _want_ to understand you," he softly said. "Everything. Though I suppose that's…that's not really my place, but I still do. Anymore, with all this stuff happening, I feel like I barely know you at all."

Sighing slightly, I took a sip of tea. "Well, that isn't strange, is it? Even if we've known one another for years, we've been friends only a short while. And if you want to understand me, I suggest that you begin with something more simplistic than attempting to unravel the mysteries of what you refer to as my 'weird brain.'"

There was silence for a moment while Heng nibbled on the edge of the meat bun he'd thrown at me, then he asked, "What's your favorite color?"

I quirked an eyebrow in bemusement at the question, which was far more simplistic than I'd meant. "I don't really have one favorite. Black, brown, dark gray, dark blue, dark green. Colors like that."

"Why all dark?" he curiously furthered.

"Take a guess," I suggested with a smile around the edge of my mug. I would have thought that it would be completely obvious.

His face took on a vacant look while he thought some more, then his eyes widened. "Oh, ri-i-ight. Dark colors…light absorption and all. I should have known that would be why." With a frown, he added in irritation, "Stupid, I meant what color you like the look of! Not what color helps you warm up!"

"In that case, it would probably be blue," I answered. "It's nice and calm."

"Hm, I see…Guess mine!" He leaned forward slightly, eyebrows raised.

"Red," I guessed, "since in _Second Life_, the clothes you wear under your armor is red. And your car is red. And a lot of your neckties."

He gave a laugh and nodded. "Yep, it's red. Favorite food?" came the next question and I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off with "And I mean the _taste_, not how convenient it is to eat!"

Smiling, I said, "Fruit, I suppose. I really don't have a favorite in terms of taste. I like a lot of them. But as you suspected, I prefer fruit because it's easy to eat, healthy, and quick to prepare, since there's no baking involved. Raw vegetables are nice as well."

"I see. Mine's pie. Really healthy, huh? And favo-o-ori-i-ite…" He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, then tilted himself back to look upside down at the shelves surrounding the television. "Music genre?"

"Classical."

"Not surprising, I guess. I like all sorts, no real favorite…How about your favorite movie?"

"I've never watched a movie before, so I don't have a favorite." I didn't have a television, and had only ever watched the occasional news broadcast, and that was on my computer. Who knew what my father would have done in the past if I'd asked him if I could do something as useless as watch a movie.

Heng's head abruptly snapped back into the correct position and he yelled, "WHAT‽ How is that possible‽" I watched in slight alarm when he leapt to his feet and ran into the kitchen. "WE'VE GOTTA WATCH ONE RIGHT NOW! But we need popcorn! Where is it…where‽" There was a great deal of frantic slamming and crashing, and then he swore very loudly. "I HAVE NO POPCORN! WHY DON'T I HAVE POPCORN‽ THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!" He suddenly ran back into the living room. He was practically glowing with excitement. "Let's go buy some. There's a convenience store down the road."

"Why in the world is this so important?" I asked cautiously, but then interestedly stared up at him. "Popcorn…that's the little packets of corn kernels that explode, right?"

Heng's face took on a pitying turn for the second time that evening. "Never had popcorn, either, huh? This is the worst case of fun deprivation I've ever seen. 'Corn kernels that explode'…What, are you a kid imagining the microwave blowing up?" Ignoring my scowl of indignation at being called a kid by Heng of all people, he beckoned to me, hurried across the room and disappeared into the front hall. "Come on, Al! Let's go!"

Sighing with resignation, I unfolded myself from the squishy cushions and slowly stood up to follow. Not fifteen minutes later, we were back in his kitchen. Heng opened up the top of the bright yellow box of microwavable popcorn he'd bought and withdrew a little package, holding it out to me. I took it from him and carefully tore off the plastic cover, then unfolded the bag and glanced at him again, not knowing what to do next. "Put it in the microwave and press the popcorn button," he explained with an amused look.

Quickly doing what he said, I watched with extreme focus as the bag spun around and around inside the microwave. Rather than doing anything like I'd been expecting, it just kept on rotating. "When does it explode?" I asked somewhat impatiently, but I kept my eyes glued to the packet, determined not to look away or even blink so I would be able to see the moment when it happened.

"It doesn't _explode_," Heng sighed. "It's popcorn, not dynamite, for goodness sake. Anyway, you won't be able to see it pop. The bag'll just expand is all. There are super old popcorn makers where you just pour the corn in, put the lid on and you can see the kernels popping, but I don't have one of those."

"Oh." I was somewhat disappointed that I wouldn't actually see it happen, but I kept watching, still feeling very curious. It wasn't until a minute had ticked away on the microwave that a popping noise came from inside the spinning bag and my eyes widened. "It's doing something!"

Heng suddenly started laughing. I gave him an annoyed look for breaking my concentration. "You're so ridiculous," he murmured, raising a hand to ruffle my hair around. There were several more pops from the microwave, but they didn't seem very interesting anymore when the hand dropped down to rest on my cheek, flooding it with heat. Heart pounding in my chest, I watched while Heng's face got closer and closer. My head went a little fuzzy when I felt his warm breath erratically brush over my lips. He was close. So close. Way too close. All I had to do was lean forward a tiny bit…

I forced myself to tear my eyes away from his face and turned my head to one side at the same time that he yanked himself backward with a pained look, turned his back to me and mumbled something about getting a bowl for the popcorn. I nodded, although he couldn't see, then I hurried out of the kitchen, taking a deep breath when I came to a halt by the shelves in the living room. Face burning, I rigorously rubbed a hand over my eyes, trying to beat down the urge to cry.

An overwhelming feeling of disappointment took hold of me, but I wasn't sure just what it was directed at—the fact that I hadn't kissed him or the fact that I'd let myself almost kiss him.

The rest of the evening passed by in awkward silence. After the movie ended, I couldn't remember a thing about it. Although I'd eaten some of the popcorn, I couldn't remember what it tasted like. What had happened in the kitchen kept replaying over and over in my mind. Sometimes the little mini-movies I was thinking up went quite a bit further than they had in reality, making me extremely happy that the light was off and Heng was sitting on the other end of the couch instead of right beside me.

When it was getting late, I called Delun to come get me so I could go home. Heng settled for a pat on the arm and a smile as a goodbye to me when I left to wait by myself at the playground, and before I knew it, I was standing in my own bedroom. With a tiny sigh, I dressed in my pajamas and knelt down beside my sofa to get out my _Second Life_ helmet from its hiding place. I didn't really want to see Dib so soon, but the Grand Melee was that night and I wanted to be there to support the Odd Squad, and perhaps also go for another attempt at talking to Gui Wen after the competition.

Another sigh escaped me when I slid into bed and I laid there, staring up at my ceiling for a moment. A quiet click made me shove my helmet under the covers while I shot up into a sitting position, watching in terror when my bedroom door opened from the outside. My father strode inside, pocketing his copy of my room's key. I hastily got out of bed when he came to a stop, my heart pounding all over again.

"Where have you been all evening?" His icy tone cut through me as easily as any knife.

With a trembling breath, I lied to him for the first time. "The Lin house, Father." He saw right through it.

Taking a step forward, he angrily repeated, "Where have you been‽" When I repeated myself, he backhanded me in the same spot as he had before, but with a great deal more force. I could nearly feel the bruise already forming when the taste of blood filled my mouth.

"Did you think that you had been terribly clever? Your efforts to evade me were pointless. I warned you and I warned you," he quietly said. "It was not an empty threat." The numbing fear of realization filled me when I met his eyes again and he continued, "Because of your determination to disobey me, Shi Heng is now unemployed."

I shook my head again. "No, Father! He has done nothing!"

"I told you this would happen if you did not listen to me," he spat.

"Then punish me!" I pleaded hysterically. "Leave him alone! I take all of the responsibility, so give him his job back! He needs it! Father, please!" I suddenly and uselessly wished I'd kept my reluctance to meet with Heng. I should have told him no from the very beginning. If I was just going to be the reason he lost the income he needed to support his brothers and himself, I should never have been so selfish as to indulge my wants. Even if he had gotten angry with me, I shouldn't have gotten close to him, agreed to be friends with him…I shouldn't have even bought _Second Life_. If I hadn't, he would have been fine.

Everything I'd done to protect him had been for nothing.

My words fell on deaf ears, and my father turned away from me. Inhaling deeply in determination to make him change his mind, I darted forward and grabbed his shoulder, so he couldn't leave. That was the first time I'd ever touched him. If the glare he gave me afterward was any indication, it was probably the last time as well.

Having very slow reflexes and very little physical strength, the punches he threw at me after that were completely unavoidable, but I didn't resist. He took hold of the front of my top and slammed me to the floor, forcing all of the air out of my lungs when he continued to pound his fists into my face. I struggled to breathe, but all of my efforts were halted when his foot came crashing down on my chest. It was only when I felt his target switch to my left arm that I screamed in pain, feeling the bones easily snap under his heel.

Tears flooding over my eyes, I gritted my teeth in preparation for whatever was coming next, but suddenly everything stopped. There were soft thuds in the floor as he took several steps away from me and I rolled over onto my side, cradling my broken arm against myself and sobbing uncontrollably.

"What is this‽" He came back, looming over me. My eyes widened in renewed fear when I saw what he was holding in his hand. The _Second Life_ helmet I'd hastily attempted to hide was hooked over one of his thin fingers. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS‽" he yelled, forcing the plastic to bend the wrong way. With a clean snap, the helmet suddenly broke in half and he tossed the pieces aside, grabbing my shirt front again and lifting me off the floor. I stared back at him in blind terror as he shook me back and forth, repeatedly knocking my head against the ground. "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU WASTING YOUR TIME WITH TRASH LIKE THAT‽ YOU STUPID BOY! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS WHAT I TELL YOU! NOTHING ELSE! WHY IS THAT SO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND‽"

I could barely hear what he was saying through the loud roaring in my ears. I was having trouble seeing him when the edges of my vision started to darken and blur. My ragged breath coming in short bursts, I couldn't think of anything to do or say to calm him down. There was nothing I _could_ say. He was going to be furious no matter what I attempted to pacify him with.

At my silence, he drew his fist back again and brought it down with an unbelievable amount of strength. Fresh waves of pain and fear swirled up and, without thinking, I began to struggle. That only made his anger go up and he lifted me completely into the air, throwing me as hard as he could. I landed on my left side, causing agonizing pain to stab through my arm, but I ignored it and scrambled to my feet, running out the door, through my office, and into the hallway. I could hear him following me, but I didn't turn to look.

His hand clamped down on the back of my shirt once I got to the top of the stairs. As he yanked me around to face him, he punched me again and I tilted backward, losing my balance. His furious face started to get smaller. For a split second, in my confusion I thought perhaps he was backing away from me for some reason. But a moment later, I knew that wasn't it.

Through the tears still swimming over my eyes, the blood running down, and the darkness of the entryway, I saw the base of the stairs come rushing up to meet me.


	29. Forgotten

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** Zhong Yu is included quite a bit more in this version. xP Oh nooo. But he won't actually get involved in the story for a while yet._

* * *

><p>"…did I…finish telling…a week ago‽ Dammit!…never listen, you moron!"<p>

"That does not…me…it was…fault. You should be…that I have…killed him."

"…you dare kill him! I don't…whose fault it is! If you keep…he's going to come here!"

My eyes blearily cracked open and they wandered to the left, searching for the source of the argumentative voices that had woken me up. My father and my doctor were standing near my sofa, glaring at one another with utmost loathing.

"I will _never_ allow that."

The doctor waved a hand in my direction. "Then move him. I told you already that Zhong Yu's gotten more than tired of how you treat Zian as your own personal punching bag. If you don't want him to come for a not-so-brotherly visit, you'll cooperate with us!"

A look of cold hate I was completely familiar with settled over my father's face. "If Zhong Yu dares to come here after what he has done to…to Hui Ying and Gui Wen…to my family…" His voice faded out and his anger was slowly replaced with despair—something I'd never seen him show before, but he soon regained control and turned back into his usual self. "If he comes here, I assure you that he will not live long enough to regret it."

Intimidating looks and icy threats didn't seem to phase the doctor at all, and he calmly continued, "He won't come if you move Zian," nearly sounding like he was trying to barter. How fearless he was bewildered me.

With a deep breath and a tiny, resigned head shake, my father turned toward the door and began walking away while softly saying something I couldn't hear over the sounds of the people and beeping equipment surrounding me. There seemed to be a lot of doctors in my bedroom at that moment. Why were they there? I'd just had a check-up recently. Well, a month ago.

Once my father was gone, the doctor's irritated gaze fell onto me, but it vanished at once into a look of surprise and relief while he rushed forward, nearly knocking a young man in a lab coat off his feet. "Zian! You're finally awake!" That ridiculously fluffy head of white hair floated into my line of vision. It was like a giant, talking dandelion puff had grown at my bedside.

I would have replied, but my chest hurt too much to make any noise just yet, so I didn't. I felt as though several of my ribs had stabbed through my lungs, rendering me incapable of breathing, much less talking.

Tears pooled on my eyelids and dripped off when I attempted to turn my head to look around my unusually sunny bedroom; the curtains that I liked to keep shut must have been opened. The light only added to the pain in my head. It hurt so much. My arm hurt. My chest hurt. All of the rest of me hurt. Stupid pain. Why was I in so much pain?

"Zian?"

I let my head revert back to its original position, giving a gasp when my neck protested against the movement. Staring questioningly up at the doctor, I waited for him to say whatever it was and hoped that it was going to be brief. I wanted to go back to sleep. I felt so tired and heavy like I was sinking into my bed.

He used a tissue to wipe the wetness off my face. The touches were careful and gentle, but the feeling of the soft cloth rubbing over my skin only made it sting. "Try not to move too much, okay? We've done some scans already, and it seems the only things that are broken is four ribs and your left arm—in three spots, and one bit was a really nasty compound fracture, but at least you've got your other arm to use 'til it heals, huh? You've also sustained damage to your skull, which worries me, so I want to ask you a few questions. They'll all be simple, so don't bother saying anything. Just blink once for yes, twice for no, three if you don't know."

Again, I made no attempt to reply. All of that explained the pain.

"You already responded to your name, but let's try this anyway. Is your name Min Zian?" he asked, and I blinked once—what else would my name be?—then gave him a series of single blinks when he listed off my age, location, his own identity, and the year. He then gave a cheery nod and continued, "Great. The day, is it the twenty-fifth?"

After a moment of thought, I blinked three times. I couldn't remember what day it was. That number was way off, though.

"Okay…The month, is it October?"

That time, I blinked twice at the weird question. It was early July, not late October.

"You don't think it's October, eh? Sorry to break it to you, but it's Sunday, October twenty-fifth." He held up a newspaper for proof, tapping a finger over the printed date. My eyes widened at his correction and I stared at him in confusion. His face fell slightly while he looked down at his clipboard. "Ah-h-h…I was afraid of this. That moron…just told him a week ago to stop losing his temper so much, then he goes and nearly kills you. Was afraid Zhong Yu was gonna murder me through the phone when I told him about what'd happened. His temper is worse than Kuo Li's…" the doctor mumbled to himself with a slight shudder. Sighing, he stared down at me again. "You better be grateful he's so protective of you. You would have been dead a long time ago if he wasn't."

I gave no response, having no idea who Zhong Yu was, what he had to do with the shortening or lengthening my life span, and why he was protective of me.

"Wouldn't have been born in the first place, if it wasn't for him," the doctor added, smirking. "Though I'm not sure if that's really something to be grateful for, given the life Kuo Li has been putting you through all these years." Tucking his clipboard and newspaper under his arm, the doctor gave me one last look of distress. "We've given you stuff for the pain, so go back to sleep if you want. Probably don't have much time to get rested up, but go ahead."

With one drowsy blink, I watched while he walked out of sight, leaving the room. My eyes immediately drifted shut and the sounds of the people and equipment quickly faded out when I slipped into a dull, hazy sleep.

What felt like a second later, a slamming noise jarred me awake and my eyes flew open. Someone walked by, but didn't stop. Quiet voices were speaking somewhere across the room, but I was more interested with inspecting the ceiling. That wasn't _my_ ceiling. It was too low, the wrong color, and there was an overhead fan light instead of my decorative, bronze chandelier.

Feeling confused, I carefully turned my head to see who was talking. A man and two women were sitting on a spacious, cushioned and curtained window seat built into the wall across the room. None of the people seemed to notice I was awake, so I slowly began to sit up. Sharp pain shot through my chest, but, not wanting to give up, I gritted my teeth and used my right arm to push myself upright. Light footsteps hurried across the pale wood floor and a hand was put on my right shoulder. "Why are you trying to sit up?"

Glancing up, I met the gaze of a pretty, curly-haired woman. She looked rather angry for some reason, as did the other two when they came up behind her. "Where am I?" I asked as clearly as I could, though my voice was rather raspy and weak. The effort tore at my dry throat and aching chest.

"Our house," the man answered simply. "You live here now. This was one of our guest rooms, but it's yours now."

In surprise at his unexpected explanation, I gave a sweeping look about the airy guest room. It was only half the size of my bedroom, but the creamy walls, long shape and vacant, not-lived-in look made it seem spacious. The desk and chair that had been in my office were placed against the wall opposite the king-size bed I was laying in. Several stacks of cardboard boxes were next to it, and a long set of empty bookshelves were on the other side. Leafy plants were here and there around the room, and a cold breeze was blowing in through the open window, making me shiver now that I wasn't encased in the heavy, white blankets.

"And, um…" I whispered, no less confused than before, "_why_ am I here?"

"Your father sent you here," the woman said quietly.

"Why?" I repeated, eyes going wide.

"We don't know," the second woman admitted. "He won't tell us what happened. Your doctor won't say anything, either." When my face fell at the lack of information, she hastily added, "But I'm sure we'll find something out later! Don't worry!"

I wasn't assured at all by her cheerily spoken words and bright smile. How could I not worry when I'd been sent for some unknown reason to some unknown place to live with a bunch of strangers?

"It's not like we need to hear an explanation. It's obvious what happened. Just look at him," the man snarled, then shook his head and frowned down at me. "Really, I told you two that meeting was a bad idea, but you guys stupidly didn't listen to me. Now you've been beaten black and blue.

"Dib seemed fine last night, by the way, other than being worried about where you were. But who knows if anything's happened to him since then." He turned to the bob-haired woman at his side. "He told me his cellphone number. Think I should invite him over?"

"I don't think he should come." The two glanced at the woman with her hand still on my shoulder. "Let Zian rest for a few days. Dib would probably keep him up. Unless you want him to be here?"

After a pause, I realized that had been directed at me and I stared up at her in confusion. "Who?"

"Dib," she answered slowly. "Do you want him to come over, or would you rather rest?"

"Who is Dib?" What a weird name…

Blank stares met my question and no one answered me for nearly a minute. The man suddenly swore under his breath and gave a huge sigh. "Are you serious‽ Oh, this is just great. Do you even know who _we_ are‽" he asked me and I carefully shook my head, feeling glad that he'd brought it up. With a frustrated noise, he finally told me, "I'm Lin Delun. Your brother-in-law. This is my wife, Chen. And this is my sister—your fiancée, Jiao-mèi."

My mouth dropped open slightly when he listed off their names. "Oh…" So that was who they were. Where I was suddenly made a lot more sense than it had initially. They weren't strangers at all. Well, they were sort of—I'd never met them before—but they weren't completely unrelated to me, at least.

A sudden sinking feeling filled me. I was injured, so I wasn't able to go to work, so my father sent me here. He was getting rid of me. Now that I'd served my purpose for getting close to the Lin family, I wasn't useful to him anymore. Was I really so worthless?

"Whoa! Why are you crying‽" Delun suddenly exclaimed when hot tears began to pour down my face.

Ignoring him, I shrugged off Jiao's hand and struggled to climb out of bed, squeezing my eyes shut against the pain stabbing through my body. I didn't want to leave home. I couldn't leave. Why was he so cold? Why did he hate me so much? There must have been something I could do to make him take back his choice. How could I prove myself to him?

How could I make him love me?

I nearly fell out of bed, but Delun caught me with a surprised yell. "Let go of me!" I ordered, weakly attempting to push him away. "I have to go home!"

"Stop hitting me!" Delun snapped. "You're living _here_ now!"

"I am not!" I frantically denied, struggling harder in an effort to escape. "Let me go back! I have go to back!"

With an angry roar, Delun pushed me back into bed and held me down, glaring. "Stop flailing around, you idiot! You live here now whether you like it or not! It was your father's choice, not ours, so deal with it! It's safer here for you, anyway, so I don't know why you're complaining in the first place! Just calm down!" I gave him a miserable stare, then gave up trying to make them let me go home. I could just leave once they weren't in the room anymore. Even if I was injured, my father's house wasn't too far. I still had two legs and an arm to work with, so I could drive. Or I could just get a taxi.

Apparently convinced that I wasn't going to try anything again, Delun straightened with an irritated frown. Much to my dismay—it was like he had read my mind—he walked over to my desk and scooped up my car keys and wallet that had been sitting on top. "I'm confiscating these for the time being. No trying to escape while we're not looking," he ordered, then huffily left the room. Anger and despair flooded over in my mind, and I rolled over onto my side and curled up, flipping the blankets over my head both to make those women go away and so I didn't have to see my surroundings. The bedsheets quickly became soaked with the tears that continued to drip down, but I barely noticed.

Two weeks passed.

My injuries eventually healed enough that I could move around normally—all except my left arm, obviously. Having nothing better to do every day, I often took to wandering around the house and grounds, exploring. There always seemed to be new rooms or portions of the garden that I'd never been in. It was a very pretty place. Very warm and welcoming and full of friendly people. But I wanted to go home. I felt slightly confused at myself for so strongly desiring to return. I'd hated that cold, unfeeling house. However, I kept seeing flashes of my father's apathetic face and the want to gain his approval grew again and again. But there was little I could do when I wasn't allowed to leave the grounds unless someone else was with me, and even then they never let me go home.

Feeling bored, I wandered across the guest room, then crouched down on the smooth, pale oak hardwood floor by the pile of cardboard boxes that had been placed in the corner by the door. I'd been wanting to unpack my things on my own rather than having the house staff do it for me. Since I'd done basically nothing those past two weeks, aside from sitting about the house, healing, I thought perhaps now was a good time.

After ripping off the packing tape on a box labeled _CLOTHES_, I quickly opened it up. Neatly folded stacks of my sweaters, denim jeans, a lone scarf, and my numerous coats stared up at me. One box of clothes—opened so I would have clean things to wear, of course—and also all of my suits and my casual slacks had already been put away in the closet to avoid wrinkling any of it, but this box had been left.

I pulled the box to the floor, carefully so it didn't tip over in my clumsy, one-handed grip, then I used my feet to move it to the closet, opened the door and shoved the box inside. Twenty minutes later, I had all of that hung up, and had also rearranged everything by color and type, just like I'd had them in my closet at home.

Carrying the box back with me, I dropped it to one side and opened the second. Inside was random things I'd had in my closet, desk, and the wood chest that had always sat at the foot of my bed—an old camera and its equipment, a shoe box containing a battered-looking sketch book and also little folded-up bits of paper covered in drawings I'd made, a small, metallic tin with pencils inside, a thin wooden box containing my numerous neckties, several pairs of shoes, old textbooks and notebooks from school, and also a white gift bag containing several bottles, a sponge, an envelope, and a few other things, besides.

That whole box went into the closet as well, and after I had organized all of my ties onto the little pegs on the wall and I'd lined up my shoes on the floor, I opened the third box. My computer equipment was inside, and I quickly scooped out my laptop. Ten minutes later, I had all the rest of the computer equipment scattered across the top of my desk—at least, everything I could easily pick up with one hand, since I didn't want to drop and break anything—and I leaned back in my office chair, staring up at the white ceiling while I absently turned myself back and forth, listening to the heavy rain pattering against the windows mixing with the soft, pretty music by Korsakov playing out of my computer speakers.

With a little sigh, I picked up my cellphone—it had also been in the box of electronics—off the desk and pressed the power button. The screen turned on, then immediately turned off. Whoever had packed my things had apparently not bothered to turn it off, so I hooked it up to the power cord and left it to charge.

Standing, I went to the remaining five boxes—each labeled with _BOOKS_ on their sides—and relocated all of Gui Wen's hundreds upon hundreds of books onto the long maple shelves beside my desk. It took me quite a bit longer to put them away than the clothes did, but I eventually got all of them arranged—I probably wasn't going to actually read them, but I still wanted them to be tidy—by language, genre, topic, author, and publication date, and then gave a somewhat morose look at the packed shelves afterward, the usual hope that Gui Wen was okay inserting itself into my thoughts.

Everything unpacked, I unplugged my phone—it had only been charging for an hour, but the battery seemed to already have plenty of life back in it—then left the room, staring down at the loading screen. Once the it was powered up, I was startled to see that I had over fifty new text messages and about half as many voice mails. All of them were from the same number, but no name had been entered into my phone book.

Feeling a bit curious as to who it was, I dialed the number and pressed the phone to my ear. I let out a squeal of surprise and nearly dropped the phone when the person on the other end picked up and screamed something at me. Holding the phone at arm's length, I wondered if I should hang up.

"_A-A-A-AL, YOFINAYCALDME! OHI'MSOHAPPYYOU'REALIVE! YOU CALLED! YOU CALLED! ANSWER ME! ARE YOU STILL THERE? AL___‽ ___A-A-AL__‼_" There was a loud thudding noise and a yell of "_OUCH! STUPID TABLE!_" but the frantic babbling was only interrupted for a second before it started up again at full force, this time joined in with fainter shouts of "_Dàgē, shut up!_"

…I'd called a maniac.

"Who is this?" I hesitantly asked, not daring to put the phone up to my ear again in case the person was going to continue in his attempts at deafening me.

"_IT'S DIB! Or, um, Shi Heng! If you remember either of me!_"

I quirked an eyebrow at the weird addition he'd stuck on the end of his reply, and then answered, "Shi Heng…from work? Why is your number in my phone?"

"_BECAUSE YOU PUT IT THERE, STUPID!_"

Glaring angrily at the childish insult, I slowly replied, "Since you seem to have nothing worthwhile to say to me, even after sending so many messages, I am hanging up. Please, call me when you have calmed down," and ended the call, then continued on my way. Before I got far, my phone started ringing. With an irritated sigh, I looked at the number on the screen and unwillingly answered it. "What do you want?"

"_YOU JERK! DON'T HANG UP ON ME__‼_"

"Then get to the point of your calls," I snapped. His loud voice was giving me a headache. I hadn't known Heng could be so obnoxious. He was very polite and quiet at the office.

"_Sorry, I'm just so happy you finally called me back!_" he cheered. Apparently he called people names and screamed at them when he was happy.

"My phone was in a box," I explained, turning down a random hallway.

"_Oh. Well, it's been two weeks since I heard about what happened, and I kept asking Wei Bo and the others if I could come over, but they kept saying you refused! I want to come visit you! Is it okay___‽__"

"Why would you do that?" I flatly asked. "And who is Wei Bo?"

"_Wei Bo is Delun, and I'll explain why when I get there! What's the address?_"

"…I do not know." As I admitted that, I spotted Delun coming out of a room a ways down the hallway. I hurried toward him, feeling relieved.

He looked at me in surprise when I came to a stop. "Need something, Zian?"

"A very loud person on the phone wants to know the address here," I said, holding it out to him.

With a look of understanding, he took the phone from me and held it up to his ear. "Dib, is that you?" He paused, and then said, "Yeah…Well, sorry. It's not like there's been any changes…No…Yeah, I'll ask." He glanced at me. "He wants to visit. Is that okay with you?"

"I don't care," I replied, not understanding at all why Heng would want to see me. Maybe he had a question about work. Then again, I was sure my father had temporarily replaced me with someone. Heng wouldn't need me around to answer questions.

"Finally done moping, are you? Dib, he says okay," Delun interpreted, and then listed off the address, said goodbye, and hung up. "He'll be here in a few hours."

I took my phone back, turned it off—I didn't want more crazy people calling me—then pocketed it. "I'm going for a walk outside."

"But it's raining," Delun pointed out.

Pausing a moment, I stared at him. "And?" It wasn't like I was going to drown.

"Well," he added, looking somewhat confused, "you'll get wet."

In response to his silly reason, I gave a small smile and began in a conversational tone, "Did you know that there is an odd-looking contraption called an 'umbrella'? People of all sorts use them nowadays. They're like a portable pavilion you can carry in one hand, and they're very helpful for rainy days, snowy days, and even sunny days. An absolutely wonderful invention, in my opinion, and–"

"Alright, alright, I get it," he tiredly interrupted my purposefully annoying, long-winded explanation and dismissively waved a hand. "Don't freeze."

Turning around, I rolled my eyes and headed back to the guest room to collect a coat. Now that it was November, I was colder than ever. But the cold aside, it had been raining all day and I was getting bored being cooped up in the house, so I thought perhaps I would brave the elements and go for a walk.

Opening the guest room's door, I wandered over to the closet and took my thickest coat off its hanger. Draping it over my shoulders, I stuffed my right arm into its sleeve and, with some difficulty, zipped it up, buttoned up the large, round buttons, and then buckled up the belt. The black, snug-fitting coat had a comfortably tight, high collar, and the bottom reached all the way to my knees. The extra layer made me feel warmer straight away, but for good measure, I also securely wrapped my scarf around my neck before I left the closet.

When I went back into the guest room, rather than leaving, I paused and stared at the pile of empty cardboard boxes that were cluttering up the floor. Someone else would undoubtedly come and collect them later, but since I could do it myself just fine and clean it all up sooner…

Picking up the nearest one, I unfolded it and flattened it out, then leaned it against the door jamb so it was sticking out into the hallway a little, hoping someone on the house staff would come to take it away, since I didn't know where else to put it. Repeating that process with the rest of the boxes, I smiled contentedly as the shiny, golden floor looked much nicer now. But after dealing with those, I went back into the closet. There was a cardboard box in there as well, looking rather out of place. I wondered if I'd put it there just to get it out of the way.

Grabbing one of the box's top flaps, I dragged it out of the closet and sat down at my desk, picking through and arranging the things inside my desk drawers and on the shelves. When I pulled out one of the newer-looking sketch books, I curiously flipped it open. It had been a while since I'd last drawn anything.

Taking up a mechanical pencil, I awkwardly arranged it in my right hand and attempted to write my own name just to see how messy it would be when I used the wrong hand.

My first attempt was barely legible, so out of boredom I tried again, slower than before. That looked nicer, but, wanting to try something more challenging, I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and leaned it against one of the music-playing computer speakers. After staring at it a moment, I dragged the tip of the pencil down the page, failing miserably at simply drawing a straight line. Glaring in annoyance, I flipped the pencil over and thoroughly erased the squiggle, then tried again, very slowly and carefully.

It wasn't until I had a sad excuse for a cellphone on the page that someone quietly stepped through the open door. Jiao gave me a small smile and a wave. "Good morning."

"Good morning." I smiled back.

She held up a styrofoam cup, then placed it on the desk, as well as a small cup containing three pills. "I went out to breakfast with my sisters and Shuang-mèi, and I thought I would bring you back some tea. And that's your medication."

"Ah…" I curiously picked up a small, round and white pill with a groove down the middle. "What's this one for?"

"That's an antibiotic."

"And this?" I picked up a red one, also small and round.

"Pain killer. But you don't have to take it unless you need it."

"This?" I repeated, picking up a large, oblong capsule full of white powder. Unlike the other two, this one was unmarked with the letters and numbers that were usually pressed or printed on the pills' surfaces.

"That one I don't know about," Jiao quietly admitted. "Your doctor gave us a big, glass bottle of them and told us to give you one every day. He wouldn't tell us why, but according to him you've always been taking them."

Frowning in confusion, I shook my head. "No, I haven't." I'd never been on any continuous medication, just the sort of stuff for normal, common illnesses. Why would the doctor lie?

Jiao momentarily fell silent, but then patted me on the back and shrugged. "Well, better take it just in case. He was very firm about it, so I guess it's something important. It'd be nice if he would let us in on what's going on, though. He and your father have been really secretive about everything." She let out a small sigh while I obediently downed all three pills.

With a glance to the flattened boxes sitting in the doorway, she gave me another smile. "I see you've been unpacking finally."

I gave a nod. "I was bored…" Glancing down at the half-emptied box at my feet, I suddenly remembered. Hooking a finger under the strap on the white gift bag that was sitting in it, I held it out to her. "This…Um, your name is on an envelope inside, so…I guess it's for you."

Her eyes widened in surprise while she took the bag from me, laughing lightly. "Oh." After she set it down on the desk, she pulled the tissue paper out of the top and peered inside. "Oh, wow." Reaching a hand inside, she pulled out several of the bottles and read their labels. "Bubble bath, body wash, shampoo…and there's more in the bag." Another hand went in and she pulled out a candle, then held it up to her nose. "Everything's lilac scented…my favorite flower."

After everything was replaced in the bag, she extracted the envelope I'd glanced at. Popping it open, she pulled out a thick card and stared for a long time at the cover, then she ran a finger down it. "Did you make this?" she curiously asked, flipping it over so I could see. There was a watercolor painting of light pink lilac blossoms sprawled across the white paper.

Raising my eyebrows, I also raised a hand and felt the card. The surface texture was rough in places and the paper was slightly warped like it had been wet, so I gave a small shrug-nod. "I probably did. That looks like my style of drawing." I couldn't recall making it, however.

"It's beautiful," she murmured, giving it another admiring look before opening the card and reading the inside. I was surprised to see her laugh. "Wow, you're such a romantic."

"What did I write?" I hastily asked, leaning forward.

She cleared her throat and read off in an extremely amused tone, "You wrote, '_Jiao—this is a return gift for the hair band you gave me in _Second Life_, and it's the first present I've ever bought for anyone, so I'm very anxious to hear whether or not you like it. I had to fight through suffocating, perfume-filled air, seductive shop clerks, your brother's snappy impatience, and enough product options to make my brain explode, so I do hope you get some sort of use out of it. (And I hope you make use of it in some other way than giving the garbage man something to do.)—Zian._'"

My face burned with increasing embarrassment and self-loathing the whole while she'd been speaking. It all certainly sounded like something I would say…to a friend I was close enough to joke around with, not to my fiancée. That wasn't "romantic" at all, so no wonder she'd laughed.

"Sounds like you put a lot of effort into buying it. To relieve the fears you had at the time—yes, I like it very much, and I will get quite a bit of use out of all of it. It's lovely, thank you." She gave me a hug, careful not to jostle my left arm, and then smiled warmly. I felt a bit less silly, since it seemed her reaction to my weird note hadn't been negative, and gave her a sheepish grin in return, happy that she liked the present.

After patting a hand on my cheek, she picked up the bag and gave a long sigh, reluctantly saying, "I suppose I should go study now."

"The curse of being a student," I replied in amusement and she smirked, nodding. With a goodbye wave she turned and left the room, catching a passing maid and asking her to take the stack of boxes away. I gave a "Thank you," to the maid and shut the door once the boxes weren't blocking the way, then sat back down at my desk and sighed, returning to the emptying of the box.

After everything was put away, I unfolded that box and quickly set it out in the hallway, shutting the door again before I flopped onto the bed and and stared at the unfamiliar-looking ceiling for a moment. It was just a ceiling, but it looked so different from the one in my bedroom. When was I going to get used to being here rather than at home? Everyone was doing their best to make me feel welcome and I really didn't dislike living there, but a part of me felt like I was out of place.

Also there was often an itchy feeling in the back of my mind, like something was missing. Something important. But I couldn't remember what. Then again, I couldn't remember quite a lot. Who people were, where I was, how I got there, what was going on…My forgetfulness was getting better, or so several people had told me, but I wished it would hurry and stop. Having everything abruptly go blank was annoying as well as frightening, though I never really noticed the little things I'd forgotten until someone pointed them out.

Eyes drifting shut, I slowly fell asleep, listening to the calm music still pouring out of my laptop.


	30. Whose is the Blame

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>The sunshine beaming down on me was nice and warm. The soft breeze played across my face, making my hair tickle my skin. I lifted a hand and scratched at my cheek for a moment before letting my eyes take in the blue sky hovering over me. Looking down, I smiled fondly at the small boy smiling back at me. Without hesitation, my hand took his outstretched one. They fit together just right.<p>

We walked together through the wide meadow. It was a place I thought I hadn't been to in ages, but I felt right at home. There by his side was my favorite place in the whole world. Nowhere else could compare to how calm here made me. No one else could compare to how content he made me.

His cheerful voice rang out in my ears as he suddenly ran forward and hopped lightly through the grass and flowers, sending me many laughter-filled looks back to me over his shoulder. The smile on my face stretched wider as I watched him play.

I slowly followed after him, my feet feeling unusually heavy. With a glance at the ground, I pulled myself out of the thick grass, one foot after the other, then looked back up, eyes widening. He was gone. The absence of his incandescent presence suddenly made everything around me, everything that had once appeared so lovely, look rather dismal.

Turning around to take in everything behind myself, the air suddenly grew still and stifling, the sky darkening with thick clouds. Breathing shallowly, I continued onward, searching for him. The grass tangled itself around my boots, keeping me from walking properly.

A flash of gold across the field caught my eye and I hurried toward it, but couldn't reach it. I slid to a halt at the edge of a cliff, eyes fixed on the boy standing on the other side, beckoning to me. A brief look downward into the blackness made my head spin, so I looked back up. The boy's grinning mouth moved as he spoke to me. I couldn't hear his voice, but the words were obvious.

"_Come on._"

Determined to get to where he was, I took a few wide steps back, stretched my wings out to their full span, then dashed forward. Everything was going fine until I actually went over the chasm, and suddenly I fell downward like I'd been hooked by the ankle, the blackness pressing in on all sides. Gasping in fear, I tried to lift myself back up, but I just kept falling, unable to move.

I hit the ground with a loud thud and my eyes flew open. Unlike a moment ago, now all I could see was white. Struggling, I attempted to free myself, but the white stuff surrounding me wouldn't go away. The more I pulled on it, the tighter it got.

"Hey, stop moving around," a voice suddenly commanded. "I swear…You're hopeless. Laying in the middle of a huge, king-sized bed…All that room to roll around in, and yet you still managed to fall off the edge…" The blanket I was tangled in suddenly opened and bright sunlight shone into my cocoon. Delun's frowning face stared down at me in annoyance.

My employee, Shi Heng, suddenly popped up beside him. "Are you okay‽" he anxiously asked, eyes very wide.

I would have shaken my head, but I'd hit it on the floor and a dull pain was spreading through my skull, so I mumbled, "No," and let them help me out of the blanket, feeling silly for having fallen out of bed. I was a heavy sleeper, the sort who would stay asleep through spectacular storms and would lay in generally one spot and position all night, and yet I'd somehow moved around so much, I'd ended up twisted in a blanket and sprawled on the floor.

Sitting down on the bed again, I rubbed my face with my right hand, then rumpled up my messy hair. There was a sharp breeze coming from somewhere, making the back of my neck very cold, so I adjusted the scarf around my neck. A glance upward and behind myself told me the ceiling fan and the open window were the culprits that had caused my chill. I covered myself in the heavy blanket again, pulling my legs up to sit cross-legged on the corner of the mattress.

"Too cold?" Heng asked. "It was really stuffy in here, so we covered you up and opened the window now that it's not raining, but we can close it if–"

"If you two are going to overheat with it shut, leave it open," I interrupted sleepily, then gave him a confused stare. "Why are you here? Did my father send you?" I looked about his hands, wondering if he'd brought me a letter or a folder of documents or something. Even if it had been for some work-related purpose, I would have been very happy to hear anything from my father. It had been two weeks already, yet he hadn't even sent me any messages, that I knew of. It was like he'd forgotten all about me.

At my questions, Heng gave an frightened glance to Delun, who shook his head and flopped himself down on the other side of the bed. "What's that look for? You already know that he forgets things. Sometimes it takes minutes, sometimes hours…And he keeps thinking it's July."

Heng's eyebrows drew together. "He's lost four months?"

Delun nodded while I stared blankly at the wall, attempting to keep myself awake. I felt a bit annoyed that they weren't answering my questions or including me in the conversation, but didn't say anything. It wasn't like I had anything worthwhile to contribute.

"His doctor refused to tell us anything," Delun continued, "so we had one of ours come in and take a quick look at him. We didn't tell Zian's father about it, of course. But apparently something—or more likely some_one_ hit his head really hard and did some light damage to his brain. He can't form long-term memories, although he hasn't been forgetting things as often as he was right after it happened, so I guess he's healing well enough."

"What about all of the rest that's gone? Is it going to come back?" Heng pressed, carefully lowering himself onto my wheeled office chair.

"It's just a guess—the doctor we brought in didn't have any equipment or anything, so it wasn't much of an exam—but he said it might be memory repression. So it might come back, but it might not. Since that's a psychological issue, he really couldn't give us a definite answer."

They fell silent for a moment, then Heng mumbled, "July…Repression would make sense, then. Al bought _Second Life_ in July at some point."

"I'm guessing his father didn't approve of _Second Life_, either?"

Heng gave a short laugh. "Him, approve of a game? Of course not. Hey, Al, was there a _Second Life_ helmet in your stuff when you unpacked?"

He had looked at me when he'd asked that, so I assumed "Al" was supposed to be me and shook my head while wondering why he would think I owned a helmet.

"Mm, then your father probably discovered the game helmet and got rid of it. He also fired me two weeks ago, so I guess he found out about you going to my house."

I stared in surprise up at Heng, suddenly feeling a bit more alert after hearing the unexpected news. "He fired you? Why?" Heng had always been one of my most useful employees. Hard working, got things done correctly and on time, polite and mature, tidy with his work space and appearance, never late coming in every morning…I never would have imagined that my father would fire someone like him.

What a waste.

With a small smile, he quietly replied, "Because you and I refused to stop being friends when he told us to. According to you, it was a breach of his oh-so-important hierarchical rules. We managed to sneak around 'til all this happened, though…But I guess with this situation, we don't have to sneak anymore, huh?"

"Unemployed with three brothers to look after…That's gotta be tough," Delun softly remarked.

"Oh, I'm fine," Heng assured. "I've got savings and another job."

Delun's eyes went wide. "Already? That was really fast."

"I told you. Al and I were prepared for this stuff to happen. I already had it arranged ages ago just in case. The income isn't as good as I had at the company, but it's still a paycheck. Plus the job itself has super fun perks—it's at a daycare near my house. I used to send my little brothers there, so I'm friends the staff. I'm actually supposed to be helping with the behind-the-scenes office stuff, and I haven't started working yet, but everyone there says it'll be fine if I take time to play with the kids as well."

A knowing smile quirked at the corner of Delun's mouth. "Why am I not surprised? Well, a place like that definitely suits you better than sitting behind a desk all day long.

"Ah-h-h, and speaking of looking after kids…" He stood up and waved a hand at me. "Since you're staying here for a few hours, babysit him, will you? I'm going out to dinner with Chen, but we can't leave Zian alone for very long. When he first got here, he kept trying to sneak out of the house to go back home. He hasn't orchestrated any escape attempts lately, but you never know."

With a tiny laugh, Heng nodded. "Sure, I'll keep an eye on him. See you later."

"I'll ask the kitchen to send some dinner up here for you two. It'll probably be in an hour or so," Delun told us, giving another wave as he disappeared out the door, shutting it quietly behind himself. Not a second passed before the door abruptly reopened. "By the way, Dib," Delun added, his head popping into the room. "Make sure the twig over there eats a lot. All of it, if possible. I don't think he's had anything besides tea and medicine since yesterday afternoon, and it would be bad if my sister's ridiculous fiancée wastes away even more than he already has, all because of his own stupidity. He keeps telling me he's not hungry whenever I ask, but maybe you'll have an easier time persuading him."

"Yeah, I'll get him to eat. Don't worry," Heng assured, then Delun left again, leaving me scowling at the cream-colored wall. Why didn't anyone ever believe me when I said I wasn't hungry?

"Repression, huh…?" Heng mumbled after several minutes of thick silence. He had seemingly directed it to himself, though he was staring at me. I returned his blank look with one of caution. "You forgot me on purpose." With a pained smiled, he leaned forward to bury his face in his hands. "All that effort put into prying open your shell and now I'm back to square one…but I suppose things are better this way. Can't really blame you for not wanting to remember me after what you've gone through…I'm sorry, Al…I'm so sorry…I'm so stupid."

"Why are you apologizing?" I asked, feeling extremely confused.

"Because!" he yelled, making me flinch. "This is all my fault! If I hadn't moronically asked you to come to my house, none of this would have happened! You told me ages ago that he warned you to stay away from me, and you asked me over and over to be more cautious, but I just…convinced myself it'd be okay…I'm so sorry, Al…"

I stayed silent and uncomfortably watched while he repeated his apology over and over. He looked so despairing, I didn't know what to say to try to calm him down. Glancing at him awkwardly when he finally looked up, I shrugged. "W-well, I will heal in a month or two, and then I will go back home. Whatever has happened, it is fine." My choice of comforting words had the opposite effect than what I'd wanted.

Heng abruptly stood and shook his head, a look of utter disbelief on his face. "No way! Why in the world would you even consider for a second going back to live in that hell hole with that twisted excuse for a parent‽ He'll just hurt you again!"

My eyes widened with perplexity at his violent response. How did he know about that stuff? I'd never told anyone about anything that went on at home.

"That does not matter to me. It is still my home, regardless," I told him, trying to sound firm through all of my confusion and wishes that he'd go away.

"It matters to me," he snapped, walking forward until he was looming over me, "and to everyone else! Why are you so apathetic when it comes to him beating you to a pulp all of the time‽ Why don't you ever fight back‽ Just because he's your father doesn't mean he can do whatever the hell he wants. You're a human being, not an object he can vent his anger on."

I shook my head when he placed both his hands on my shoulders. "I am grateful for your concern, but you do not have to worry. It is fine."

"Stop talking to me like that, dammit!" he angrily commanded, shaking me slightly. I drew back from him in fear and he took a deep breath, looking somewhat calmer afterward. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean…It's just that, well, you're here, and yet you're not here, it's…aggravating."

He paused to take another steadying breath, faintly smiling at me. "I know you don't remember the past few months, but I'm your best friend. You don't have to be so guarded, okay? I already know everything that's happened, so please…don't hide things from me, Al…" Raising one hand, he gently placed it on the side of my face. On reflex, I leaned away from his touch, still feeling afraid that he was going to hurt me, though he didn't look mad anymore.

Warily staring up at him, I silently contemplated everything he'd said thus far. We were best friends and I'd gone to his house for some reason…With that in place, everything that had happened was quite a bit clearer. My father would never want me to get close to any of my employees, no matter how ideal of a worker they were. Though his reaction still seemed a bit over the top.

Dropping my eyes, I looked past Heng to gaze at the wall instead, quietly answering at last, "He would only get angrier if I tried to struggle or retaliate. He stops sooner when I don't do anything. And besides, it's because of my own mistakes that all of this happened. Just like all of the other times he's punished me, it's not the fault of anyone but myself."

Heng suddenly glared at me and I winced when his hand gripped my shoulder tighter. "What am I supposed to say to you when you constantly tear yourself down like that? It was _not_ your fault. Just because your father said it was doesn't mean you have to believe him."

The corner of my mouth twitched with a humorless smile. "What else can I do when that's the only thing he'll ever say to me?"

Heng looked extremely hurt at my words and I detached his hand from my shoulder while his eyes darted about the floor. "You could always believe _me_ instead," he suggested softly, then went to sit in my office chair again, looking thoroughly depressed as he continued to stare downward. Someone getting so upset over what was going on was, in a way, even more confusing to me than forgetting things all of the time. After so many years of being forced onto a pedestal by those whom I thought were my friends, it was strange to see Heng so genuinely concerned.

"Why do you keep calling me 'Al'?" I asked after a long, silent moment of observing him.

He faintly laughed at my question. "It's an abbreviation of your name in _Second Life_. When we first started playing the game together, I asked if you would mind if I gave you a nickname. You said you didn't care. So I always call you that whenever we're not around anyone incriminating," he explained fondly. He slowly straightened, looking at me again while he leaned back. "Does it bother you? I'll stop if you don't like it."

"No, I don't mind if you call me that." I quickly shook my head and relaxed into the blanket. "It's just that no one has ever given me a nickname before, so I didn't know what you meant by it," I quietly admitted, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

We stared at one another, silence falling through the room again. After several minutes had passed, Heng shrugged one shoulder, shaking his head. "What I meant? Well, it's just a friendly little nickname." Smiling after a moment, he then added, "On the surface, anyway."

Although I didn't feel like he'd actually given me an answer, I still nodded. "_Second Life_," I echoed slowly. I'd heard of that. Hadn't I seen an advertisement for it in the electronics store? A virtual reality game of sorts, if I remembered correctly. A meadow briefly flashed into my mind. Bright blue skies, soft breezes, lovely clouds…Quite like that dream I'd just had.

I ran my hand through my hair, tugging lightly at the tips. "I had long hair," I observed thoughtfully, then looked up at Heng for confirmation.

He smiled and nodded faintly. "Nearly to your waist."

I returned his nod. I'd always wanted long hair, so no wonder. It seemed like it would be useful for keeping me warm, much like my thick, dark clothes. A natural blanket I could wear on my head everywhere I went…However, my father never failed to order, "Cut your hair," whenever it started to get to that point at which he thought it was "unkempt." As such, it had never even been long enough to go below my eyebrows.

Hair styles aside, I thought a bit more, trying to remember more details of the game. That blond boy in my dream…

"Was there a…a–" I hissed when a sharp stab of pain shot through my head. With a grimace I pressed my hand to my forehead. Thinking too hard sure hurt a lot…

"Al?" Heng hurried over to me, eyes full of concern. "Are you okay‽ Should I call someone‽"

Taking a deep breath, I slowly shook my head. "No, I just have a headache. It's nothing." With a reluctant nod, he sat down again, but the worry didn't leave his face. I tried to remember what it was I'd almost said a moment ago, but it kept slipping away. So, in a want to direct the conversation away from my headache, instead I asked, "What is it an abbreviation for? The nickname, I mean."

"Aeolus," he answered at once.

"I see." I smiled in slight amusement. "That does sound like something I would choose…"

Curious interest popped into his eyes. "What's it from?"

At his question, I climbed out of the blanket and strode over to the bookshelf. Running my gaze over the multitudes of spines, I picked out a thick, green hardback labeled _Greek & Roman Deities_, then handed it to Heng. He read the golden, embossed title on the worn cover, then flipped open to the contents page while I explained, "Aeolus is a king from Greek mythology. He controls the wind."

Heng gave a small laugh and glanced up at me. "Well, that certainly fits. Your _Second Life_ avatar is an angel with enormous wings, and a lot of your special attacks are wind-based."

"Oh." I watched for a bit while he thumbed through the pages, then asked, "Is 'Dib' your _Second Life_ name?" At his nod, I continued, "And what is that from?" I almost added how I thought it sounded weird, but decided to keep that part to myself. It seemed a bit rude.

"Mm…it's from my little brothers. Twelve-year-old triplets. Dibs has always been their favorite word. They used to think it made anything and everything theirs, no matter what it was they wanted and whose it really was. But they're a bit better at sharing now, I guess." He chuckled and shook his head in a fond way, murmuring, "Spoiled brats."

While he stopped to inspect one of the pages' ink illustrations, I gave a nostalgic look to the other books. "The names are very different," I mused, "but the source is the same."

"'Source'?" Heng repeated.

"Our siblings," I explained quietly. "These are all my brother's books. I actually quite dislike reading, but I keep them around. He might want them back someday, though I doubt it will ever happen, since I suppose he has already replaced many of them and doesn't need these copies anymore." I gave a tiny, dismal sigh, feeling very empathetic toward the books that had been abandoned by him.

Heng hummed for a moment, then unexpectedly remarked, "Given that it's been eleven years since Gui left home, I guess that wouldn't be too strange. We could ask him about them tonight, if you'd like."

Mouth dropping open in shock, I sputtered, "W-wha–‽ _What_‽ You know Gui Wen‽ Do you know where he is‽ Can you contact him‽ Is he okay‽"

Heng swiftly nodded at all of my anxiously posed questions. "Yes, I know him, and I know where he's living—well, I know what _town_ he's living in, anyway—and yes, I can contact him through _Second Life_, and he's doing great. He's a university professor now."

One of the biggest smiles I'd ever had split over my face as I beamed in happiness and relief. After eleven years of having to go with no news about my beloved brother's well-being and whereabouts, it was overwhelmingly delightful to finally hear something at last. Especially something so positive.

"Geeze…I've never seen you make that face before," Heng remarked, staring at me in perplexity.

"I'm so happy," I enunciated a bit too enthusiastically. "That's so wonderful…" Laughing, I covered my mouth, the smile never going away. "All this time…Thank you so much. That's very relieving to hear." With as capable as Gui Wen was, my worries probably had all been groundless from the beginning, but it wasn't voluntary. I couldn't help but worry for him when I was so uninformed. But if he was okay, then it was enough. As ironic as it was for me of all people to hope, I just wanted him to be happy. After what I'd done to him, he probably didn't care at all about my hopes, but still…

The apprehensive question of if he was still angry with me leapt to my lips, but I bit it back. Even if Heng knew about my situation with Gui Wen, I didn't really want to hear anything discouraging at the moment, so instead I took a slow breath and sat back down on the bed.

Even if one person I wanted to apologize to wasn't present, another one was.

Heng ran his fingers over the edge of the book cover while I slowly began, "About what you said earlier…how you were fired, I'm sorry. Given your family situation, it seems the job was quite important for your finances, yet now it's gone because of me."

With a deep sigh, Heng irritably frowned and shook his head. "For goodness sake," he snapped. "Here I was thinking you were in such a great mood. Are you _ever _going to quit it with this 'It's all my fault,' stuff‽ At least say that it's gone because of _us_. I had a hand in all of it, too, in case you weren't listening earlier. _I'm_ the one who asked you to come over to my house, which I'm guessing is one of the things that triggered everything else."

"And I'm the one who agreed," I murmured, stubbornly clinging to at least a little of the blame.

"And Delun is the one who acted as your transportation, so let's all blame him for everything, shall we‽" he sardonically suggested. "My brothers didn't stop me, though I've told them the basic situation between you and I, so it's all their fault, right‽ Your father is the one who nearly killed you, so he's obviously the only one who did anything wrong! Gui wasn't there to help you, so it's all his fault! And let's point all the fingers at my parents while we're at it! After all, they're the ones who caused me to happen! Geeze, Al! Things aren't so black and white! Everyone involved did something wrong in one way or another, so stop trying to keep it all to your blame-greedy self!"

"I…I still feel responsible for it, though…" I added hesitantly. "I can't help it."

He stood up with a clatter, put the mythology book on my desk, then unexpectedly knelt down in front of me, once again raising in hands to touch my face. I automatically flinched at the contact, but did my best not to lean away as his fingertips brushed over the yellowing bruises mottling my skin. "I feel equally responsible for letting this happen to you," he whispered, "but no matter how much we blame ourselves, there's nothing either of us can do to change what happened. And I can only try my hardest to keep you from getting hurt again in the future, whether the cause is me or not."

Sighing deeply, he dropped his hands to rest on my knees. "You're so quick to forgive other people for what they've done," he continued, "and that's great…I just wish you could do the same for yourself. But I guess eighteen years of getting locked up in that house really solidified all of your father's degrading opinions."

My eyes widened in shock at what he'd said. "You certainly know a lot."

"You said a lot." A tiny smile briefly replaced his bleakness.

I silently stared at him for a long minute, trying and failing to find anything very familiar about him. "We must be very close if I said things like that. You're the only person I've told," I mused. "I wish I could remember."

"So do I," he softly agreed. "But if the reason you forgot really is repression, you must not have wanted that before…As I said earlier, though, I really can't hold it against you that you would want to forget it all. A lot of it was only bad stuff and you already had enough of that without me adding more."

Feeling guilty all over again, I watched as his head dropped forward, a miserable look on his down-turned face. Without thinking, my hand relocated itself on top of his head, patting his soft, black hair in a comforting way. When I realized what I was doing, I nearly tore my hand away, but it felt kind of nice, so I kept at it. "It was probably…" I slowly began, "Well, I don't know the details, obviously, but…it was probably not because I thought it was your fault, but to protect you. Going back to when we were only coworkers so my father would leave you alone. But I guess it was too late."

When he finally looked up at me again, I froze when I saw tears running down his cheeks. He leaned forward, pressing his face to my chest and wrapping his arms around me. Although I had on quite a few layers of clothing, his body heat quickly seeped through, dulling the chill that I had due to the open window letting in the rain-scented autumn air. Not knowing what else to do, I awkwardly rubbed his back while he shook with stifled sobs. I felt rather comfortable with him, I supposed, though I could only remember him as an employee. However, I wasn't very keen on being _this_ close to him. It made me nervous. And it hurt, but he was upset, so I refrained from telling him to stop squeezing my poor ribs so hard.

"Always sacrificing yourself…you're so stupid," he choked. "When Delun called me and told me what happened to you…No one knew what was going on, or if you were going to be okay, or anything. I was so terrified, I thought my heart was going to stop. It was probably a good thing I was fired; I never would've been able to concentrate…I was so afraid…I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you, Al…"

Grinning in embarrassment—no one had ever said such touchy-feely stuff to me before—I hugged him as tightly as I could manage. "It's alright," I soothed, feeling a bit like I was attempting to subdue a child. "Everything's fine now. I'm not going anywhere." Catching myself, I took a deep breath and corrected, "Physically, anyway…I know mentally, I'll…this will all be gone."

"Then I'll come visit you as often as I can," he decided, slightly loosening his grip so that he could look up at me again. He smiled. "I'll keep reminding you about us. I'll tell you so many times, you won't be able to forget me ever again. And I'll help you remember the months you've lost."

Drawing my hand over his face, I wiped away the tear tracks and warmly smiled back at him. "Thank you."


	31. Fears and Fishes

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>A knock on the door jerked my head upward and I paused in my fumbling attempts at buttoning my pajama top. "Yes?" I hesitantly called, taking a few steps away from the closet to be able to see the guest room's door around the protruding corner of the wall.<p>

The door opened and in strode a man carrying a folded umbrella in one hand and a large shopping bag in the other. "Hey, Zian," he greeted, leaning his umbrella against the door frame. After tossing the bag on top of the bed, he planted himself in front of me and swiftly did up all of the buttons I'd been struggling with for nearly ten minutes, then he carefully helped me into my sling.

"Thank you." I inwardly sighed as I glanced down at the clothes, then went to retrieve a sweater—something I thankfully didn't need help with putting on. My arm couldn't heal fast enough. Not being able to do so much as dress myself properly was extremely bothersome. I hated being so dependent on other people for such little things.

When I emerged from the closet, I shut it behind myself and stared questioningly at the man sitting on the edge of the bed, my mind fighting for recognition in the blankness. While I wondered, he patted a hand on the bag he'd brought. "I've got something for you," he announced.

"Is it permission to go home?" I murmured, smiling slightly. I doubted that was it, but I was extremely tired of getting cooped up in this house and had decided to ask whenever possible. Although being annoying about it probably wasn't helping my chances in the slightest.

"No," he sighed, staring back at me in annoyance.

"My keys and wallet?" Those had been taken from me at some point, no doubt also to keep me from leaving.

"No. Just come here and look."

Attempt number who-knew-what at going home; failed.

Slowly approaching him, I stopped several steps away and watched curiously while he removed a large box from the plastic shopping bag. He held up the box in front of himself and tapped a finger on the white logo spread across the front. "_Second Life_," I read, then glanced up at him in confusion.

"Since you don't have your old game helmet anymore, I got this for you," he explained, and then paused. "Well, I guess technically you got it…since I used some of the money in your wallet to buy it. Good thing the game data is stored online as well as in the game cartridge. Or else you would have to start all over. We can just login to the game website and download the stuff we need."

He went on to explain what _Second Life_ was and other such things and I simply watched, feeling irritated. So he was the one who was holding my keys and wallet hostage…Where could they be hidden?

"…this is the power cord. The helmet just has to charge every once and a while…"

I wasn't too keen on searching the whole house to find something so small. The hiding places were endless. Maybe somewhere he spent a lot of time.

"…uses wireless internet, obviously, so you don't have to…"

His bedroom? I wasn't about to go digging around in there. I may have wanted them back very badly, but I doubted I would ever go so far as to rifle through someone else's belongings.

"…stick this thing in there, then put it on and…"

Asking someone about it would possibly speed up the process, but I supposed that the other residents and the whole house staff had been told not to let me in on the whereabouts of my belongings. If they even knew in the first place.

"…manual has more information if…if you…Hey, are you even listening to me‽"

Glancing down at him, I answered, "Yes." Partially.

"Really?" he muttered skeptically. "You had that vacant, thinky face of yours…Well, whatever." With a sigh, he stood up, went to my desk and opened up an internet browser on my laptop. "I'll download the stuff you need into the cartridge, then you can start playing."

"Mm…" I mumbled absently, staring hard at a small notebook sitting on the bedside table. It had "_To Remember Stuff With_" written across the front. After a glance at the man's back, I slowly slid myself over to it and lifted up the cover to peek inside. Extremely messy handwriting that vaguely resembled mine—I must have written it with my right hand—was scrawled across the front page. With another cautious look at the man, I quickly picked up the mechanical pencil that was sitting by the book, flipped to an empty page and scribbled down that he was the one who had my wallet and keys. Once I was done, I quickly set down the pencil and closed the book, hoping he hadn't noticed anything.

Much to my relief, he hadn't.

Several minutes later, he powered down my laptop and stood up, holding out the _Second Life_ goggle thing to me. "Alright, it's ready now. Go ahead and login, we'll be on in a few minutes," he told me while I took the offered object. He grabbed the game packaging and the bag, then turned and walked toward the door, ending, "Don't wander off anywhere before we come to get you. I don't want to waste time, searching."

"Okay," I answered quietly while he left the room. Frowning when he closed the door, I dropped the game on the bed and picked up the manual to see what it was I was supposed to do. I really had heard snippets of what the man had told me, but I supposed that the manual was much more informative. I didn't really want to play in the first place, since I knew my father would definitely not approve of my wasting time, playing a game…But since that man was expecting me to, he would probably come see what I was doing if I simply went to sleep like I wanted. Perhaps my father wouldn't know about it.

After skimming through the manual and getting a vague idea of what was going on, I slipped into bed and stuck the headset on, then hesitatingly pushed the button on the side. My eyes automatically closed and they opened again to show me a completely different sight than the guest room ceiling. I blinked in surprise at how abrupt the login process was.

Deeply inhaling the brisk, windy air, I turned to look at my surroundings. A tall city wall stretching to the right and the left behind me. An enormous open gate through which many strange-looking people were going in and out, mostly in groups or pairs. A dark meadow everywhere else.

Tilting my head back, my eyes widened at the sight of countless stars twinkling down at me as they filled the area with a minuscule amount of light. That sky was absolutely breathtaking. Having lived in the city my whole life, I'd barely ever even seen a few stars, much less so many as were visible here. The lights of the buildings had always drowned them out.

Experimentally lifting my left arm, I wiggled it around a few times and smiled in relief when no pain shot through it. Keeping that man's order in mind not to wander off anywhere, I hurried toward a nearby hill in sight of the gate, but out of the way of the people milling about. Sitting myself down in the long grass, I stared about myself in boredom, wondering how long I was supposed to wait.

Glancing downward, I curiously flipped open the pouch on my belt and began rifling through it for lack of anything better to do. There were a few objects that one might use for wilderness survival—a knife, a coil of rope, a tinderbox and flint, a map, a compass, some bread and a water skin—as well as a stout bag full of what looked like a lot of money and great deal of bottles full of brightly colored liquids.

I pulled out a white cloak that had been crammed into the bottom of the pouch, wrapped it around myself to block out the gusty wind, and then went back to staring at nothing. I should have asked that man how long he was going to be, and then logged in when that time came around rather than just logging in too early. Or maybe he was already on and just needed time to get to where I was.

When I started contemplating logging out and just going to sleep—though I supposed I already was—a blond boy suddenly began to skip up the side of the hill, punctuating his every leap into the air with a gleeful yell of "AL!" Feeling rather alarmed at the bizarre sight, I attempted to make myself very small under my cloak and hoped he was going to pass me by, not that there was anyone up on the hill with me that he might have been approaching. Much to my annoyance, he came to a stop in front of me and yanked the cloak's hood off my head, brightly smiling as he cheered, "Hey, Al!"

"…Hello," I hesitantly replied.

"I see Wei Bo gotcha another game helmet. Now we can play _Second Life_ together aga-a-ain." With a contented sigh, he flung himself forward and hugged me with what felt like the strength of a human-sized ant. In a desperate want to be able to breathe again, I frantically pulled on the back of his armored top until he came loose, and then held him out to arm's length, frowning at him for squishing me. "I'm Dib," he belatedly introduced, his smile fading somewhat. "Remember me? I visited you earlier today."

After a brief moment's thought to run my mind over what little I could remember about the past day's events, I slowly shook my head. I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before, but there was only a vague familiarity about him.

"You don't at all?" he mournfully asked, and I shook my head again. His face brightened afterward as if he'd gotten an idea. "Maybe if I do a reenactment!" He hurried a few steps away over the crown of the hill, then twirled around. "Watch, Al! Watch! Are you watching‽"

"Yes," I quietly affirmed, eyebrows lowering in bewilderment. I started violently when he abruptly began to scream at the top of his lungs, wildly running across the top of the hill like he was getting chased by something. What the hell kind of a reenactment was that?

After he'd scurried all the way down to the bottom of the slope, screaming all the way, he jogged back up to me, huffing and puffing. "Do you…remember anything…now?" he asked between breaths.

"N-no…" I shook my head a third time, feeling more confused than I had initially.

Dib looked rather annoyed that his rambunctious display hadn't done anything, but then stepped close and planted a very wet kiss on my cheek. "How 'bout now?"

Grimacing, I used my cloak to wipe off my cheek, then said, "No."

His expression fell into one of desperation as he grabbed my left hand and plopped it on top of his head, rubbing it around through his curls. "H-how…how about n-now?" he asked, his voice wobbling a little.

"I'm sorry, but no," I whispered, slowly shaking my head. Holding my breath, I watched as he scrunched up his reddening face, failing to hold back several tears that rolled down his cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered with a suppressed sob. Feeling a bit guilty for unintentionally upsetting him, I lifted a corner of my cloak and wiped the soft fabric over his face, brushing away the tears. My chest tightened uncomfortably at the sight of him looking so utterly miserable.

With a shaky, deep breath, he suddenly stepped in between my crossed legs, then sat and curled up on my lap. Grabbing a lock of my hair that was dangling down, he tightly held onto it and muttered, "You'd better remember me soon, stupid Al," then fell silent, his breathing steadily leveling out.

Smiling faintly, I wrapped my cloak around us both, making a pocket of warmth in the night chill. "I'll try," I assured, drawing my hand over the side of his head. Smoothing down the curls, I hooked the soft little ringlets around my fingertips. Now that I had a chance to inspect the tiny boy when he wasn't scampering around, screaming, he was actually extremely cute. Little nose, golden hair, a few freckles, very fat, pink cheeks, small fingers, slightly tanned skin, and those huge, round, unbelievably blue eyes framed by long lashes.

How could such an impossibly adorable person exist?

He was just laying there, apparently falling asleep, but the sight was making my heart rate speed up and I was filled with a nearly overwhelming desire to hug him as tightly as I could. But, not wanting to disturb him, I resisted the urge, keeping myself occupied with the slightly less satisfying task of playing with his pretty hair.

As absorbed as I was with the pale strands, I didn't notice the person who'd appeared at my side until she spoke. "You two are still stuck together all the time, even when you have amnesia." At the amused voice, I jerked my head back and stared up at the familiar-looking woman clad all in white. She paused a moment, then smiled soothingly down at my startled expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"N-no," I shakily breathed, "it's fine." She certainly was sneaky. Or maybe I'd been more engrossed than I'd thought.

"The other three are waiting by the gate. Ready to go?" she softly asked.

With a glance downhill to the city, I looked back up at her. "Go where?"

"We've rented a cart to take us to Infinite City. Your brother, Gui, is there."

Mouth dropping open and eyes going wide, I sputtered, "Gui Wen? Gui Wen is there‽ He plays _Second Life_, too?"

"Yep." Her smile going wider, she gestured for me to follow, then started off down the slope. "Let's go!"

In my excitement, I nearly leapt to my feet, but then remembered that Dib was sleeping on me. Easing out of my cloak, I carefully wrapped him up in it, then slowly got to my feet, holding him against me as I hurried after the woman as quickly as I could without shaking the boy too much. In less than a minute, the three of us were halted beside a wide, canopied horse-drawn cart, in which three other people were sitting. One was that man that had been in the guest room.

Once again filled with the urge to go on a hunt through the house for my captive belongings, I inwardly frowned at him, then climbed up onto the cart and sat myself down on one of the cushioned benches next to the woman who had come to collect me, and then arranged Dib comfortably on my lap. He was still sound asleep, softly snoring, little fist determinedly grasping my hair as if he was afraid I was going to run away if he let go.

The other four obligingly gave me their names and who they were, then the cart lurched and started forward down the beaten dirt path. Wei Bo sighed and leaned back, sticking his head out from under the flapping canopy. "Depending on how many times we stop along the way, it'll take us two or three days to get to Infinity City from Star City, but at least this is faster than walking."

Already feeling somewhat antsy at the thought of sitting still for so long, I settled down on my seat and turned to watch the uneven ground slip past under the cart, my hand absently going back to what it had been doing earlier as I wrapped Dib's curls around my fingers. There was that to keep me preoccupied with, at least.

There was a long, wistful sigh from the other side of the cart. I glanced questioningly in Avila's direction. She was leaning forward, chin propped up on one palm as she stared at Dib. "He's so cute…I wanna play with his hair, too."

"Too bad. That's against his rules," Jiū said, smiling slightly. "No touching allowed."

"Gēge being the one and only exception," Xiu Chen mused, looking a bit jealous.

"He let me carry him while we were watching the Grand Melee," Wei Bo corrected, "but I think that was only because he would have gotten trampled underfoot otherwise." Sitting up a bit straighter, he crossed his arms and suddenly looked very stern. "Anyway, I don't want you three to get close to him. He may look like that in-game, but he's an adult in real life."

In surprise, I stared at him. The other three seemed to share my reaction. "Is he really‽" Avila exclaimed. "Dang it! Dàsăo and I were out all day! I want to see!"

Wei Bo's face took on a very extremely grumpy turn at her enthusiasm for the topic, but he mumbled, "Well, he'll definitely be visiting the Twig over there. There'll be chances to meet him."

I gave a small look down to Dib, then looked up again, feeling confused. "But he's so small…" And he didn't act like an adult at all.

In return to my remark, I received several "Are you joking?" stares. "Look to your left," Wei Bo huffily ordered. I obediently turned to look. There was a panther-like creature walking along the side of the road, standing on his back feet and wearing dark gray armor. His five companions—all different animals—looked equally odd.

Once we'd left them behind, I turned back to Wei Bo, seeing his point and feeling glad that my team was relatively normal in appearance. "Dib's change isn't that drastic," Wei Bo added, "looks like he just made himself a lot younger. But he's not really a kid. He's older than you are. Taller, too."

"Oh," I mumbled. I'd been thinking it was strange that I was apparently so friendly with such a young child, so that bit of information made more sense.

"Didn't he tell you who he is?" he asked. I shook my head. "That's Shi Heng. The guy you worked with."

I could feel the blood drain out of my face at what he'd divulged. Fearfully looking down, I slowly removed my hand from Dib's hair and placed it on the bench instead. My heart started to pound again, and for an entirely different reason than it had been earlier. One of my employees was here. Why was he here? Why was he my teammate? Was he here to spy on me for my father? I was going to be in so much trouble if my father found out about what I was doing right now.

The horror of the situation sinking in, I would have evicted Dib from my lap right then and there, but, since he had such a death grip on my hair—it would probably be ripped out if I forcefully shoved him away and I really didn't want that to happen—I let him stay and did my best to keep my extreme discomfort off my face while the others began chatting amongst themselves. Heng seemed like a nice enough person and all, but that certainly didn't mean I trusted him not to report all of this to my father.

He sure was crafty. Using his cutesy appearance to lower my guard. And here I'd been petting him and marveling over his adorableness this whole time.

However, as the hours slipped past, we left the city, the starry sky, and most of the pedestrians behind and continued on down the sunny road. I slowly relaxed, watching the pretty scenery go by. Dib only woke up once in that time, giving me a very annoyed frown before grabbing my hand, putting it back on his head, and then promptly falling asleep again. I felt very uncomfortable with resting my hand there now, but I also didn't want to bother him, just in case he really was a spy, so I didn't make a fuss.

Eventually, Wei Bo stopped the cart, pulled it up alongside a river, then announced we were taking a lunch break. Feeling very relieved that I didn't have to be used as a bed anymore, I leapt off the cart and hurried to the river bank once Dib had gotten off of me. However, much to my dismay, Dib chased after, coming to a halt as he crouched down on the pebbly ground, watching the river fish swim around under the clear water. Not wanting to be around him, I turned and nervously went back to the cart.

Dib followed, looking somewhat irritated. When I attempted to wander away from him again, he grabbed my hand and tugged hard on it, nearly making me fall over. "You jerk! Why d'you keep doing that‽" he demanded, glaring up at me.

"Doing what?" Feigning innocence, I tore my hand out of his grip. Or I tried, anyway. He tightly held on, dangling up in the air when I lifted my arm. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? It wasn't like I was going to do something even more incriminating while he wasn't looking.

"You keep running away from me!" he snapped angrily. "Stop it!"

Quickly lowering him to the grass, I hastily began peeling his little fingers off. "I just don't…feel comfortable around you. Okay?" I mumbled, wishing he would be more considerate.

His blue eyes widened and he suddenly shot off in Wei Bo's direction. Much to my surprise, the boy kicked his shin once he got there, causing a metallic clang to ring through the air as Dib's tiny, spike-toed boot met Wei Bo's silvery plate legs. "OUCH!" he yelled. "What the hell are you doing‽" Red-faced, Wei Bo stared down at Dib, hands wringing the fishing pole he was holding—apparently lunch was fish.

"What'd you tell him while I was asleep‽" Dib snarled, kicking him again. "He's scared of me now!"

Seeing an escape route, I left them to their argument and sneaked back to the river bank, sitting down on a sun-warmed boulder and once again contemplating logging out of the game. Then again, I wanted to stay on, so we could get to that city faster, so I could see Gui. Even if being around Dib was very anxiety-inducing, I wasn't going to let that get in the way of the chance to see my brother again. He was much more important than keeping myself out of trouble.

Several minutes later, a very angry-looking Dib stomped down to the bank, carrying Wei Bo's fishing pole. He came to a halt beside my perch and bossily ordered, "Help me get up there!" as he held out one hand.

"Why?" I inquired, frowning.

"'Cause I wanna sit up there!"

"Why?"

"'CAUSE YOU'RE UP THERE!" he yelled, stomping one foot. "NOW PULL ME UP!"

Sighing deeply, I reluctantly reached down and took hold of his hand, easily lifting him up on top of the boulder. Why couldn't he just go bother someone else?

"I know what you're thinking," he announced, giving me a pouting glance as he messed with the pole. "I'm not here to keep an eye on you for your father. I don't work at your company anymore, so I don't have any contact with him. And even if I did, I'd keep all this a secret. I'm your friend, not his underling."

Processing the sudden unexpected information, I briefly froze, and then said, "Oh. Really?"

"Yeah, really. So stop acting like that and relax already yet!" he firmly commanded.

Feeling bad for misunderstanding the situation, I sat quietly while he prepared the fishing rod for casting. "Sorry," I softly murmured, staring out over the uneven surface of the river and wondering why he didn't work there anymore. He was a really useful employee, it was a shame.

He roughly slapped me on the back, nearly shoving me off the rock, and brightly chirped, "No problem! I understand why you were thinking it, so whatever." With a very concentrated air, Dib proceeded to wobbly lift the fishing pole, baited hook swinging all over the place while he attempted to manage the unmanageable object, which was nearly three times as tall as he was.

After several minutes of no progress on handling the pole, I held out my hand and grabbed it, tugging lightly. "Here, let me do it."

"No!" he snapped, looking outraged at the request, regardless of how he was struggling. He irritatedly smacked at my hand. "I wanna do it!"

Ignoring how he was attempting to rip the pole out of my grasp, I pulled harder. "Let me do it," I insisted. "The pole is too big for you."

"NO!" he screamed, leaning backward. "WEI BO SAID _I_ COULD DO IT! LET GO! LET GO!"

"You're too small!" I snapped, yanking as hard as I could. "If the fish is too big, you'll fall in!"

"WILL NOT! LET GO-O-O-O! I SAID LET GO! A-A-A-A-A-AH! LET GO! JERK!" My ears started ringing when he took a deep breath and screamed as loud as he could, face going very red as he flailed around.

"Just let him do it!" Wei Bo's angry voice floated over to us from the cart.

Glaring in annoyance, I let go of the pole and flopped back down on the boulder. Dib immediately fell silent, smiling in triumph as he continued to wave the pole around. After a moment, he managed to cast it far out over the water.

Was that really something to throw a temper tantrum over? I was just worried about him. And for good reason. The water of the river was so clear, one could see right down to the bottom. At the bottom were not only small, normal-sized fish, but also ones as big as dolphins. Dib was incredibly strong, I knew that perfectly well, but I was still worried that he would get pulled in if one of those bigger ones got…

"A-A-A-AH!" Dib yelled, abruptly flying off the boulder. With a small splash, he was pulled into the river and dragged down.

…Got hooked.

Wei Bo ran up a moment later, looking horrified at what had just happened. "MY POLE!"

Hastily lifting my quiver strap over my head, I threw the bundle at Wei Bo and then agilely leapt off the rock, diving into the cold river. Swimming as fast as I could toward the enormous blue and red fish that had taken Dib, I unsheathed my dagger. The fish, preoccupied with gnawing on Dib's legs, didn't see me coming until I was right on top of it. Angrily thrusting my dagger, I stabbed the fish through the top of its head and dug the blade around. Blood flooded through the water as the fish jerked to and fro. Its tail fin swung about and smacked me out of the way before I could do anymore damage.

Without thinking, I strained my shoulder muscles, making me feel extremely surprised when a pair of wings promptly erupted from my back. Those certainly were useful.

Extending the wings, I sheathed my dagger, shot toward Dib and the fish again, took both of Dib's scimitars out of their sheathes, and stabbed them into either side of the fish, blades at an upward angle. Holding tightly onto both protruding hilts, I looked up and began flapping my wings as hard as I could in a circular motion, slowly lifting us upward as the fish flailed about in the red water. The fish, seeming to know that its demise was coming soon, simply kept on chomping on Dib as if it wanted one last snack before it died.

Several long moments passed as I struggled, and then we finally broke the surface. Gulping down lungfuls of air, I weakly flew to the bank, throwing the fish onto the grass, far enough from the water that it wouldn't be able to flop itself back to safety. Dashing to the fish's eerily fang-filled mouth, I used the last shreds of my strength to pry open its jaws while Wei Bo pulled out the unconscious Dib—and, of course, the fishing pole—and then I collapsed onto the ground, chest heaving from the spontaneous battle. _Second Life_ certainly made you work hard for your food.

Taking Dib from Wei Bo, I quickly checked to make sure he was breathing. He was, so I opened my pouch, ripping out a red potion and hoping it was for healing. Popping open Dib's mouth, I poured in some of the liquid, then watched, seeing what would happen. To my enormous relief, the bloody wounds all over Dib's legs healed over, leaving perfectly smooth skin, and he slowly opened his eyes, blinking up at me and coughing out a bit of river water.

"That was why I told you to let me do it," I scolded, gently brushing his wet curls away from his forehead.

Dib briefly glanced over at the fish, which was now dead and being carried off, thanks to Wei Bo, then he smiled and looked back up at me. "But I did catch one. A super big one. Now we don't have to fish anymore."

"You didn't catch it," I corrected, frowning in annoyance. "It caught you."

He let out a long sigh and muttered, "Same difference," then lifted up his shaking arms. "Carry me to the cart! I wanna dry off!"

Eyebrows lowering in increased annoyance, I stared down at him. "Your legs are already healed."

"It hu-u-urts," he whined pitifully, waving his arms around. "Carry me-e-e-e!"

Rolling my eyes at his unconvincing display, I scooped him up and stood, carefully stepping up the bank to go back to the cart. Dib gave a tiny laugh and relaxed against me, smiling in a very victorious way.


	32. The End of Waiting

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>After what felt like a year of monotonous cart-riding—according to the others, it was actually only four nights—Infinite City finally came into view. If it could be called a city. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. There was a tower, a partially built wall, quite a few buildings of a variety of sizes, some finished, but mostly not, and then a bunch of nothing. Judging by how large the area was that closed in by the markers running along the ground where the city wall was going to be, the city was going to be a rather nice size after it was complete, but at the moment it was looking a bit scraggly.<p>

Well, on the surface.

I supposed that, since all of this was the result of the efforts of six people, it was actually quite impressive overall. And regardless of its current appearance, it was probably going to look very nice after a few more weeks of construction when the wall and shops would all be finished.

All six of us climbed to the dusty ground when we came to a halt outside the half-built south gate to the city, then the horse cart, now riderless, turned around and began rolling back toward Star City all by itself. Taking a deep breath of the warm air, lightly scented with sawdust, sweat and mortar, I ran my eyes over the crowd of people carefully laying bricks nearby, then glanced up at the wooden scaffolding stretching over the unfinished construct.

"They should be in one of the unfinished houses nearby. They're using it as temporary headquarters," Dib announced, giving my thigh a smack before marching off toward the gate. Feeling extremely nervous, I shakily followed after the boy, occupying my jittery fingers with my quiver strap. Many of the workers halted and began waving and shouting greetings as we passed by, but I barely noticed. Although I was extremely eager to continue, I was also starting to have second thoughts. Seeing Gui again was both a fearsome and lovely thing. Even with four days and nights to prepare myself for the reunion, I wasn't prepared at all. Judging by Dib and the rest of my team's descriptions of the last meeting I had with Gui, he was unfortunately still very, very angry with me.

However, I somehow managed to keep myself from turning and running away, so after only a minute or so of walking along the dirt road, filled with the sounds of hammers, saws, and people yelling instructions at one another, we arrived at tall double doors of the building they were apparently inside.

Wei Bo put an armor-plated hand on one door. "Ready?" he asked, looking somewhat amused as he eyed my terrified stare. Gulping, I nodded once and apprehensively watched while he pushed the door open. The thick beams slid open creakily and the inside of the dim hall was revealed.

A hysterical yell met our ears and I watched, feeling horrified for an entirely different reason when my brother raced across the stone floor, incoherently screaming his head off about something. Before he got far, he turned around and ran back in the other direction, tears streaming down his red face. Everyone else in the room seemed rather unconcerned with his antics, regardless of how I was completely bewildered.

Had we caught him at a bad time? Well, then again, the answer to that was completely obvious.

But…what in the world was wrong with him? Why would my brother behave in such an insane manner, even if he was upset about something? My brother would never act like that…or so I had thought. Clearly I had been completely wrong. Assuming that person really was Gui.

"I-is he…okay?" I whispered, leaning forward a bit when he disappeared around the edge of the door, filling the long room with his echoing yells of "I WANT PRINCE! WA-A-A-A! GIVE ME BACK MY PRINCE!"

"Oh, he's fine," Dib unconvincingly assured, fully pushing open the door and tromping inside along with the three women. Regardless of their casually executed entrance, I didn't move until Wei Bo yanked on my arm, giving me an annoyed frown before dragging the reluctant me through the doorway. Although the other ten people in the room noticed us right away and waved us over, Gui continued to run around, wailing bizarre things about a prince.

It wasn't until we were halfway to his teammates that he finally twirled around and froze, one leg sticking up in the air behind himself, eyes wide and mouth wider in complete shock over our apparently unexpected appearance. A silent moment passed while he and I stared at one another, then he put his leg down, looking extremely embarrassed that he'd been seen while acting like a complete moron. With an angry glance at his team, his mouth moved for a moment, though no words came out, before he stomped over to them and sat down.

Apparently he was sending them messages over the system, because a pink-haired woman's mouth also opened and closed several times as if she was speaking. Gui's face took on a much grumpier turn after she was done.

Both wanting and not wanting to know what it was that they'd said to one another, I took a slow, calming breath and started forward again. A little girl in a puffy dress jumped up from her seat and dashed toward me once I got close. Bracing myself for the inevitable impact, I barely kept myself from toppling over backward when she crashed into me, giving me a very tight hug around the middle. "Aeolus!" she cheered, ignoring the murderous glare Dib was giving her. "It's been too long, my servant!"

"Erm, yes," I replied, offering her gleeful face a hesitant smile while I wondered why she'd just called me a servant. "I suppose it has…" Quickly switching to my team chat, I hastily inquired, **"Who is she?"**

**"No one important,"** Dib huffed irritably, grabbing one of my hands with both of his own while he sent many pouting glances in the girl's direction.

**"That's Doll, one of Gui's teammates," **Jiū explained. **"Apparently you carried her around a lot back when you and Dib trained with the Odd Squad."**

**"Oh." **So she was another Dib…

**"It wasn't a **_**lot**_**!"** Dib snappishly denied.

**"Oh,"** I repeated, not particularly caring how much it was. I reluctantly stepped forward when Doll started pulling me toward the two teams and told me to sit down. Feeling nervous, I lowered myself to the floor and glanced from face to face, hoping someone was going to tell me who they were.

Before I could ask anything, Dib suddenly jumped onto my lap. Doll, looking somewhat annoyed, pushed him off and sat herself down in his place. Dib gave a roar of anger and scrambled to his feet from where he'd fallen over, then squished himself between my chest and the girl while he pushed on her back.

"Stop shoving!" she ordered firmly, clobbering him with her large staff.

"I was sitting here first!" Dib screamed, grabbing the weapon and throwing it across the room. "GO FETCH AND STOP USING HIM LIKE YOUR CHAIR!"

"HE'S MY SERVANT! I'LL USE HIM AS MY CHAIR IF I WANT!"

"HE'S MY BEST FRIEND! _I_ GET TO SIT HERE!" He gave her another rough shove before glancing at me and deafeningly assuring, "DON'T WORRY, AL! I'LL PROTECT YOU!" The declaration was completely ironic, given his actions that followed.

Fearing for my own safety when the two began to duel one another, mostly hitting me—presumably by accident—instead of each other, I forcefully pulled them apart and sat one down on each of my knees, keeping ahold of their little arms so they couldn't attack one another again. Didn't I—the owner of the lap in question—have any say in the matter of whether I was a chair or not? And why couldn't they simply sit on the floor like everyone else? Why weren't there any furnishings, anyway? Other than seemingly randomly placed piles of straw all over the hall, giving at least a modicum of comfort for those sitting, the entire room was completely bare.

"Well, how are you all doing? It's been quite a while since we've seen you last, especially you, Aeolus," remarked another woman, neatly seated beside a huge and very hairy beastman.

**"Who is she and how long does she mean by 'quite a while'?"** I asked, glancing at Jiū.

**"That's Yu Lian, another one of Gui's teammates, and you haven't seen them in about a month. It's been a little over two weeks for us,"** she answered.

**"Yep. Haven't seen them since the competition,"** Wei Bo said, and then, at my confused look, he added, **"The Grand Melee, a hundred teams fought one another in a stadium. Their team won and they were given this piece of land as a prize."**

**"Oh, I see."** I gave a small nod and frowned. Even if they had won, that was a horrible idea—fighting in such a competition. Who in their right mind would willingly enter something like that? Playing _Second Life_ had seemingly made Gui completely brainless. One could only hope that the damage wasn't irrevocable.

"We're all great!" Avila answered Yu Lian at last, giving a sweeping glance about the hall while she plopped herself down beside Xiu Chen. "Where's Prince?"

"Eastern Continent," came the tired-sounding reply from nearly everyone on the other two teams.

"He told me that he accidentally traveled there," added a silver-haired warrior.

**"That guy is Wicked,"** Jiū supplied before I could ask. **"He's a member of Dark Phantom, not the Odd Squad."**

**"Ah…And in this case Prince is a person instead of a title?"** I slowly inquired.

**"Yep,"** Avila chirped. **"He's an elven warrior. The city lord and a member of the Odd Squad. Gui's in love with him."**

**"Gui, Wicked, and ninety-nine percent of the rest of the population of **_**Second Life**_**,"** Wei Bo mumbled, a sour look falling over his face. **"I don't get it. What's so great about him?"**

**"He's so handsome!"** Avila gushed.

**"And that's all he is. Don't you dare join his ridiculous fan club,"** he added threateningly, giving her a glare out of the corner of his eye.

**"Oh, I won't."** She snorted in slight amusement. **"I don't like him like that. He's just so nice to look at. Like a celebrity or a work of art! But I value my life and don't want his raving fans to tear me to pieces. I know well enough to stay away."**

**"Good,"** her brother ended in a huff and I glanced in Gui's direction, feeling a bit disgruntled. I assumed this Prince person was the reason Gui was behaving so strangely, judging by the things he'd been obnoxiously screaming before he'd seen that my team and I had arrived.

How did one "accidentally" travel to another continent, anyway? I'd gone to _Second Life_'s website and read as much information as I could, and it said one ticket cost a small fortune. So Prince had somehow accidentally walked to the port, accidentally paid the sailor five thousand crystal coins, and accidentally boarded the ship…Sounded like Gui had fallen in love with a complete idiot. Given Gui's behavior, perhaps they suited one another.

I glanced up at a sudden burst of movement nearby. Yu Lian was energetically rummaging around in her pouch. After a moment, she withdrew a clipboard and pen, then proceeded to stare at my team and I, an eager smile on her face. "Now that you've finally arrived, I wanted to ask, have you six considered joining Infinite City's management positions?"

"No way!" Gui hissed, leaning forward and looking extremely irritated. "I don't want him here!"

"If you can put up with Wicked, you can put up with your own brother," Yu Lian levelly told him, "so stop whining and keep your personal feelings out of the city's affairs. You know perfectly well that we need everyone we can get."

"But Prince asked Dark Phantom to come!" he continued, tossing a glare in Wicked's direction. "That's the main reason I put up with that one!"

"For your information," Dib angrily interjected, "a few days after the Grand Melee, Prince asked us to come as well. _All six_ of us."

Gui's face flushed at that piece of news, but he seemed to quiet down slightly hearing that it was Prince's decision and not ours. A moment of silence passed while he thought, then he growled, "Fine, if that's what His Highness wants. Just don't put him in my department!"

"Aeolus will be placed where we need him, whether in the same department as you or not," Yu Lian said, her snappish tone implying that that was the end of the argument. Heart pounding over the trouble I was unintentionally causing, I cautiously glanced between the two, wondering what to do. I didn't want to stay here for any long period of time if it was just going to make him angrier, but it seemed like we were apparently obligated to stay, since we were asked to help them with the city.

Wei Bo cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter. "Yes, we've talked about it a few times after Prince invited us, and we're willing to help. But that only goes for five of us. Giving Aeolus a position right now would be a bit complicated."

Complication; completely forgetting about my duties.

"Fine with me," Gui huffed, crossing his arms. "He doesn't need one in the first place. Nor does he want one, judging by how he didn't even come to watch the competition. Probably too busy sucking up to father that night to login to _Second Life_."

My face quickly turned red with anger and humiliation at his last remark, but, before I could do or say anything, Dib suddenly launched himself off of my lap and knocked over Gui almost faster than I could see. "YOU DAMN MORON!" he screamed, punching Gui as hard as he could, over and over. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW‽"

Eyes widening in horror, I relocated Doll to the floor and stood, dashing over to them. "DIB, STOP!" I yelled, grabbing him around the middle and lifting him off of Gui, who was venomously looking up at me, blood pouring down his cheek from a cut made by Dib's tiny, mail-covered fists.

Dib struggled hard in my grip, desperately trying to get back to his beating session. "APOLOGIZE TO AL! APOLOGIZE RIGHT _NOW_!" he screamed, yanking on my arms to get himself free. It was all I could do to hold onto him.

"Dib, calm down," I said, holding him against me as tightly as I could while taking several steps backward to give Gui room to sit up again. "Please–"

"I WON'T!" he refused, glaring up at me and giving me a punch as well before turning to look with a murderous stare back at Gui. "Do you even have any idea what's been going on after you left home‽ You left him all alone in that house for eleven years with that abusive bastard, who beats him on a near daily basis! That's why he didn't login to watch the competition! Your father almost killed him that night! He's still got the bruises all over his face, even though it's been two weeks already! His left arm's broken in three spots! He's got a bunch of broken ribs! HIS HEAD'S HURT SO BADLY, HE CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER ME ANYMORE! EVERY DAY, WEI BO AND HIS FAMILY HAVE TO TELL HIM OVER AND OVER WHO THEY ARE, 'CAUSE HE FORGETS!

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE'S BEEN GOING THROUGH, SO DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO HIM LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN! YOU…You have…You have no i-idea!" Dib finally stopped yelling, turned to wrap his arms around my neck, and abruptly burst into tears.

I ran one hand over the back of his head, attempting to sooth him, although I was also trembling uncontrollably. I knew what had happened wasn't at all a secret, but having it thrown out there for all of these strangers to know about was extremely discomforting.

Gui looked like he'd been punched several more times with Dib's words. His eyes widened in shock and he finally looked at me properly. "Z-Zian, what–"

Wei Bo stood up, armor clanking loudly and interrupting whatever Gui had been about to say. Everyone's startled eyes darted to him as he began to speak. "Well, I was hoping to be more discreet, but now you know. That's why you should wait a while before assigning Aeolus to anything big. He'll forget about it." After a brief glare in Gui's direction, he turned to Yu Lian. "Could we go somewhere else to discuss the management positions?"

After a brief pause, she nodded and slowly got to her feet. "Yes, that's fine. We can talk outside."

"Let's go," Jiū whispered up to me, slipping her hand into mine as she pulled me toward the door. Slight surprise washed over me as I looked down at her furious expression. She was always such a sweet person, but now she looked like she was about to kill someone. Then again, so did the rest of my team.

Hefting Dib up a bit higher, I quickly turned away and let Jiū lead me outside, not daring to look back at Gui or anyone else. Once we came to a stop in the dusty space outside the unfinished building, Yu Lian pulled out her clipboard again, looking very business-like as she rambled off our numerous placement options. Within ten minutes, she had my team's three warriors, plus Xiu Chen, assigned to the city's reserve troops, Jiū assigned to city defenses, and me assigned to nothing, although Dib stopped sobbing long enough to tell her to put me in the supply production department once I had healed more.

Afterward, Yu Lian told us we could do whatever we wanted, if only for that night, so we wandered away outside the city and seated ourselves in a grassy hollow dotted with young oak trees and little patches of white daisies. It was far enough away from the city that the sounds of construction were faint echoes rolling through the air.

"Hey," Wei Bo called to me over Dib's excited yells while he occupied himself with rolling down the side of the dip, bewilderingly no longer looking upset in the slightest. Leaning against the thin trunk of one of the oaks, I glanced over at the warrior. "What's up with you and Gui? We had dinner with the Odd Squad after the Grand Melee and he was acting completely normal."

"'Normal' meaning 'insane,' in his case," Avila added, smiling in amusement as she looked up from the daisy chain she was making with her sisters.

"Well, yeah," Wei Bo agreed, sighing and rolling his eyes. "He acts weird all the time, but at least he wasn't biting our heads off. He was really nice. Whenever you're around, you Twig, he immediately puts up his defenses and starts fights right and left. What in the world did you do to him?"

My face started to burn with shame as I attempted to come up with some sort of answer. I really didn't want to tell them. Gui probably would have rattled it all off in a moment, if only to make me feel bad yet again, but I hadn't ever told anyone about it before. It was very personal, after all, even if these people were eventually going to be my brother, sisters, and wife. In my eyes, they were all people I'd just met earlier that day.

"'Sibling rivalry' is how you put it to me once," Jiū supplied after a long pause.

"That's," I began, taking a slow breath and glancing up to the swaying, leafy branches stretching over me, "a very simplistic explanation of it all, yes…"

"We compete all the time," Avila mumbled, waving one hand at the other three, "but you don't see us being so malicious with one another."

"Gui Wen and I aren't you four," I quietly pointed out, frowning in slight annoyance when Dib once again started yelling when he rolled down the hill. Once he got to the bottom, he jumped to his feet, curly hair full of grass and leaves, and ran back up the slope to do it again. Couldn't he play a bit quieter?

"And we weren't competing because we wanted to," I added slowly. "Our father made us do it. He thinks people perform better when they have someone else to work against." Sighing slightly, I looked downward and picked a long blade of grass, twisting it around my fingers. "Like he does with everything, he took it to such extremes."

Wei Bo suddenly started laughing, shaking his head as he attempted to suppress a smile. "'Extreme,'" he echoed, "what an understatement."

"Well," Xiu Chen said, giving me a warm, motherly smile, "if you don't want to tell us, you don't have to, but it's not like we'll be all judgmental and scold you. Everyone makes mistakes. We're your family now, too, and we're all perfectly willing to listen and, if we're able, help."

I mentally repeated "too" and let out another dark sigh. Since when did I already have a family? Relatives, yes, but not a family. Not like these people, always supporting one another…Not tearing down each other like everyone I was related to always did.

Like I always had.

Always looking for faults in myself and those around me. Always having my own faults brought to light. Always getting berated for the faults. Always trying to find ways to fix them, or at least hide them. It was simply how I'd grown up; everything my father had ever told me always centered around my weaknesses.

That might have been why I let myself get comfortable around these people. They didn't pick through my behavior and actions and try to exploit my mistakes. Although somewhat annoying from time to time, they were very kind. But now they were digging around in places I didn't want them to dig, and the thought of telling them about what had happened between Gui and I was terrifying.

Even if Xiu Chen said they wouldn't judge me for it, judging someone was nearly involuntary. Simply glancing at a person you see on the street brings out countless judgments about what sort of person they are.

And even though I knew that I would forget I ever told them anything, they would remember.

I didn't want them to dislike me as so many others had in the past, even without knowing anything about me. I was going to be stuck with them for life; I didn't want them to think badly of me. I already had enough people to do that.

Heart pounding, I anxiously looked back up at the other five—at some point, Dib had stopped rolling and had come to try on the daisy chains the women were making. He gave me a bright smile, then went back to the flowers, throwing one of the crowns at Wei Bo. It landed in his hair. The man snatched it off his head and snapped at the boy, tossing the flowers right back. The sight of them playing together so carelessly made my insides twist unpleasantly with jealousy.

Friends.

Family.

Siblings.

Spouses.

I felt like my own secrets were setting me apart from them. Building a wall around me taller, thicker and more impenetrable than the one being built around Infinite City. Keeping me safe from getting hurt by those around me, but at the same time keeping me from having the same easiness with them that they had with one another.

Feeling extremely terrified, I gave the blade of grass in my hands one last twist and it snapped in half. I stared down at the pieces, attempting to gather up the shreds of my courage. I was beginning to want to tell them. I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be close to them. The fear that they were going to leave me was just as strong as my hopes that they would stay, but if I lived my life in fear all the time, hiding myself away so I never got hurt, I was never going to get anywhere.

"I," I started, then froze when everyone started staring expectantly at me. Face flushing, I looked down again at my trembling hands. "I…I'm not expecting you all to…Well, I…I hope that you all won't think too badly of me…after you hear."

Wei Bo roughly slapped my shoulder as if assuring me my fears were groundless. The smiles the other four gave me eased my anxiety a tiny bit, and with an unsteady breath, the somewhat jumbled words all came spilling out. I didn't dare look up even once while I rambled on and on about what happened eleven years ago. When hot tears started blurring my vision, I felt somewhat relieved that I wouldn't be able to see their reactions to my confession, even if I attempted to look.

Once I was finished with my slightly hysterical recount, everyone was silent. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be happy that they weren't criticizing me, or even more terrified than before that I'd apparently done something so bad that they didn't even know what to say in reply. And since they weren't saying anything, a million negative responses started running through my head one after the other, each worse than the one before.

"Sheesh," Wei Bo suddenly exclaimed, making me jump in surprise and fear. "Getting all worked up like that, I thought it was going to be horrible, like you stole his inheritance away or something, but for goodness sake. So what if you went and tattled on him? Kids do that all the time. All four of us tattled on each other for things big and small when we were younger."

Jiū gave a small laugh. "We still do."

"And Gui got away just fine in the end, didn't he?" Avila asked. "Why's he still so mad?"

"He's just sulking, I'd say," Xiu Chen mused, smiling faintly. "The little brother he liked so much almost messed up his oh-so-important plans, after all."

Eyes popping at the very unexpected responses, I simply froze, mind blank.

They didn't think I was horrible? How was that possible? Maybe I was misunderstanding something…

Wei Bo slapped my shoulder again, interrupting my muddled attempts at coming up with a rational explanation as to why they weren't berating me. "Well, what you did wasn't good, but I think you're both blowing everything out of proportion. Then again, what little we know about your father, it was probably a lot worse from your perspective. And Gui's."

Feeling overwhelmingly relieved, I gave a tiny nod and smiled, accepting a small, lacy handkerchief that Jiū was holding out to me. Burying my face in it, I sat there for a long while, attempting to get my composure back when I wanted nothing more than to cry for hours and hours, both out of happiness that they hadn't gotten mad, and out of that endless murky regret over the past.

"Oh," Xiu Chen suddenly breathed and everyone fell silent. I peeked at them over the corner of the soft cloth. They had abandoned their daisy chains and were all staring up at the top of the slope of our dip in the ground.

"Well, look who it is," Wei Bo growled, eyebrows drawing together in an angry glower.

Feeling a bit apprehensive, I turned my head to see as well. Gui was up there, looking down at us, a hesitant and somewhat fearful expression falling over his face. "Um," he began, briefly glancing at me, "may I speak to Zian? Alone…"

Dib inhaled sharply, presumably to scream something at him, but I quickly stood up, folded the handkerchief and returned it to Jiū, then took a few steps away from them. Gui had come to find me all on his own. His team might have put him up to it, but still he had asked. After waiting for so long, I definitely wasn't going to let the opportunity to speak with him simply pass by.

"Al, wait!" Dib called, hurrying forward an grabbing my hand. "I wanna go, too!"

"No," I quietly replied, shaking my head. As if I'd let him come and start more fights…

He pressed his lips together and defiantly stared up at me. "But what if he–" he started, but I shook my head again and repeated the denial.

Dib's face fell, but he let my hand slip out of his and I turned away, striding up the slope to join Gui at the top. "Al! If he gives you any trouble," Dib called after me, "message me and I'll come beat him up again for you!"

Sighing tiredly, I murmured, "I won't." Hardly daring to look at Gui, I waited until he took off over the grass before I gave one last glance down at my worried team, then silently followed after him.


	33. Pleading Innocence

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Gui and I walked side by side over the slightly hilly area, heading east, but not really aiming for any particular spot. I gave a glance to Infinite City, listening to the echoes of the ever-ongoing construction, then briefly looked at Gui's somewhat strained profile before returning my attention to where I was going and wondered when he was going to say something. He looked as nervous as I, so I let the silence continue while we strode through the long grass and colorful patches of flowers, warm sunshine beaming down on us.<p>

It wasn't until we'd come to the hard-packed dirt road running from the city's northern gate—well, what was going to be the northern gate—to whatever wilderness was in the other direction that Gui finally took a deep breath and threw a glance at me. "Your…" he began hesitantly, "…um, your team mentioned to mine a while ago that you're getting married to Jiū soon. Congratulations."

"Thank you," I quietly replied, wondering why he'd started the conversation in such an unexpected place. Though I supposed it was better to talk about small things first rather than leaping directly into the nasty parts of what I assumed we both wanted to say.

"I have to admit that it surprised me a bit." He let out a small laugh. "After having been gone so long, I think I still mentally see you as a little kid, not a man about to be married already."

Not knowing what to say in response, I simply nodded. I doubted I'd ever seen him as a kid—immature behavior aside, of course. He had always been the person I'd admired and looked up to most. Before and after everything had fallen apart between us.

"But, ah, she seems really nice. Very pretty as well." When I was about to nod again, he suddenly came to a halt and stared anxiously at me. "Not that I'm interested in her or anything. Just so you know."

Smiling in amusement over his guarded assurance, I answered, "Oh, I know. I've heard about your complete and total dedication to a certain elven city lord, which was also very surprising to me. I never would have expected you to be gay." Who knew what our father would do if he found out that his precious son had fallen in love with some guy in a game. Not that I was ever going to tell him anything, even if he asked.

Gui's blissful smile—probably brought on by thoughts of Prince—suddenly fell off, and he gave me a tired frown. "I'm not. Prince just so happens to be a man, that's all. Even if His Highness was a woman, I would love him with all of my heart." With that declaration having been put in place, the infatuated grin started to slip back over his face.

Feeling extremely awkward and embarrassed as if I was intruding on something very personal, I looked away from him and nodded again. "Oh."

Seeing my muddled expression, he crossed his arms and began tromping through the grass in a much more agitated manner. "What, does my liking a guy bother you‽"

"No," I denied at once, shaking my head. "You're free to fall in love with whoever you want, man or woman. You're an adult and are perfectly capable of making your own decisions about such things. I have no right to get in your way or be judgmental. As long as you're content, that's all I'm hoping for."

"That's completely ironic," he grumbled, "coming from you…"

Taking a slow breath, I looked down at the ground, carefully side-stepping a bushy plant covered in tiny white flowers. "Yes," I whispered after a pause, "I know." Although I would think it would be more correct to say that it would be ironic if it came from the person I had been at the age of thirteen. Not from me as I was at this moment. I selfishly hadn't wanted him to leave back then, but now I was very relieved that he had managed to get away.

Sighing deeply, Gui ran a hand through his bangs. "Well, that aside…since I didn't bring you out here to argue." Pressing his lips together, he came to a halt again, a slightly confused look replacing his anger. "How long has it been happening? The…the abuse, I mean. I remember you got hurt a lot, but I always…well, you were really clumsy as a kid. And I know he hit you sometimes, but nothing to…that extent."

Frowning in irritation, I answered, "It has always been happening."

"But he never did anything to me. I didn't…" Gui's voice slowly faded out and he looked back at me with unease. That only made me more annoyed. Why was he bothering to seem worried after he'd been the one to leave it all behind? What did he care about things going on in his absence?

"Of course he never did anything to you," I continued angrily in his place. "He loves _you_. Why the hell would he incapacitate you when he has a useless son right here to pulverize on a daily basis?" I took a few steps away to keep myself from murdering him right then and there. I already knew he hadn't taken notice of my abuse while he was still home, but it was maddening beyond words to actually hear him say so.

"Why didn't you ever tell me‽" Gui whispered furiously. "I would have stopped him!"

"I did tell you." Turning back around, I glared at him. "Once and only once when I was around four or five. I told you and you went running to Father to ask him about it. He told you it was—as you so kindly observed about my clumsiness—because I'd fallen down. And you believed him, although I told you several times that that wasn't what happened. Seeing that it was pointless, I never brought it up again. But it was never a secret. You were too focused on your own business and just never took notice. Anyway, the only thing talking about it any further would have accomplished was more beatings for 'whining.'"

Although it had been twenty years already, I could still, so very clearly, feel that sinking despair when both Gui and our father had berated me over and over for lying. No matter how many times I'd tried to convince him, he had believed our father over me. Out of a want not to make either of them angry with me, I never asked Gui for help again after that.

"Only that one time‽ I was a kid!" Gui snapped. "An idiot who believed everything that guy told me! He's our father, dammit! What little boy doesn't want to believe what his father says to him‽"

"What little boy doesn't want the people he saw as his family to believe what he says to them?" I whispered in reply, smiling faintly. "I thought you would simply call me a liar again, so I kept the explanations to myself, hoping you would catch on all by yourself. And once you started planning on leaving home, I assumed that, if you had noticed, you just didn't care. But apparently you were oblivious to the very end."

Sighing faintly, I looked away from his pale face and ran my eyes over the empty land rolled out ahead of us, the distant hammers still pounding away back at the city. "I suppose that is one reason I told Father about your intentions. I didn't want you to leave me there alone with him, especially not when he would be furious about your disappearance and take it out on me, which he was and he did…but my hopes all backfired. Obviously."

Gui took a few calming breaths, and then came to stand beside me again. "If you'd simply spoken to me all those years ago instead of…of going and telling Father all of that stuff I'd stupidly trusted you with, none of this would have happened."

Slowly closing my eyes, I barely stopped myself from smiling at how hopeless this all was. The conversation had gone absolutely nowhere. We'd talked in a circle, and now we were back to how everything was my fault. Why had he even bothered to request I talk to him if he was just going to pile everything on me yet again?

"Well, hearing you say that makes things much more simple," I breathed, opening my eyes again to look him at last. "I've been wanting to say 'I'm sorry' to you for eleven years, and there you have it. I'm sorry. There is nothing I regret more than betraying the trust you had in me, and I hope that you will be able to forgive me at some point. But don't worry, I'm not expecting it to be any time soon."

"Wait, where are you going?" Gui called after me when I started off across the grass, aiming for where we'd left my teammates in the oak-filled hollow.

Pausing, I glanced at him over my shoulder. "You've made yourself perfectly clear and there is no point in continuing this conversation. It seems I'm never going to hear anything from you or Father other than how _I_ should have done things differently. You two never stop to think that perhaps you are also at fault. I have no interest in arguing with you further."

"What‽ Stop putting words in my mouth!" Gui roared, moving to stand in front of me so I couldn't leave. "I meant that you should have told _me_ instead of Father, so we could have fixed it! If that would have been been possible! You should have said you didn't want me to leave! I would have stayed!"

"Why would you have ever stayed in that house?" I asked in disbelief. "Father may not have abused you, but he certainly never missed a chance to flaunt his control."

"I would have stayed for you," he hissed in return. "I may have been ridiculously inattentive, but I still cared about you."

"Yes, well, be that as it may, it matters little now. I realized a long time ago what's important to you and what isn't," I said coolly, pushing him lightly to one side and walking on. "I never was."

"What the hell are you expecting me to say‽" he bellowed, stomping after me. "'I'm sorry I was such a terrible child'‽ You never told me about anything! You always kept everything to yourself!"

Screwing up my face, for the second time that night I barely kept myself from attacking him. Certainly, I hadn't been expecting any apologies from him at all for what he'd done—I knew all too well that I should have been more persistent—but he could at least have a shred of tact.

When I still didn't stop, he yelled, "Zian, come back! I'm not finished!"

Gritting my teeth, I reluctantly halted and turned to face him again. "What more could you possibly have to say‽ Just leave me alone and go live however the hell you want like you've been doing this whole time."

"You were the one who approached me first, so stop talking as if I forced you to come here! I didn't even want to talk to you, but you kept—Come _BACK_!"

"We should continue this later. I don't want to talk to you while we're both angry," I replied quietly before striding away. **"We're finished for now,"** I called over the team channel, trying to beat down the urge to log out. **"Are you all still where I left you?"**

**"No, we went back to the city,"** Jiū answered. **"Same house as before."**

**"Okay. We'll be there soon."**

**"Did things go well?"** Xiu Chen carefully inquired.

**"As well as they could for now,"** I muttered, directing my steps toward the city. Gui thankfully made no more efforts to speak, and silently walked along behind me. What was the point of all of that if he hadn't even wanted to talk? Perhaps we would be able to continue later on, but it seemed as though he was never going to change his attitude, so we could stop the endless fighting. Why was he so determined to always be the innocent one? It wasn't like I was trying to make him feel guilty or anything, but really.

Several tense minutes later, Gui and I arrived at the house everyone was congregated in. The moment we stepped into the "temporary headquarters," Dib jumped to his feet and raced across the floor, coming to a very abrupt stop when he crashed into my legs. He tightly squeezed them for a moment, then lifted his arms and hopped up and down. "Pick me up!"

I didn't particularly want to carry him around, but obeyed. He gave Gui a suspicious glare. "You didn't pick on Al again, did you‽" he demanded mistrustfully.

Gui sighed and shook his head. "No, I didn't. I think…"

"Good!" Dib gave me a happy hug while we walked to where everyone was seated. **"He really didn't, did he?"** Dib added over the messaging system.

**"We did argue,"** I admitted, **"but it wasn't like before. It's fine."**

Dib gave a small nod and looked a little more convinced than he had initially. As I sat down next to my teammates, Dib gave another intense look in Gui's direction. "Gui," he firmly called, his voice somewhat angry still. When Gui turned toward us, Dib ordered, "Gimme your home address!"

Face turning somewhat pale, Gui suspiciously glanced from him to me, then back to him. "And why do you think I would ever give you something like that?"

"Your books!" he explained impatiently. "The ones you left at your father's house! Al's been keeping them for you all this time. We wanna mail them to you." He paused a moment, and then gave Gui a sneaky smirk. "Though you know, we already know the town you're in. Al and I went on a business trip there last September. We can just fly there, find the university you're teaching at, and then getting your information would be easy."

"Business trip?" Gui repeated, looking very confused.

"Uh-huh!" Dib chirped. "We worked together in the accounting department of your father's company!"

Giving me a blank stare, Gui asked, "Is Father really so hard up for employees that he's resorted to child labor?"

Feeling confused over the entire discussion, I slowly shook my head. "No, of course not."

Dib bristled at the question, stood from my lap and put his hands on both hips, striking a very important-looking pose. "How rude! I'm not a child!" he snapped. "I'm turning twenty-five next month! And, and in real life I'm…" He dramatically pointed a tiny finger at that scruffy beastman. "I'm almost as big as Ugly Wolf! One hundred and ninety-one centimeters, to be exact!"

Silence washed over the three teams as everyone glanced between the itty bitty boy and the huge wolf as if they were trying to picture such a thing. And then the laughter started. Dib's chubby face turned very red and he whirled around, grabbing me again and loudly wailing, "AL! THEY'RE SO-O-O MEAN! THEY'RE LAUGHING AT ME! MAKE THEM STOP! STAB THEM FULL OF ARROWS!"

What, had he been expecting everyone to be astonished? Most of them looked like they didn't believe him.

"He," Wicked began, clearing his throat and attempting to stifle his own chuckles, "he's telling the truth. Wu Qing and I saw Aeolus and Dib walking around near the university when they were in T City. A huge man, happily smiling and waving at us through the window of a café…It was a bit weird."

Rather than quieting down, the laughter simply intensified, along with Dib's tearful demands for revenge as he roughly shook me back and forth. I sat quietly and as still as I could, not wanting to get involved. However, when I didn't do anything, Dib apparently decided to take things into his own hands.

With an angry growl, he reached around me, pulled out my bow and an arrow, then pointed it at Gui. Seeing how completely not dangerous the situation was, I didn't move to intervene. Struggling to keep hold of the enormous longbow, which was twice his height, he angrily threatened, "STOP LAUGHING OR ELSE I'LL SHOOT!"

Gui, one of the few who was not laughing, glared at him.

Dib waited a grand total of three seconds for them to stop, and then let loose the arrow. Gui didn't flinch at all when the arrow flopped harmlessly to the floor, not coming anywhere near where he was sitting. With an outraged curse word thrown at the bow—as if it was the bow's fault he couldn't get the arrow to go in the correct direction with the correct amount of force—Dib hurried forward, picked up the arrow and tried again.

His second attempt was just as successful as the first.

Angrily roaring, Dib dashed forward and clobbered Gui with the bow itself, not bothering to try shooting anymore. "OW! STOP THAT!" Gui yelled, standing up and snatching the bow away from the tiny boy. "I wasn't even laughing, so why the hell are you attacking _me_‽"

"Because I don't like you!" Dib snapped, jumping into the air and latching onto the bow limb. "GIVE IT BACK! AL! AL! HE'S TRYING TO STEAL YOUR BOW!"

"I AM NOT!" Gui furiously denied Dib's tattling, swinging the poor bow around in an attempt to dislodge the attached halfling. "I'D NEVER STEAL IT! I ALREADY HAVE MY GUQIN, ANYWAY! LET GO!"

"YOU LET GO!"

"LET GO, DAMMIT!" Gui swung it harder, as if he thought that would help.

"A-A-AL! SAVE ME!" Dib wailed, flying through the air.

Feeling extremely irritated, I stood up and stomped over to them. Grabbing one of Dib's ankles when it flew past, I yanked him toward myself. Gui, seeing that I had come to intervene, finally let go. Tugging the abused bow out of Dib's hands while he laughed triumphantly as if he had just won some battle, I stuffed the weapon back into my quiver and walked back over to my teammates, scooping up my arrow as I went and not bothering to turn Dib right side up until I lowered him to the floor. Glowering down at his smug face, I snappishly commanded, **"Stop attacking Gui Wen."**

**"He started it,"** Dib pouted. **"That stupid, purple meanie."**

**"No, **_**you**_ **started it,"** I corrected, sighing as I sat down again.

"Since you all seem so energetic," Yu Lian suddenly observed, looking somewhat cranky, "why not use that energy for something useful?"

"Like what?" Dib asked, flopping himself into an upright position.

"Well, you could, I don't know," she lightly mused, then glared at him, "help _build_ something? Or maybe start on Aeolus' duties earlier than we discussed…If you five are all there to keep him on track, he'll be able to work, won't he?"

"What duties?" I questioned in bewilderment. Had they asked me to help work on the city wall or a shop or something?

"You're in the city's supply production department," Jiū explained.

"Since when?" I added, glancing at her. We'd only just arrived in the city, yet we already had jobs?

"Just earlier…" Jiū paused and sighed, making me feel a bit anxious. "Dib told her to assign you to that department, because they need your help. Is that okay? Though you did already agree."

"Oh," I mumbled, mind cranking away in an attempt to remember the moment, "um, yes. That's fine." Smiling hesitantly at Yu Lian's startled face, I continued, "If my team is there, yes, they'll keep me from wandering off or something…What do you need me to do?"

"Um, what I had in mind was," she began, "there's a forest about an hour's walk north-west of here where a certain kind of berry grows. They're used for mana potions. Do you think you could go pick some and make potions out of them?"

"Yes." It sounded simple enough and I was eager to have some sort of distraction from the imposing, depressing memories of my argument with Gui. I already had enough of those from our childhood to remember. I didn't want yet another one.

"You'll also need to pick some magus herbs to mix with the berries, but those are located anywhere and everywhere, they'll be easy to find," she added, then pulled out a clipboard and pen. Flipping over the page on top, she quickly scribbled something down on a blank sheet of paper, then held it out to me. A glance over it gave me the answer to the question I'd been about to ask; it was sketches of the plants I needed to find.

"They're both dark blue. There are several clearings throughout the woods where the berries grow, but sometimes the bushes will be empty, so you'll have to hunt around a bit until you find some. And although it sounds like a relatively easy task, the woods are stuffed full of aggressive, dangerous monsters, so you'll have to be very careful not to die. Okay?"

Feeling a bit regretful that I'd already agreed to go without knowing the risks involved, I slowly nodded, folded up the drawings and handed the paper over to Jiū for safekeeping, then stood.

"Take your time and train for a bit while you're there," she offered, waving a hand in a cheery dismissal. "We'll expect you back in three days, so I hope you'll pick a lot! Have fun!"

"Right," Wei Bo grumbled, looking rather annoyed that she was seeing us off in such an unconcerned manner right after telling us that we were probably going to get killed.

Inhaling slowly, I reluctantly turned around and started off with the others toward the sunny doorway, picking up Dib as we went and trying not to listen to the half-hearted farewells ringing out from behind.


	34. Leaving the Darkness

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>My heart rate was steadily speeding up while I watched and waited, barely even breathing as Dib looked to his left, right, back, front, up, and then down before dashing forward as fast as he could into the foggy clearing in front of us. Avila, running in from the other direction, was barely visible through the stifling blanket of white that covered everything. The numerous tiny twinkles shining in the fog went out one by one as the sidus berries—the sources of the shimmering lights and the reason we were at this horrendous place—were swiftly picked and pocketed by the two warriors.<p>

Not half a minute passed before a somewhat muffled, throaty roar came from the north and my shallow breath was lost completely as I launched off the tree and flew as fast as I could toward where the last few lights were blinking out. Landing heavily in the slick grass, I snatched up Dib, then waited until Avila securely latched herself onto my back before I shot us upward. Several enormous black shapes ran into the clearing below us and a second deep roar tore through the air, mixing with Avila's tiny squeak of surprise—apparently she wasn't used to flying like Dib and I both were.

It was another narrow escape from the shadow wolves that were, unfortunately, absolutely everywhere.

Except up in the thick, black trees, which was helpful.

Except sometimes those were full of aggressive, person-sized crows, which was good news for my fletching supplies, but bad news for pretty much everything and everyone else.

However, my team and I had found one especially large tree that was close enough to the border of the forest that we would have a relatively easy escape if we needed it, but it was also nicely close to several of the clearings where the sidus berry bushes grew. That tree had become our base over the past few days, so we didn't have to wander around, fending off wolves and crows while finding suitable shelter after every berry run.

After several minutes of flying, I landed in the tree we'd singled out, pulling in my wings and letting down Dib and Avila before we picked our way through the twisting branches until we got to the correct spot, marked with a small X. Walking toward the tree trunk, I strode right through the bark, coming to a halt inside the small hollow—the main reason we'd chosen this particular tree. The patch of bark covering the wide entrance was simply an illusion put up by Jiū so the gap wasn't visible from the outside, although she had set it up so that we would still be able to see through the illusion from this side, thus allowing us to see what was out there without having to stick our heads out.

The other three were seated inside. The space, slightly bigger than the walk-in closet of the guest room I was staying in at the Lin house, was perfect shelter for all six of us to hide in if something dangerous was attempting to murder us yet again. It gave us much more protection against the horrible environment of this forest than we would have while simply sitting on a branch, completely exposed.

Avila and Dib both listed off how many berries they got—seventeen in total, this run—while I sat myself down on the decomposing vegetation coating the uneven floor of the "room" in the tree. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the inside of the trunk and attempted to regulate my breathing. Whoever the designer was for this forest certainly didn't hold back on the terrifying additions—never ending fog that gave us little light in the clearings, dense, black trees that blotted out the remainder of the light everywhere else, thick, humid air that made breathing a chore, thorn bushes all over the ground, monstrous NPCs that all had one thought in mind and one thought alone; _Kill._

But at least we had all gained a few levels while training, and no one had died.

Well, yet.

Most of us had gotten precariously close to death before we'd gotten use to the dangers waiting around every tree, but my massive stock of health and stamina potions, plus large amounts of ingredients for more—apparently I'd been collecting and hoarding it all for some time—came in very handy for running away and healing.

I cracked open one eye when there was a muffled thump near my feet. Dib had fallen face-first on the dirty floor, short and skinny arms and legs splayed out in every direction. "I'm so-o-o hungry!" he mourned, rolling around in the dead leaves and bits of tree while he made pathetic whiny noises.

"Who told you to eat all three nights' worth of your rations in one sitting‽" Wei Bo snapped, giving him an annoyed glance.

"But I was hungry then, too!" Dib threw back, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. He continued to irritably complain for several more minutes, but I closed my eyes again and inwardly sighed, ignoring him as best I could while I slowly recharged my stamina in preparation for the next run. Assuming there were no crows nearby, I had the most convenient way to escape—flying—from the shadow wolves who were never far from the berry patches, so I was the only one who went nearly every berry run. Thus I needed all of the energy I could get.

Just to make Dib be quiet, I would have given him my own food, since I wasn't going to eat it, but Wei Bo had ordered me to keep it to myself as Dib's punishment for being so "piggy."

"NO, NO! SPIT THAT OUT!"

Eyes flying open at the sudden, frantic yell, I watched, briefly feeling somewhat startled as Wei Bo repeatedly slapped Dib on the back. Frowning in renewed irritation, I gave up on attempting to rest and instead waited for the inevitable result of Dib eating the only edible thing he had—the sidus berries. Although everyone had told him over and over not to eat them, since we needed them for mana potions, he still managed to sneak one or two while we weren't looking.

Within a few seconds, Dib's skin was glowing with a pale blue light, giving the inside of the tree an even creepier look than before. The boy grinned cheekily up to Wei Bo, even more of the light pouring out through his teeth. Apparently not only were the raw berries very sour, which Dib thought was delicious—Dib seemed to think _everything_ was delicious—the sparkling, blue fruit also, for whatever ridiculous reason, made the eater glow from within like a neon light.

"Dib. You're staying behind during the next run," I quietly announced. The faintly glowing golden ring on my right hand was enough light to navigate the dark woods. Who knew what we would attract with an entire glowing person.

Dib crossed his arms and huffed, "Fine!" before flopping backward glaring up at the shadowy ceiling. "Just so hungry," he mumbled under his breath. "Nothing to eat at all. Starving to death…Stupid jerks."

Giving him a tired glance, I felt about in my pouch for a moment, then pulled out a full stamina potion. Leaning forward, I set the glass vial on top of his chest, then settled back down again. It may not have been a meal, but it still gave him the needed energy. Not that he really needed more energy, but if it calmed him down, then whatever.

He ungratefully stared at it, then finally uncorked it and grumbled, "I want to eat something solid," before popping the top of the bottle into his mouth and sucking on it. "Thanks, though," he added very unconvincingly a moment later, teeth clicking against the glass.

"You're welcome," I replied, closing my eyes again. It wasn't like the potion was gross-tasting, much like health potions. Stamina potions were quite nice. Like drinking a very invigorating glass of orange juice. But Dib, regardless of how he did like the sharp, citrus flavor, still complained. Then again, he'd been complaining about everything that night. Perhaps something happened in real life earlier that day and had soured his mood.

"Bleh! Al! AL!"

Eyes once again opening, I glared down at Dib, wondering what he wanted this time.

"Ith thtuck! Help!" he wailed, yanking on the already-empty potion bottle, which he had somehow managed to get affixed to the end of his tongue. "Get eth oth!" He stood up and stepped in my direction, his eyes watering pitifully. Sighing deeply with endless exasperation, I leaned forward and grabbed his hands, drawing them away from the attached bottle. Perhaps it was a good thing he'd eaten that berry; it gave me enough light to see what I was doing.

After one gentle tug that didn't accomplish anything, I quietly told him, "Just relax your tongue's muscles like you would any other body part," waited a few seconds for him to do it, then easily pulled the bottle off with a slight popping noise. Snatching the cork away from him, I put the empty bottle in my pouch and frowned at the tiny boy as he experimentally wiggled his tongue around. Why couldn't he just sit still and not cause trouble?

"Thanks!" he chirped, beaming at me.

Literally beaming.

"Yeah," I mumbled, quickly switching my attention to the other four. "I'm ready to go."

"We're thirty-six berries short of an even two hundred," Wei Bo informed. "We should be able to get about that many on two more runs, assuming the Pig over there doesn't decide to have another snack."

Quickly getting to my feet, I stepped toward the hole in the trunk. "Who's going with me this time?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder. We always went in shifts; one group to collect berries and one group to stay behind and kill off any crows that decided to land in our tree.

"O-o-o!" Dib jumped up and down, waving his illuminated hand in the air. "Me! Me! Pick me!"

"No! You're still glowing!" I snapped. "The wolves will arrive even faster than they already do, since you'll be completely visible, even with the fog acting as our cover! It's too dangerous for you and anyone else who goes!"

"But I'll be useful for a diversion!" he whined, stomping forward and latching onto my right leg. "While someone else goes to pick the berries, I can distract any shadow wolves that come! PLEASE, AL‽ I WANNA GO, TOO! LEMME GO-O-O! I CAN HELP! OH, PLE-E-EASE‽"

Pressing my lips together, I glanced at the others, wordlessly screaming for help while he continued to shriek his pleadings up to me. Jiū stepped forward and stopped at my side. "How about Dib and Avila-mèi go with you again while Dàsăo and I go with Dàgē to another clearing? We'll get the berries in half the time and meet back here. First group to arrive has to clear off any crows, though."

"That has nothing to do with the fact that Dib's _glowing_," I irritably pointed out.

"You have a cloak, don't you? Cover him up with that until the wolves come. And then he can, as he wants, distract them until the sidus berries are gathered. He's fast enough that he can outrun them for a little while, especially with a stat boost from Dàsăo and that entire stamina potion he just drank."

Although I was very reluctant to agree, I gave a short nod and stumbled out onto the branch, Dib still wrapped around my leg. Xiu Chen blessed everyone, then Avila hurried forward and joined us, giving a small wave to the other three as they started off in the other direction. **"As usual, keep a close eye on Twig, both of you,"** Wei Bo warned after they were out of sight. **"We can't have him dying and wandering off to some unknown place before we get to whatever city he pops out in…Stupid rebirth point at Infinity City isn't set up yet."**

**"Take good care of Jiĕjie and Dàsăo!"** Avila added.

**"Yeah, see you guys in a bit."** With that from Wei Bo, the messaging ended.

Quickly pulling the white cloak out of my pouch, I let Dib climb onto my back, then draped the cloak over us both before Avila and I noiselessly dashed out to the end of the twisting branch, jumping onto another. Since the trees were so close together, it was graciously easy to use them as a way to get around instead of walking on the much more dangerous ground.

Regulating my breathing, I kept all of my attention fixated on my feet while Avila led the way through the branches to a nearby clearing. In under five minutes, we came to a halt at the edge of the white, open space, the tell-tale dots of light shining here and there below us. Attempting to keep my fear down with the ever-repeating thought of "They're just NPCs, you won't really get hurt," I descended through the thick boughs until I had a clear path at the ground.

Landing soundlessly in the damp grass, I quickly set down Dib, made sure he wasn't visible, then pulled out my bow and ran forward with Avila. Nocking an arrow, I carefully stared about myself into the impenetrable fog, ears strained to hear any noises that weren't supposed to be there, while Avila picked the large, sparkling berries as fast as she could.

I tensed and raised my bow, turning a few degrees to my right when a series of thuds pounded through the humid air. **"Here they come,"** Dib warned. A faint blue light shone out from where I'd left him, and there was a smooth, metallic noise as he unsheathed his scimitars. The light disappeared a moment later when he ran off to distract the oncoming wolf.

Hoping that he would be okay alone, I returned my attention to Avila and watched as she ran to the final sidus bush, picking the berries so fast that the lights were a blur. My head whipped about when a low growl came from the other direction, signaling the arrival of a second wolf. Readying myself, I deftly walked backward while Avila cleared off the bush, then ran past me as fast as she could to climb one of the trees.

A muffled yell and the sounds of a battle told me the wolf had caught up with Dib, so I whirled around and ran in his direction, Avila skilfully maneuvering the tree branches above me. Leaping over a thorn bush, I gasped and slid to a halt when a hulking, shaggy mass suddenly blocked my path. Unhesitatingly raising my bow, I shot the ready arrow at the creature's black face, pulling out my wings to escape into a tree.

Before I could take off, the wolf jumped forward, jaws open impossibly wide. Ducking down and folding my wings against my back, I rolled across the ground underneath the monster and clambered to my feet, shooting another arrow into one of the wolf's back legs while I began to beat my wings, lifting myself up.

The wolf launched itself after me, latching onto my boot and pulling me back down to the ground. I landed hard on my back. Nocking another arrow, I shot it at the wolf's throat as it loomed over me, then dropped my bow and pulled out my dagger. Kicking upward with my uninjured leg, I caught the monster on the chin. While its head snapped back from the force of my kick, I got to my feet and slashed its exposed throat.

Given that the dagger was something more useful for fletching arrow shafts and cutting up food, the injury it made wasn't very deep, but it gave me enough time to pick up my bow and dart off through the tree trunks, desperate to get to Dib. With a series of harsh barks, the wolf ran after me, huge paws making the ground itself shake. Avila dropped down beside me a second later, matching my swift pace as best she could as we ran from the threat of death but a second behind us.

However, we didn't get far before a third wolf came out of nowhere, crashing into me from the left and biting down hard on one of my wings, crushing it between its drooly jaws. Screaming in pain, I landed on my side and struggled to free myself from the enormous paw pressed down on my chest.

Avila, busy engaging the other wolf in battle, shot me a fearful glance as she leapt into the air and swung her nan dao across the back of the wolf's neck, cutting much more deeply than my puny little blade had, and blood gushed out of the wound.

Gathering up all of my magic energy, I grasped the matted hair on the neck of the wolf pinning me and let loose the electricity in my twisting gold ring. A deafening, sizzling crack exploded through the air and the wolf's fur around my hand caught fire. Shrieking in pain and anger, the wolf shook itself as if trying to put out the flames, which were quickly engulfing it.

Sitting up, I took a trembling breath, lifted my bow and used my finishing move to blast a pair of arrows all the way through the wolf's neck, leaving a gaping, bloody hole. The wolf collapsed on the dark ground, burning corpse vanishing into nothing as it died. Everything turned dark again once the fire disappeared along with the deceased monster. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I struggled to my feet, watched for a moment while Avila finished off her own wolf, then I hurried forward to pick up the useful loot.

A few seconds and a mouthful of healing potion later, Avila and I were racing off in the direction we'd last heard Dib's voice. "DIB!" I yelled, my words barely carrying through the dense woods.

His incoherent reply came from somewhere to our right.

"WHAT‽" I bellowed, unable to comprehend what he'd said. Turning in the correct direction, I dashed forward, nearly tripping over another one of those dratted thorn bushes.

"Don't…there's…many!"

"I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!"

**"I SAID DON'T COME, STUPID! THERE'S TOO MANY!"** he angrily screamed over the team chat, his faint blue glow finally coming into view through the fog and trees. **"GO BACK TO THE BASE!"**

Eyes widening when I saw what he was fighting, I kept running, ignoring his order and giving a burst of speed in a want to get to him as fast as possible. A cloud of countless swirling, diving, and screeching crows filled the air, and two wolves were attacking Dib from either side. His somewhat clumsy, slow movements made it obvious that he was completely worn out. Mentally swearing at all the trouble he'd gotten himself into, I pulled out another arrow and aimed at the closest wolf's left flank while Avila continued on forward, readying her sword.

**"Is everything okay over there?"** Wei Bo asked in a very annoying, relaxed tone while the battle carried on. **"We've already collected and returned to the tree. You guys are so slow."**

**"SHUT UP!" **all three of us screamed in unison.

He said something else, but I was too focused on the fight to hear whatever it was. Frantically shooting at every monster I laid eyes on, my arrow supply depleted at an alarming rate. Once they were gone, I stuffed my bow back into my empty quiver. One of the wolves vanished and faded away, and Avila came racing back to me, the nearly unconscious, blood-covered Dib grasped in her arms. Grabbing them both once they got close, I shot us upward before the other shadow wolf could get there.

The flock of crows, however, followed us up through the trees. Beating my wings as fast and hard as I could, they nearly turned into black blurs when I flew us up, and up, and up, soon blasting through the leafy crowns of the trees, spraying leaves and broken branches all over the place. Still, they followed, thunderously squawking and cawing. Not daring to slow down or look back, I kept my focus on lifting us out of danger. The crows followed until we'd managed to leave the fog behind, slipping into the sunlight over a hundred meters above the enormous forest engulfed in white. After having been trapped in the pitch black woods all night, the sunshine was nearly blinding.

Having left the crows' preset territory, they lost interest in us and flew away.

Relief washing over me, I leveled us out and let myself glide along on a warm up-draft, then gave a glance down to Dib, who was finally no longer glowing blue. Now that it didn't matter if he was glowing or not. It figured.

I set my jaw and carefully began to fly in wide circles, slowly lowering us back down to the forest. The boy was covered in wounds, his blood pouring out all over the place. Why couldn't he have stayed behind? Or at least stayed close to Avila and I instead of playing the hero and running off, only to become the one in the most trouble? His eagerness to prove his usefulness to the team was having the opposite result.

Several minutes later, once again surrounded by fog, I landed in the "base" tree, retracted my wings and anxiously watched while Avila upended the small remainder of her last health potion into Dib's mouth. When he started to heal, I gently scooped him up and we slid down through the branches, then entered the concealed hollow. Its darkness, although still somewhat creepy, seemed much more safe and welcoming than it had before the fight.

Collapsing in exhaustion on the leaf-strewn floor, I gulped down the stale, earthy air and closed my eyes, body aching all over. A warm, yellow light pressed against my eyelids when Xiu Chen cast a strong healing spell over the three of us, erasing all of my pain.

Dib finally stirred afterward, letting out a small groan. I didn't feel like moving just yet, so I continued to lay there, arms wrapped around him. The urge to yell at him for being so stupid came to mind, but I held my tongue and didn't say anything. He'd had a hard enough time already, fending off all of those monsters until Avila and I had come to help. I didn't need to add a furious lecture about teamwork and overestimating oneself.

Right now, anyway.

Inhaling deeply, I slowly opened my eyes and glanced down at Dib. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" he mumbled, looking far grumpier than he had earlier. Smiling faintly, I ruffled his hair around and sat up. He slid off my chest and landed in my lap, a very irritable stare plastered over his bloody face. Wondering what to say to cheer him up, I quickly withdrew my handkerchief and a vial full of water out of my pouch, wet the cloth, and dabbed it over his chubby face until it was clean again. Not having nearly enough water to wash the rest of him and his armor and everything, I hoped just wiping off his face was satisfactory for the time being.

Afterward, I put the water and cloth away, gave a sneaky glance toward Wei Bo, then hastily pulled out a hunk of bread and some cheese, pressing the food into Dib's hands. Maybe he was so cranky because of the fact that over the past few days he hadn't had anything to eat other than the occasional stamina potion and forbidden sidus berry.

I stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to do something, but he didn't move. I shredded off a small piece of bread, pulled down his lower lip, and stuck the bread into his mouth.

He still didn't move, so, just to be annoying, I added in a bit of cheese, and then some more bread, then more cheese, then more bread, over and over until both of his cheeks were several times as big as they normally were, due to being crammed full of the seemingly unwanted food. After he had whined so much earlier, this reaction to finally having something to eat was completely unexpected.

Wei Bo announced that we were ready to leave, so for the moment I gave up on feeding Dib. I stowed away the rest of the food, stood, gathered Dib up in my arms, and followed the others outside. We carefully picked our way through the tree branches, not daring to walk down on the ground, where the occasional shadowy shape slipped past the tree trunks. Twenty minutes later we reached the tree line. Giving a cautious look about the dark ground and seeing nothing there, we descended, then ran for our lives away from the forest, slowing to a brisk walk only once the fog bank had been left behind and we were wearily plodding across a sunny meadow, heading in a south-east direction, picking blue-colored magus herbs as we went.

Dib, who had been laying limply in my arms the whole time, only moving to finally chew the bread and cheese I'd force-fed him, gave a long sigh, staring absently up at the sky. **"Are you mad at me?"** he quietly messaged in a PM.

**"Why would I be mad at you?"** I asked in return, knowing what he was talking about, but giving him room to vent.

**"I'm mad at me."** Another sigh escaped through his nose, then he frowned, face scrunching up in an "I mustn't cry" sort of look. **"Thought I'd be of help, but then all I did was cause more problems for you two, attracting another wolf and accidentally setting off that bunch of crows, though I was s'pose to be protecting you from danger…I shoulda stayed in the tree like you said…But I just wanted to help. I don't like it when you leave me behind."**

_"…Thought I'd be of help, but then all I did was cause more problems…"_

How many times had that same thing gone through my own head? I couldn't begin to count. Doing something I thought would be helpful, and then messing everything up and getting scolded.

And all of the things I'd wanted to hear, but had never been told…

For once, the words I wanted to say came to me very easily.

**"Well, I'm not mad at you. Concerned and a little annoyed, yes. But not mad. It's just that you were a bit of a hindrance, since you were shining,"** I admitted, smiling warmly down at him and carefully choosing my words in a want to direct the discussion in a way that spoke not of the negative mistakes he'd made, but of the positive things he'd actually accomplished. **"But you were also helpful for defending Avila while she gathered the berries. And you were very impressive, fighting two shadow wolves and a million crows all at once and somehow surviving. I had enough trouble with one wolf to deal with.**

"**However," **I added, briefly looking stern, **"just because you're so skilled at fighting doesn't mean you should run off by yourself, like you can handle anything and everything alone. The reason you're on a team is to stay close to us to offer support and, in turn, receive it. Even if running away was to distract the wolf, it would have been killed easier and quicker if all three of us fought it at once."**

Dib's initial look of depression disappeared into one of slight amusement. **"Throwing all that stuff I've told you before back in my face, huh? Letting other people help you when you need it…"** He suddenly scrambled upward, lifting himself out of my arms, and hugged me around the neck. **"Sorry. I'll be sure to remember next time."**

**"Okay,"** I murmured, giving him a comforting squeeze.

**"Thanks, Al."** With one last tiny sigh, he fell silent for several minutes while we all continued to tromp along through the tall grass, the others still hurrying to and fro to pick the needed herbs, which frequently poked up through the grass in random spots.

**"Hey,"** Dib added, leaning away from me, his pitiful stare back at full force, **"may I have the rest of that food?"**

Laughing slightly, I quickly shifted him to the side so I could support him with one arm, then pulled out the food and handed it over. Wei Bo noticed my breaching of orders, of course, but thankfully didn't make a fuss about it. Dib grinned happily and began munching on the block of cheese, leaning against my shoulder and looking much cheerier than he had all night. Glad that I'd been of some use in perking him up, I quickened my pace and tilted my head back to stare up at the puffy clouds floating past in the bright blue sky.

An hour later we reached our destination—some partially built city swarming with construction workers. The other four led me into a house near the southern gate, and I gave a sweeping look about the empty, high-ceilinged hall. Only two people were there at the moment; a magician-looking woman and a huge beastman dressed in robes.

Wei Bo stomped up to the pair and dropped the two bags he'd been carrying. One full of the sidus berries, the other full of magus herbs. "Thanks for sending us to that wonderful forest, Yu Lian," he sarcastically remarked, glaring at the woman. "I hope two hundred mana potions will be enough, because we're definitely not going back there to get anymore ingredients."

My eyes widened slightly while I watched Yu Lian peek into the bags, a satisfied grin quirking at her lips.

So that was the person who'd sent us to that horrible place…

"This is fine for now," she agreed, "although we will most likely have to buy more potions later, if you're unwilling to go back."

"Very unwilling," Avila grumbled, crossing her arms and shaking her head, causing her long ponytail to swing to and fro. "That forest is a complete nightmare."

"Ah, well. This saves us a little money, anyway." The woman gave a small sigh, then looked up to me. "Aeolus," she called, patting one hand on a crate that was placed beside her, "in here are the vials. If you have nothing else to do, please start mixing the potions now. There is a well outside that you can use to get water."

"Oh," I breathed. "…Okay." Setting Dib on the floor, I picked up the crate of empty bottles and went outside, my teammates following along behind with the bags of ingredients as I hurried toward the well near the house. Soon we had a small assembly line formed; Avila drew water from the well, Jiū filled each bottle halfway with the water, I stuffed the bottles with magus herbs and sidus berry juice—Dib was more than happy to eat the leftover berry pulp—Dib corked up the bottles, Wei Bo shook the bottles to mix the ingredients together, and Xiu Chen put the finished mana potions back into the crate.

While I carefully squeezed one of the berries, pouring the bright blue juice into the narrow bottleneck, I curiously ran my eyes over the partially built city wall, the people laying bricks and mortar, and the somewhat out-of-place group of skeletons marching back and forth, helping the players with the construction.

I wanted to ask where we were, but assumed that I'd already done that at some point, so I kept all of the inquiries to myself and simply went along with what the other five were doing, since they probably already knew what was going on. Letting my mind wander, my hands moved nearly by themselves as I took the offered bottle of water, stuffed in the herbs, poured in the berry juice, gave Dib the squished berry to eat and the bottle for him to put the cork in, repeating the process over, and over, and over.

"Wow, you guys managed to get a lot," a weirdly familiar, deep voice suddenly observed some amount of time after we'd started working. "I bet Yu Lian is pleased." A shadow briefly fell over me, then disappeared when someone crouched down at my side, picked up a waiting bottle of water, and then started inserting the ingredients. My eyes traveled from the person's hand, up the fluffy-cuffed, purple sleeve, and to the face of…

Inadvertently, I screamed and almost fell over, causing my entire team to also yell in surprise.

"What‽ What happened‽ What's wrong‽" Wei Bo snapped, glancing at me in fright, then jumping to his feet and wildly looking around as if expecting to see a monster. It seemed we were all still extremely twitchy after being in that forest for so long.

Startled at my outburst, Gui tightly gripped the vial in his hands and questioningly stared at me. "What in the world are you yelling for, Zian?"

"Wha-what…‽ Where did you come from‽" I demanded, leaning away from him in terror and panic, my face going very pale. What was he doing here? He also played this game? Why didn't anyone warn me? They _must_ have known.

"Over there," Gui flatly explained, pointing a finger toward the part of the wall that was currently being worked on. "I noticed you all had returned from the forest, so I thought I'd come over and say hello."

"Oh." Face flushing in embarrassment over my reaction to his appearance, I started staring at the ground, no less terrified than before. Judging by how no one else seemed surprised in the slightest over his arrival, my team had indeed known that he was here. Why hadn't they warned me? Why, why, why…I'd had no time at all to prepare myself for this abrupt and completely unforeseen reunion. Not that I wasn't happy in some way or another to see my brother, but still…

"Oops," Xiu Chen said, glancing up and pausing in her work. "We didn't fill him in yet tonight, did we? Sorry, Gēge."

Wei Bo's face took on a very angry turn and he leaned over Dib, then roughly punched the top of my head. "DON'T YELL LIKE THAT IF THERE'S NOTHING WRONG, YOU MORON!"

Eyes watering with the pain, I glared up at him and rubbed the spot where he'd hit me. He hadn't used nearly all of his strength, but it still hurt quite a bit. "It wasn't on purpose!"

Dib leapt to his feet and began ferociously kicking Wei Bo's leg. "YOU JERK! DON'T HIT AL!"

To counter the halfling's attacks, Wei Bo simply grabbed the back of Dib's top and held him up in the air, out at arm's length. Dib flailed around, struggling to get free while he shouted empty threats about how much Wei Bo was going to regret what he was doing.

Xiu Chen cast a minor healing spell on me, eliminating the dull throbbing, and I murmured a "Thank you," to her before returning my attention to the bottles I was supposed to be filling. However, with Dib and Wei Bo dueling one another at my right and Gui sitting at my left, it was extremely difficult to focus, even on such a simple task.

"H-hey," Gui cautiously said, eyes darting between the fight and the house behind us, "you guys should probably stop…right now. Guys? Hey! Hey, stop!"

Either the pair couldn't hear him over the noise they were making, or they simply ignored him, because they kept on like he hadn't said anything at all. However, when quiet footsteps approached, they finally froze, looking in the same direction Gui had been. Glancing behind myself, my eyes widened in slight fear when I saw who was coming.

I'd thought my father was the only person who could make such a scary face.

Yu Lian gave an icy smile to the two warriors and sweetly inquired, "You two, are all of the potions finished?" although, given that all around us there were unfinished potions, ingredients, and bottles littering the short-cropped grass, it was obvious that we were far from done.

"No," they both quietly admitted, all traces of the heated argument gone.

"Then stop wasting time and get back to work!" Eyes as sharp as her tone, she turned around and marched sternly back into the house, leaving the doors wide open probably so she could keep an eye on us. Letting out the breath I'd been unintentionally holding, I quickly went back to work, not at all wanting to get a scolding as well.

"I'd better get back to my own work before she yells at me, too," Gui mumbled, standing as Dib and Wei Bo sat back down in their respective places. I flinched and leaned to one side when Gui's hand suddenly patted my shoulder. Staring up at him, I watched as he took back his hand, looking startled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you again."

"No," I breathed, feeling somewhat foolish. "I just, um, thought you were going to hit me…or something."

An incredulous look fell over his face. "Why would I hit you?"

"Why wouldn't you? After what…what I did…" I quietly returned, dropping my eyes back to the line of vials. With as angry as I assumed he was with me, I wouldn't have been surprised if he lashed out at me verbally or physically at any given moment. Although he did look bizarrely calm, which was as unexpected as his presence here. He'd even helped make a few potions.

Gui was quiet for nearly a minute, simply watching the potion-making process, then patted my shoulder again. I jumped just as fearfully as before. "Come with me for a bit."

Mouth opening and closing several times, I glanced up at him, then back down at the potions, both wanting and not wanting to agree. "But, but I have…to–"

Wei Bo slapped my back. "Go ahead. Our end of the work got backed up, thanks to the brat–"

"Shut up!" Dib snapped, huffily cramming corks into the top of the potion bottles.

"–so you have some time before we catch up."

Although that didn't eliminate the looming threat of Yu Lian the Slave Driver, I shakily and reluctantly stood up and followed Gui a few meters away. "Three nights ago," Gui quietly began, giving me a careful glance, "you and I talked about things from, well, back _then_. Do you remember?"

Freezing briefly with surprise, I slowly shook my head. "No," I whispered and his face stiffened. "I…I remember tonight, some of this afternoon, scattered bits of this morning…and then there's nothing since July. I'm sorry, this feels like the first time I've been here, the first time I've met those people in the house…and the first time I've seen you since…before."

He fell silent for a while longer, looking rather pale, then murmured, "Oh…I see. That's…that's got to be annoying, not knowing what's going on all the time."

I smiled faintly and gave a small shrug. "Yeah, it is. But they've all been really patient." I waved a hand toward my teammates. "Explaining everything in real life and here in-game, probably every day."

"You see them a lot?" he asked. "In real life, I mean."

"Oh, yes. Dib aside, we all live together," I explained, "so I see them whenever they're not at school or work. Apparently Father sent me to live at their house after I got injured."

Gui suddenly looked a bit angry and I quickly shut my mouth, wondering if I'd said something wrong. A moment later, that anger turned into an extremely pouty frown. "Living with your teammates…that's gotta be fun. I know Ugly Wolf—that beastman inside the house. We work together, but I'd like…like to know certain others." Then he sighed the heaviest sigh I'd ever heard, looking very distraught.

But he perked up almost immediately and vaguely waved a hand through the air. "Well, this is Infinite City. My teammates and I won the land in a contest a few weeks ago, and we've been here, building it up since then, while Prince—the city lord—is gone, recruiting people. Or he was, anyway, he's kind of…Well, he'll be back soon. I hope." Gui let out another sigh, almost as heavy as the last, and his shoulders sagged.

"Anyway," he added, not bothering to try to hide his gloominess, "back to my point. You and I already talked about that stuff, explained things…and you apologized, so um, just so you know. So you don't have to be so jumpy. I'm not going to attack you or anything."

Feeling embarrassed again, I gave a short, jerky nod, although I had the suspicion that, even if I could remember our talk, I would still be nervous around him for a long time yet. Relieved that he wasn't being malicious, or course, but still very nervous.

"Well, I'll let you get back to your potions before Yu Lian gets mad. Bye," he said, slowly backing away toward the wall, smiling amiably. That was a look that I hadn't seen him wear around me since we were kids. I thought I would never see it again. All of my views about the situation between he and I were suddenly turned upside down, making me feel unsettled and confused.

"Bye." I gave a small wave when he turned around and hurried off. I stood still for a few seconds, basking in the bubbly warmth that was seeping over me, then walked back to my teammates and sat down in my place, quickly returning to what I'd been doing earlier. Though I gave it a few half-hearted attempts, I couldn't manage to erase my wide smile.


	35. Insensitivities

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Walking quietly down the sunny hallway, I listened intently for the sound of any footsteps nearby. I had long-since begun to make it a game to see how long I could go without being seen by any of the house staff or the Lin family, assuming they were home, which at the moment no one was. The three women were all at school, Delun and his parents were at work. Even Shuang was away at her daycare, leaving me as the lone resident of the house, aside from the house staff bustling about their daily chores.<p>

Having nothing at all better to do, I'd taken to wandering the halls as quietly as I possibly could.

This morning, however, I did actually have a destination rather than wandering aimlessly as I had so many times before while searching for my captive car keys and wallet—a quest I'd given up on after I'd spotted my keys attached to Delun's—and mapping out the house's layout on a page in my very helpful "memory notebook."

After taking one last turn, I hurried to the end of the connecting hallway, gave a glance behind myself, then slipped into the door on my left, shutting it softly behind myself and taking a deep breath of the somewhat musty air of the dark room. A small smile quirked at my mouth as I stepped over to the black filing cabinets set in the far corner, then slid open the drawer labeled _Piano_. Quickly flicking through the tabbed sections, I pulled out a worn, thin book, then hurried over to the shiny black piano near one of the tall, heavily curtained windows.

Once I'd given myself enough light by drawing back the thick fabric of the green drapes, I sat myself down on the cushioned piano bench and flipped open the score I'd placed on the piano's music stand, then ran my eyes over the scattered notes dotting the first page. It had been years and years since I'd last played the piano. I certainly enjoyed the beautiful music itself, but I'd had basically no time for it around my "more important" studies, and had eventually given it up. I wasn't sure what the reason for forcing me to play in the first place had been—perhaps my father wanted me to be more "classy" or something—but apparently it wasn't crucial.

However, now that I was bored out of my mind every single day, I figured playing around in the music room would be a good way to pass the time until everyone was home again in the late afternoon. The door hadn't been locked, so I assumed I wouldn't get in trouble for being there.

Playing with one hand was annoying, but I still quickly became immersed in the music, mentally inserting the instruments of an entire orchestra so it sounded better, if only in my head.

Some amount of time later, I jumped slightly when the door clicked open behind me. Giving a scared look over my shoulder, I sighed and relaxed when Heng came inside and waved a hand in greeting. "Every single day," he mused, striding forward once he'd shut the door, "it's always an adventure, trying to find where you've gone. But, lucky for me, one of the maids said she'd spotted you sneaking around the hallways, heading in this direction."

Damn. I'd been seen.

Heng flopped himself down in the overly stuffed green armchair beside the piano and gave me a curious look. "I didn't know you could play the piano."

"I can," I mumbled needlessly, feeling a bit nervous now that I had an audience.

He leaned forward to look at the score. "What're you playing? It sounded nice. I was listening through the door for a while."

"The second movement of Dvořák's ninth symphony." How could it have possibly sounded nice? My skills were extremely rusty and I could only play the right hand's notes. Maybe he was just being polite.

"Ah, yes. That one. Hm," he hummed, nodding seriously. "…Never heard of it." I paused and gave him a blank look when he stood up, smiling in amusement. "Scoot over a bit. I wanna try."

Eyes widening in surprise, I moved to one end of the piano bench, allowing him room to sit. "You know how to play?"

"Nope, I've never played any instrument before," he denied, laughing. "Never had the time." He flipped to the score's first page, stared hard at the notes, then asked, "What's that first key?"

"The first portion of the second movement is in the key of D-flat major," I informed, glancing sideways at him. The key was printed right there on the top of the page. Why did he even need to ask?

"No, I mean…" He paused and pointed a finger at the first set of notes. "The first key. Which one is that?"

"That's a chord, not a key," I corrected, frowning in confusion.

He gave me an extremely tired look, then roughly prodded one of the white piano keys. "The key! _Keys_! These thingies! Piano keys! What one do I press‽"

"Oh. Those…" Feeling a bit silly for misunderstanding—I supposed I should have known he didn't know many musical terms—I took his hand, arranged his fingers into the proper position over the correct keys, then pressed down. The pretty notes rang out in the room and he looked very pleased with himself. "Those ones," I said, smiling faintly.

Heng chuckled and began dramatically playing a mess of nonsense, movements completely exaggerated. I watched his bizarre performance for a moment, then looked back to the music and sighed, wondering if my music session was done now that he'd taken over the piano. Several minutes later, he leaned to one side, halting his hands and letting the last clashing notes fade out, and then sighed contentedly as he got to his feet and bowed deeply. "Bravo, bravo. I am a musical genius."

Barely managing to keep myself from snorting, I hastily turned it into a cough and rubbed at my mouth, feeling my face heat up from the suppressed humor. He was so weird…Much different than he had acted at the office, back when he worked there.

Work…

I gave him a wondering glance while he hurried to the door. A maid had arrived, carrying a tea tray. He took it from her, gave a "Thank you!" and marched back over to me, sliding the tray onto the small table next to the armchair. "Meds." He sat down, then held out a glass of water and another one of those large, white capsules I was supposed to take every day. The antibiotics for my arm had run out and the pain killers weren't necessary anymore, so I had reduced my daily medicine to one pill. The pill of an unknown purpose. I still had no idea why the doctor had told everyone that I'd always been taking them…

Quickly downing it, I traded the glass of water for a cup of tea and sighed while Heng started munching on a cookie from the plate beside the teapot. "Heng," I quietly called, eyebrows lowering slightly. "Why are you here?"

A worried look slipping over his face, he slowly chewed on his bite of cookie, swallowed, then asked, "Did you forget me again? I thought it was getting better…I'm your best friend, remember?"

"No, I didn't forget you. For the most part." It had been nearly a month since my accident and my head had healed enough that I wasn't so forgetful. At least with the big things. Small things sometimes did slip through the cracks and I still couldn't remember those missing four months. However…

"That isn't what I'm asking. I know we're friends, but why are you here?"

"To visit you," he answered simply, finishing off the cookie.

"You come every day. Surely your friends don't need to be checked up on that often, do they?"

Lips pressed together, his face turned slightly pink. "You're a special case…"

"Special case or not, why are you here?"

"I just answered you! You're my best friend!"

"Being friends isn't the point," I sighed, setting down my teacup. Straightening, I stared sternly at him. "What time is it?"

"Around half past ten, I think."

"Exactly," I affirmed. "So why are you _here_?"

In bewilderment, he paused, a second cookie halfway to his mouth. "What does the time have to do with it?"

"It has everything to do with it!" I snapped in frustration. "Why are you _here_ instead of at _work_‽ Are you playing hooky or something‽" When he frowned and opened his mouth again, I cut in, "And don't tell me again that you got fired from my father's company. I remember that. However, you said you have a new job at a daycare."

"O-o-oh," he breathed, realization finally dawning. "Geeze, you're so confusing…I'm not actually working yet, though I do have the job. I asked the boss there not to schedule me until you're better."

Feeling somewhat angry at his reason, I drank down the rest of my tea and glared at him. "From tomorrow onward, don't come here unless it's during your free time or an emergency. I don't want you using me as an excuse to skip out on work."

"What‽ I'm not doing that!" he yelled, looking extremely offended. "I'm just worried about you! You almost died! Even if you're a bit better now, you–"

"I'm fine now," I interrupted. "You don't have to check up on me every day. We see one another every night in _Second Life_, anyway. If you're worried about something, ask me about it then. Or call." Refilling my teacup, I sighed softly and gave him another tiny glance as I sat back down. He looked very grumpy and was crumbling his cookie into tiny pieces. Perhaps I'd been too harsh, but it bothered me that he wasn't taking his situation seriously. Every day spent visiting me he could have been at work, earning money to support himself and his brothers.

"It's not that I'm asking you to stop coming permanently, or that I don't enjoy your visits," I murmured, staring down at the wavering surface of my steaming drink, "because I do quite a bit. It's very kind of you to come and see me so often. But I just want you to put your responsibilities at a higher level of importance, okay?"

Heng was quiet for several minutes, but his face relaxed and he ate the crumbs of his mutilated cookie. "Yeah, okay. Sorry. I wasn't really…thinking about it, with as worried about you that I've been." He frowned again, this time with embarrassment, and mumbled, "I'll call my boss tonight."

Smiling in relief, I nodded and turned myself about on the bench, refocusing my attention to the piano. Flipping the score back to where I had been before Heng interrupted me, I gently pressed down the keys, playing quietly enough that any conversation would be able to continue easily.

"Does Gui know how to play the piano as well?" Heng asked. "He's got that guqin thing…"

Laughing in amusement, I shook my head. "Unless he has taken lessons at some point after he left home, he doesn't know how. The first time we both had piano lessons, he took one look at the score, then ran from the room and hid for the rest of the day. Our tutor and a few of the maids spent several hours looking for him, but he didn't appear again until dinnertime. I was the only one who wanted to learn."

When we were children, whenever something popped up that Gui Wen didn't want to do, he had always hidden himself away—usually in the attic, where he had somehow managed to relocate a floor lamp, two armchairs, and a large number of books taken from the library—it was all probably still up there, for all I knew. That incident was one of the few times our father had scolded him. However, he hadn't pressed the matter and had let Gui Wen drop the piano lessons. His skill with the guqin was probably self-taught.

Heng chuckled and leaned back in his chair, smirking. "I see. Do you play a lot?"

"No," I replied, "I gave it up years and years ago to make more time for school."

"You could take it up again now," he suggested. "You've got plenty of time on your hands."

"No," I repeated, staring gloomily down at the black and white stripes. "It's impossible."

He was silent for a moment, quirking an eyebrow, then observed, "But it seems like you've still got the hang of it, even if you haven't played in so long. Why can't you?"

Giving him an incredulous glance, I paused in my playing and used my hand to point at the obvious lump under my coat, showing where my cast was resting against my chest. "Because my arm is broken, of course. How do you expect me to play seriously with only one hand?"

"Oh, right." Sighing, he took a bit of time to drink his tea. "Well, you could always take it up again after your cast is off."

"That's not possible either."

He opened his mouth to say something, closed it and seemed to be thinking, then finally said, "You and your weird brain…Seeing how great my attempts have gone so far, I'm not even going to try to guess your reasons again, so please, explain."

Running a finger over the smooth, cold surface of the piano keys, I watched the steam roil off my tea, which I'd perched on top of the piano. "After my cast is removed, I'm going to ask my father if I may return home. I'll be able to work again, so…maybe he'll agree. If he does, I won't have time to play anymore. That's why it's not possible," I quietly ended.

There was a rustling when Heng leaned forward, propping his chin up on clasped hands, eyes darting about the wall. Several minutes went by in tense silence. "Why can't…" he started, moving his gaze to me. His curious tone didn't match the anger in his eyes at all. "I know you'll be going back to work once you're all healed, but why can't you just commute from here? I don't understand why you want to go back there when you know that things like this will just happen again. Maybe not as bad as this, but they'll still happen."

"Well, commuting from here is one option, yes," I reluctantly agreed, "but I still want to go home. Even if he hurts me again. I can put up with it. I don't want to leave him alone."

"Why‽" Heng demanded sharply. "Because Gui left him already‽ You think he'll feel all sad and abandoned if you're gone, too‽"

Anger suddenly rising, I glanced at him, then went back to staring at my tea, not really seeing it anymore. "No, I…No, he wouldn't. I suppose he's happier now that I'm not there…"

"You have this great opportunity to live away from him, to live somewhere where he can't hurt you, to live with people who actually care about you, yet you still want to go back in that hell hole…HE THREW YOU AWAY!" Heng abruptly bellowed, slamming a fist down on his chair's armrest and making me flinch. "IF HE WANTED YOU THERE, THAT'S WHERE YOU'D BE! SO WHY'RE YOU SO EAGER TO GO BACK TO SOMEONE WHO HATES YOU‽"

Trembling, I fought to keep my breath as my eyes started to water at his stabbing words. Face burning, I carefully closed the piano, picked up the score and stood, walking over to the filing cabinet to return it. Turning back around once the music was put away, I miserably stared at Heng, the uncontrollable tears rolling down my face. Furiously rubbing them away, I coldly said, "I know perfectly well that he doesn't want me, Heng…The way he feels about me is completely obvious." Taking a shuddering breath, I walked toward the door. "But just because it's obvious doesn't mean you have to throw it in my face, with no consideration at all for how I'll take it."

As I swung open the door, he stood up. "W-wait, Al. Wait! I didn't mean to say it like that!"

I ignored him and left the room, carefully shutting the door behind myself. Quickly striding along the hallway, I gritted my teeth and gave another hard rub to my eyes, trying and failing to stop my crying. Turning the corner at the end of the hall, I ran into someone.

"Wha!"

Taking several steps back, I dropped my hand and stared down at the unexpected Jiao. "Sorry," I whispered. "I wasn't looking where I was going." She was home very early. Usually her classes didn't let out until noon, and then she still didn't get home until a few hours after that. Probably spent time studying at the university or something like that.

"It's okay," she assured, straightening her white bag's strap on her shoulder, then looking up, eyes widening. "Oh, Zian…what's wrong?"

Sniffing, I shook my head and wiped my face on my sleeve again, feeling embarrassed.

She was quiet a moment, simply looking up at me in concern, then she suddenly grabbed my arm and started dragging me down the hall, going in the opposite direction from the guest room. "Come with me for a bit," she requested, smiling brightly up at me. I had nothing to do again now that I didn't want to go back to the music room, so I didn't disagree.

Jiao led me to Delun and Chen's bedroom, fished around in Delun's clothes and pulled out a sweater and a pair of sweatpants. Then she took my arm and took me to her room, where she collected some more clothes. And then she took me downstairs, through a few more hallways and rooms, then opened a door I'd never really noticed before. There was a set of stairs leading down.

"The basement?" I asked, confused.

"Yep!" Flicking on a light switch, she pulled me down the stairs. There was a storage sort of room at the bottom, but she didn't stop, and instead led me over to another door. She opened it to reveal a large room with a padded floor. We stepped inside, Jiao turned on the light and I curiously glanced about the complicated-looking exercise equipment, hanging punching bag thing, weights, and also the small refrigerator in one corner next to some yellow reclining chairs.

"More specifically," Jiao added, "the work-out room. My siblings and I have been taking self-defense lessons down here since we were kids. Although now we just sort of mess around whenever we feel like it." She suddenly thrust Delun's clothes at me. "Here, change into these. There's a bathroom through that door over there."

I glanced at the clothes, then at the door across the room, then at Jiao. "Won't Delun be angry that I'm wearing his clothing without permission?"

A mischievous grin spread over her face and gave me a shove. "Not if he doesn't find out. Now go change."

"I don't know…" I murmured, feeling reluctant to have Delun get all huffy with me if he did find out. I'd argued more than enough today.

"Go change!" she snapped, pushing me again.

"You certainly are bossy," I remarked in irritation, glancing at her over my shoulder.

"I said change!" she ordered, simply reinforcing my words.

Sighing in resignation, I finally obeyed. After I'd changed, she'd helped me put my sling back on, and she'd changed, she placed me beside the punching bag. "Okay, now just punch it. It's really good for stress relief, and you've been looking really stressed lately."

"Yes, well, that's what happens when a person gets locked up in a house for a month." Being unable to leave had made me extremely antsy. Not only because I had so little to occupy myself with, but also because it brought back all those years I'd been unable to leave my father's house. Constantly shut away…I hated it.

"You can come down here whenever you want," she offered. Taking the punching bag in both hands, she peered around the edge and said, "You're so weak, I don't know if you'll even be able to move the bag, but I'll hold it just in case, so go ahead and let loose whenever you're ready!"

I blankly stared at her for a moment, processing the insult. "Oh, thank you." Looking back to the bag, I took a deep breath, attempting to gather together my combat skills that came to me so easily while I was Aeolus. I balled my hand into a fist and punched the bag as hard as I could. As Jiao had predicted, the bag barely moved at all. If at all. My hand seemed to have taken the majority of the damage.

"Ow…! That hurt!" I exclaimed somewhat indignantly, staring down at my reddening knuckles. I had been expecting the bag to be squishy, but it barely had any give at all.

"What, did you think the bag was full of sponges?" she asked, smirking faintly as she walked over to me. After adjusting my stance, she returned to where she'd been. Patting her hands on either side of the bag, she ordered, "Again, you wimp! Take the pain like a _man_!"

"I may be a _man_," I agreed, punching the bag again, "but I am not _Gui Wen_." Apparently he enjoyed getting beaten, if only by one person in particular. Although I hadn't met that Prince person—at least, not that I could remember—I'd heard many stories about Gui Wen's obsession with him, and how the elf seemed to enjoy beating him up any chance he got. Those thoughts only added to my bad mood.

Hissing in discomfort, I gave another glance to my knuckles before throwing another punch. "I don't like pain. It hurts."

"Okay, you dainty little flower," Jiao cooed. "I think I felt the bag move that time. Good job!"

Feeling all the more annoyed, I punched again. And again, and again, and again. She was probably riling me up on purpose, but I had a lot of anger at the moment even without her mean words, so it was easy to focus. Although it did hurt quite a bit, it felt nice to hit something, without reserve, without hurting anyone or anything in the process. Well, except for my fist.

I was definitely going to spend a lot of time down here in the future.

As time slowly passed, Heng's sharp words kept repeating themselves over and over in my mind, driving my fist harder and harder against the punching bag as I let out all of my furious energy that I'd been bottling up.

_"He threw you away…He threw you away…He threw you away…"_

He threw me away.

Baring my teeth, I gave one last raging punch, then flopped down on the squishy floor, chest heaving from the rigorous physical movement I wasn't used to, and from the tears once again pouring down my face. Giving a silent apology to Delun, I wiped my face off on his sweater's sleeve, staring down at the blurry floor and sobbing. I felt Jiao sit down beside me and she put an arm around my shoulders, gently hugging me, not saying anything, simply waiting until I'd let it all out.

I hated being so weak. So useless. So invisible. So lonely.

"What happened?" Jiao whispered once I'd managed to get a bit of my control back.

Rubbing the soggy sweater sleeve over my face one last time, I inhaled deeply and frowned down at the floor. "Heng…well, he came over, as usual, and…he pointed out some things that I've been trying to overlook, I guess. Reasons why my father sent me here, other than my injuries…Things I didn't want to hear.

"And I just…I don't know what to do anymore."

"Why do you _need_ to have something to do?" she slowly asked. "I would think most people would be relieved, having so much free time at their disposal."

"I don't feel relieved," I snapped. "I feel useless. Every single day, doing absolutely nothing but sit around, taking up space. I hate it."

She hummed for a moment, rubbing my back, then furthered, "Well, what did you do in your free time before?"

"I never _had_ free time. I was always working."

"Huh, that sounds busy," she remarked. "But I guess that's why you feel so frustrated with your idleness. You're just not used to living so leisurely…Well, things you were doing aside, did you ever have things you wanted to do, but couldn't?"

"I don't know," I mumbled after a pause. "I've never thought about it before." Everything in my life had always been centered around my responsibilities; tutoring lessons when I was younger, university classes after that, and now work at the office. I'd never had the time to pursue pointless hobbies. They were simply a waste of time. Time that could be used for something much more productive.

It was what my father had always expected of me, so that was what I did. Having so much time to myself only made me feel lost and anxious.

Jiao suddenly slapped my back very, very hard. Why did everyone always slap me?

"Up you get!" she ordered cheerily, yanking on my right arm as she stood up. "Go take a shower, and then meet me by the front door in an hour. Dàsăo should be back by then from picking up Shuang-mèi. Our afternoon lecture was canceled, so we have the rest of the day to waste. Let's go get ice cream with them and we can come up with some things for you to do while everyone's at school and work."

"It's December. I don't want ice cream, I'll freeze," I grumbled, unsteadily standing up. I'd freeze after eating ice cream during any other month as well, probably.

"Fine. We'll get you some hot tea instead."

Sighing softly, I gave her a wondering glance. "Is Heng invited as well?"

"Do you want him to be invited?" she asked.

"No, not particularly," I mumbled. I was still very mad at him, and didn't want to see him again for a while, though it was kind of unavoidable, given that we were teammates in _Second Life_…But just because we were teammates in a game didn't mean we had to be around one another in real life as well.

"Then he may come with us on the _next_ outing," Jiao added, smiling faintly in understanding. Feeling a bit better in some selfish way now that I knew that he wasn't going to be there, I nodded, took my clothes from her, and followed her out the door, relieved simply to be able to get out of the house for a while.

* * *

><p><em>Chapter theme song! :o Fight Inside by Red.<em>

_Enemy, familiar friend, my beginning and my end.  
>Knowing truth, whispering lies, and it hurts again.<br>What I fear and what I try, the words I say and what I hide.  
>All the pain, I want it to end, but I want it again.<em>

_It's still the same, pursuing pain isn't worth the light I've gained.  
>We both know how this will end, but I do it again.<em>

_And it finds me, the fight inside is coursing through my veins.  
>And it's raging, the fight inside is hurting me again.<br>And it finds me, the war within me pulls me under.  
>And without you, the fight inside is breaking me again.<em>

_It's nothing.  
>It's everything…<em>


	36. Rising and Falling Mood

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>It was turning out to be one of <em>those <em>days. The sort of day where every little thing seems to go wrong all at once. And because of the fact that I was in a bad mood already, the little problems seemed a lot more irritating than they normally would.

The shower decided to douse me with cold water.

I got soap in my eyes.

My warmest coat was in the wash.

My right glove—the only one I could wear—was missing.

I somehow managed to forget to open the guest room's door before I attempted to walk through it.

I stubbed my toe on the banister while I was going downstairs.

My hand got pinched in the seat belt in the car Chen, Jiao, Shuang and I were riding in.

I realized after we were already out on the road that I forgot my scarf, so my neck was very cold.

Regardless of my protests, Shuang decided that I wanted ice cream, making me even colder.

I burned my mouth trying to drink my tea too fast in a want to warm up.

Shuang wanted to go to the park after we had ice cream, and there I clobbered myself a second time on the playground equipment. Naturally, it was on the same spot that I hit myself with the door earlier. I had always been very clumsy as a child, but I thought I'd gotten over my awkwardness. It seemed that I was having a relapse today.

Sitting very rigidly on the bench placed at the border of the playground area, I attempted to stop glaring at nothing while I drank the rest of my cooled tea, feeling very irritated all the way from my aching head down to my aching toe. Even my left arm was starting to hurt, although nothing at all had happened to it. Though, given my track record for accidents today, I wouldn't have been surprised if something happened to it later. But the cast was so thick, to the point of not even fitting into most of my clothes' sleeves, it would probably take a very spectacular accident to hurt it.

Not wanting to jinx myself, I quickly shifted my attention from my aches and grumbles to Chen as she tiredly walked over and flopped herself down beside me on the bench. "Oh, goodness," she sighed, stretching out her legs and partially unzipping her thin, blue jacket. "Shuang always manages to have so much more energy than I do."

"At least you lasted longer than I did," I told her, forcing myself to smile faintly while I watched Jiao and Shuang crawl into a plastic tunnel. I had barely been running for five minutes before I'd been completely out of breath. I was far more out of shape than I'd thought. Although I had been eating a "normal amount" for every meal the past month, and had thickened up a bit, simply walking around the house didn't really give me much exercise, thus the other three easily out-paced me.

"Well, I try." She laughed and smiled warmly at her daughter. "Parents only have a little while before their children grow up and become independent. It seems like such a long time at first, but the years really go by so fast. She's already four, but it feels like a small fraction of that."

I slowly nodded, eyes following the tiny girl, then gave a surprised glance at Chen. She and Delun certainly hadn't wasted any time starting a family. She was only three years younger than I was, meaning she had only been seventeen when she'd given birth to Shuang, and I assumed she'd already been married to Delun at the time…They probably hadn't even been out of high school yet. I couldn't imagine having children at eighteen like Delun had.

Feeling a bit curious, and also wanting to keep my mind off other things, I asked her about it.

Chen laughed again, blushing a little. "Ah, yeah…we married really young. As soon as we could, actually. But we'd been dating for forever, so we didn't really see any point in waiting. Our families live really close to one another, so we've known each other since before we were even out of diapers."

Delun in diapers…somehow, that sounded absurd.

Tapping a finger on the top of the lid of my tea, I sighed and shook my head. "You both definitely have my respect for being able to handle a child _and_ your studies. I'm already out of school, yet even now the thought of having a child is somewhat frightening." Even the thought of being married was a bit daunting. I couldn't even take care of myself. How was I supposed to take care of a whole other person? Not that Jiao was incapable of handing herself, but still…

Chen gave a pat to my shoulder, smiling encouragingly. "I'm sure when the times comes, you'll be a wonderful father."

I gave a somewhat hollow laugh, rubbing at my eyes. "I'm not so sure about that," I whispered. Simply observing how Jiao interacted with Shuang, it was obvious she would be a good mother. But me, a good father? The image wouldn't come to mind. I already knew that children turned out to be similar to their parents, and that was a horrible thought.

When I tried to imagine myself being different from my own father, I wondered if it was even possible. I certainly didn't _want_ to be like him, but I still found many affinities between he and I. My impatience with other people, my rather short temper, my ceaseless work ethic that I get angry over if anything becomes muddled…Would I have enough control over myself to be a father my children would need? One they would want? What if I made a mistake and they came to hate me like Gui Wen hated our father?

Hopefully, I wouldn't have any children for several years yet, but that last thought made me scared all the same. Being such an unlikable person that my own children would run away from me and never come back.

"I bet you will," Chen assured confidently. "You just have to start off with a simple decision; 'I will be a good parent.' It's not at all easy. Just look at Delun; he's so gruff and cranky all the time, but he still keeps careful hold on himself to be a good daddy. The effort is definitely worth it.

"And anyway," she added, giving my shoulder another pat, "you're already getting in some practice with Dib! You're very gentle with him."

_Gentle_. The word almost made me laugh. Just the other night, I'd punched him for crying too much after Doll stole one of the snacks he'd left laying around. I'd told him over and over that I'd get him more food, but he'd relentlessly demanded that I go scold Doll for it, which I had, but apparently it had been a very unsatisfactory scolding and he'd continued to cry for nearly an hour until I'd finally hit him and yelled at him to stop whining. He'd punched me back, much harder than I'd hit him, and then he'd stomped off, no longer crying, but had been very sulky and completely unreasonable for the rest of the night, even when I'd apologized for being mean.

"That may be true for the most part, but Dib's not a child," I finally pointed out.

"Well, not physically, of course," Chen allowed, "but really he's just a big kid. Although he does act much more adult-like in real life. I still feel a bit surprised whenever he comes over to visit."

"I know what you mean," I murmured. Although Heng treated me completely differently than he had at work, I was still trying to adjust my view of him from "employee" to "friend." It was rather easy to talk with him and relax around him, since he was being so amiable and all, but I still felt a bit nervous whenever he was visiting. He and I may have been close friends, but all I could remember was the first four months we'd worked together and the past week or so.

Even if we were friends, it was like I didn't even know him.

"Jiao-mèi mentioned that you two had a fight this morning," Chen carefully said, sounding concerned. "Was it really bad?"

"He just yelled a little is all," I replied, shaking my head. "Said mean things, as usual. I suppose I over-reacted." It made me very uncomfortable that he knew all the stuff about me that I'd kept secret from everyone. Perhaps that unwanted exposure was part of the reason he'd upset me so badly this morning, although in the past I'd barely batted an eye at all of the vicious things being said about me at work. Then again, the things said at work were usually completely silly and false.

The corner of Chen's mouth twitched as if she was trying not to smile. "Well, he does tend to say whatever happens to pop into his head, without thinking first. He probably didn't mean to be cruel." She fell silent, eyes going back to watching Jiao and Shuang, who were now on the swings. I wordlessly gave my reluctant agreement with her observation. Unlike myself, Heng and Dib both never seemed to find themselves with a lack of things to say, whether what they're saying is kind or not.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was the fight about?"

Although unwilling to discuss it, I took a moment to compose an answer that was vague and descriptive at the same time. "He was involving himself in my personal affairs, like he has some sort of right to do so."

"Doesn't he?" she quietly asked. "He's your best friend, after all."

"No, he's not," I denied at once, my tone harsher than I meant it to be, but at the moment I was too mad at him to really care. "Maybe he was before, but not now, yet he still acts like he has some sort of say in the decisions I make when it has nothing at all to do with him. It's irritating."

Chen fell silent again as she stared at me with a slightly helpless look. "You have to keep in mind," she slowly began, "that even if you can't remember the time you spent with him, _he can_. He can't help but think of you as his best friend, just like you can't help but think of him as nothing more than the man you used to work with."

"…I know." I sighed, tilting my head back a little to stare up at the cloud-cluttered sky. "But before this, I've always dealt with everything on my own. It will take me some time to get used to having a…having a friend around for the first time."

Smiling widely and chuckling, Chen nodded. "But those sorts of nosy people are the best to surround yourself with, don't you think? The people who stick close, like Heng, are much better to have around than 'friends' who turn and run whenever you need them."

"I suppose," I muttered, sighing again. I already had plenty of the Runaway Friends, I definitely didn't need another. And thinking about everything in that way, I was a little bit less angry with Heng. Even if it felt like he was being meddlesome, he was supposedly just worried, although _why_ he would ever be worried was beyond me. But in the past I'd trusted him with all of that secret stuff, so I must have had some reason or another. But still, he and I were going to have to have a talk about personal boundaries next time we saw one another, which was hopefully not going to be soon.

Chen stood up, stretched herself out and gave me a quick grin. "Well, I hope you two make up with one another quickly. Now then, we've been lazing around for long enough. Let's go play some more before Shuang tires out."

I nodded and reluctantly got to my feet, legs still pathetically aching from the puny five-minute-long burst of running earlier. Shaking the empty styrofoam cup at Chen, I took a few steps in the other direction. "I'm going to throw this away first."

While she gave an energetic "Okay!" and hurried off toward the swings, I turned and slowly walked toward the garbage can near the park entrance, taking a deep breath of the cold air and running Heng's sharp words through my mind again and again. It was nearly uncontrollable. Other than my father and Gui Wen, Heng was the first person who had been able to draw out such an emotional response from me with only a few sentences. The fact that he had such a strong impact on me only confused me further.

After tossing out the empty cup, I turned back around, stuffed my hand into my coat pocket to keep it warm, and strode toward the other three, smiling faintly at the sight of them playing together so happily. Moments like this was something I'd never experienced until I'd gone to live with them. In such a short time, they had already given me everything I could have asked for in a home. Happiness, warmth, support, comfort, and a million other priceless things I never thought I'd gain. Things I'd never even considered. Things that made me feel, for the first time, almost complete.

Only months ago I'd been empty, blank, alone, yet I truly hadn't been discontent at all. Bored and restless, but I hadn't thought that was a bad thing. It was normal. I had so much, why would I complain?

But now that I knew what I'd been lacking, I was determined never to take moments like this for granted.

My eyes drifted to Jiao as she swung high into the air, cheerily laughing, and my smile stretched further. _Moments like this._ I knew I was only going to get more, and that was a wonderful thought that made me feel warm, regardless of of the brisk December weather. Although still afraid of the future and what I might become, I had people here with me now to keep me on track whenever my own strength wasn't enough. The strength not only to build up my own family, but the strength to keep it together and help it thrive.

_"You just have to start off with a simple decision; 'I will be a good parent'…The effort is definitely worth it."_

Taking another deep breath, I broke out into a light jog and covered the last stretch of grass in a few moments, only slowing once I was directly behind the three while they swung back and forth. Making sure I was a proper distance away—I didn't want to get bonked a third time—I came to a halt behind Shuang's swing and eyed one of her little feet, clothed in ruffly purple socks and white sports shoes.

Ignoring the suspicious glance she gave me when I stepped closer, I smiled brightly and waited until she was about to swing forward again when I prodded her ankle. She gave a playful shriek and started kicking her legs as she flew away from me, then stared at me with wide eyes and wider smile over her shoulder as she swung back, feet sticking straight out in front of herself and out of my reach.

Having no feet to bother, I poked her neck instead. Knowing how cold my fingers were even in the summer, the scream she gave afterward was completely expected. And painfully high-pitched…

"Gēge! Stop that!" she firmly ordered, although her excited face was telling me the opposite. When she came rushing back toward me, she had her shoulder tucked against her chin, warding off any neck attacks. I ran my fingers over her side, wiggling them as I went. "WA-A-A-A! MOMMY, HE'S TICKLING ME!"

"Oh no!" Chen answered, sounding very worried while she kept on swinging, not moving to help her distressed daughter.

Thus, with no outside interference stopping me, I continued to tickle and poke Shuang until she finally jumped out of her swing, making me feel extremely horrified—she was flying in the wrong direction for me to catch her. But then she landed her fall perfectly well, a meter in front of the swing set.

Heaving an extremely relieved sigh that she hadn't hurt herself, I watched as she gave me a challenging grin, then shot off over the grass. Feeling a bit annoyed over the fact that I was obviously expected to chase her, I carefully pushed her wildly flopping swing out of the way, then ran after her as fast as my weak legs could go, which was not fast at all.

Attempting to beat down my jealousy over Aeolus' absurdly high stamina level, I kept my eyes on Shuang's feet while the rest of her disappeared around the edge of the twisty playground equipment. Redirecting my steps to the other end of the play area, I walked as quietly as I could, listening to her footsteps come nearer while she obliviously raced in my direction.

Right before she was about to run past me, I jumped out in front of her and made a roaring noise. Her face went from somewhat confused, to absolutely terrified, to amused in the span of a few seconds as she fell over backward, screaming and laughing. Dropping to my knees in the grass beside her, I smiled and started tickling her again, although it was difficult to do so when she had two arms and two legs to swat me away.

When her little fist connected with my chin, I dramatically fell over backward and groaned, closing my eyes like I'd been knocked unconscious. Shuang, either not believing that I was really taken out or simply wanting to continue to beat me, clambered on top of me and started punching my chest with yells of "Take that! And that! And that!"

Feeling like my poor chest was about to cave in—children never seemed to know just how strong they were—I opened my eyes and started blocking her wildly waving arms. "I surrender!"

Although Shuang didn't stop for nearly a minute, she finally paused and seemed to be thinking, then smiled in a superior way and gave a nod. Feeling very relieved that she wasn't going to pummel me anymore, I carefully sat up, drew my legs underneath myself and stood, taking her with me. Rather than carrying her back to Chen and Jiao, I climbed up the wide steps on the play place and headed for the big, twirly, purple slide.

Shuang suddenly poked my neck, like I had done to her several times earlier. I paused in my steps and gave her a narrow-eyed stare, challenging her to do it again.

She did, this time with a giggle.

When she lifted her hand a third time, I bent down and lightly chomped on her finger. She made an "Eek!" noise and laughed. "Don't eat my finger!" she ordered.

"Well, you were holding it out to me," I commented, "so I thought you wanted me to chew on it."

"No, I didn't!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I see. I'll remember not to next time," I mumbled, quickly continuing on toward the spiraling slide. Setting her on her feet, I crouched beside her and stared down at the curved slope of purple.

"Bet'cha you're too scared to go down backwards!" Shuang suddenly challenged.

I sent her an "Oh, yeah?" sort of look before placing myself in the opening, turning around, and smiling. "Bet'cha I'm brave enough to go down backwards."

Without any hesitation, she pushed me and I toppled over, sliding down head-first on my back. "Too bad!" she called after me, her face disappearing around the plastic edge of the slide. "There's alligators at the bottom!"

Spreading my legs while I grabbed the side of the slide with my hand, I stopped my descent about halfway down. "You tried to get alligators to eat me‽" I demanded.

"Yep!" she replied.

"Well, that's not very nice."

There was a slight scraping noise from above me, then Shuang suddenly appeared around the edge of the slide. She stopped herself before she could slide into me, then gave me a very determined frown. "Don't worry, Gēge! I'll save you!"

First she sends me to my death, and then she comes to rescue me…

Putting on a worried face, I held out my hand to her as if she would be able to pull me to safety. She took it and started tugging as hard as she could. I tugged back, wrapped my arm around her, and let myself continue sliding. "A-A-A-AH!" Shuang started squirming around in my grip. "THE ALLIGATORS WILL GET US!"

Laughing to myself, I turned to watch as the end of the slide came into view. Instead of alligators, Chen and Jiao were both there. "Shuang-mèi!" I cheered. "They've driven off the alligators! We're saved!"

"Wrong!" Chen declared, a fierce grin on her face as Shuang and I toppled to the grass. "We _are_ the alligators!"

Letting out a yell, I scrambled to my feet and followed Shuang as she raced away from the two women—or, well, the two alligators that had camouflaged themselves to look like women—as they chased after us, making growling and roaring noises.

Thus we passed the entire afternoon. By the time we finally left the park, I was about to die from exhaustion and dehydration. Although I very much wanted to go straight back to the Lin house and take another shower and maybe have a nap as well, instead Jiao first had us stop at a huge multi-story mall. After a quick look at the large map fixed to the wall near the entrance, she took us up to the next floor and led us into a sporting goods store, full of gear, clothes, very buff and hairy men, and a few teenage boys who were crowded around a display of aluminum baseball bats.

"Let's get you some clothes to exercise in, so you don't have to borrow Dàgē's," she suggested, stopping beside one of the clothing racks and shuffling through it. She pulled a pair of black sweatpants and a matching jacket off the rack, held them up to me as if she was attempting to see if they fit properly, and then announced, "Looks like the size is okay. Do you like this color?"

"That's fine," I agreed, nodding. She handed the clothes to me, then began picking through the rack again, getting several pairs of the same thing.

"We work out every morning at five, except on weekends," she explained, "so you'll need a few outfits to give you something to wear while some of these are in the wash." Draping the pile of jackets and pants over my arm, she smiled in a very Yu Lian-like way. "Remember to set your alarm earlier, okay? Because if you don't wake up on your own, we'll come and assist."

Feeling a bit apprehensive at the threat, I nodded again, although waking up at five every morning didn't sound very appealing. Especially not when I was going to be dragged into the basement directly afterward.

She gave a small laugh and pulled me over to the checkout line. "This will be task number one in your To Do List to keep yourself occupied every day."

I made a noise of agreement while she began rummaging around in the large white bag she had hooked over her shoulder. Surprise washed over me when she pulled out a very familiar and longed-for object. One I thought was somewhere completely different. One I hadn't seen in so long.

Well, it felt like a long time.

"Isn't that my wallet?" I asked, feeling annoyed that it was getting passed from person to person.

"Yes," she replied at once, fingers tightening around it as if she thought I was going to try to take it back. "And in case you're going to ask; _no_, you're not allowed to have it back yet."

"It's not like I'm going to try to run away again," I mumbled, my tone as sulky as my expression.

"Sorry, but after you tried to sneak back to your father's house…how many times was it, Dàsăo?"

"Fourteen or fifteen? Maybe more," Chen supplied, laughing slightly. "All in the first week and a half, too, which was pretty impressive, with as difficult as it was for Gēge to move around."

"Ridiculously persistent." Jiao gave me a helpless smile. "After so many escape attempts, even without your wallet and keys, we're a bit hesitant to return them, you know? At least not until you're well enough to go back to work."

Sighing in resignation, I fell silent and watched while the person in front of us collected his purchases and left. Jiao began unloading the clothing from my arms, then the clerk rang it all up. I gave a curious glance down at my wallet when Jiao opened it. I knew Delun had used some of the money to buy my new _Second Life_ helmet, but, as usual, I hadn't had much money in there to begin with. The game would have used up the majority, if not all. I hoped I actually had enough for the clothes. Then again, they could just use my bank card if I didn't have enough cash.

However, my eyes went very wide when I glimpsed the inside of the wallet. Jiao was extremely careful when counting out the bills, so the other contents were still hidden from everyone else in the store. And for good reason; there had to be at least fifty thousand dollars in there. How did it even fit? And where had it come from?

In the past, I had been very sure never to carry more than one or two thousand at a time, just in case I got mugged or something. Having so much money on us made me feel nervous. Then again, although I was completely useless, Chen and Jiao had told me they were both very good at self-defense, so I supposed we weren't entirely unprotected.

When we stepped out of the store, bags of clothes in hand, I sat down on a bench with Jiao while Shuang dragged Chen over to a small food vendor. Giving a sideways glance to Jiao, I whispered, "Why is there so much money in my wallet?"

She smiled in a bemused way, pushed her white bag further between us, then answered quietly, "Last month, your father sent us ten million dollars for your expenses. A few days ago, he sent us the same amount for this month. We just sort of stuffed your wallet with what it would hold. Dàgē also gave some of it to the chef for your meals. The rest, which is most of it, we put in the family vault for safekeeping."

Feeling very tired at my father's weird actions, I sighed again and leaned back against the wall behind the bench. Although a very small part of me felt a bit happy that it seemed he hadn't completely forgotten about me, the rest of me was angry that it felt like he was under the impression that if he gave me a lot of money, I would be perfectly fine. However, money was not on the list of things I wanted from him.

"As if I'm ever going to use all of that," I grumbled. "He could have sent only what's in the wallet, and I still wouldn't have used it up for a long time, unless it was all spent on food."

"My siblings and I were wondering what you were going to do with it all," she commented, chuckling, "but you turned out to be so low-cost. Is there really nothing you would use it on? Something you've had your eye on, but never got around to buying?"

I slowly shook my head. "No. I already have the necessities, and that's enough."

Jiao's eyes narrowed into an amused look. "Content with so little. You're turning out to be so different than we all imagined before we met you…We weren't sure if we were supposed to expect a cruel and domineering person like your father, or some sort of spoiled, rich brat who whined and complained when things didn't go his way."

Laughing, I shook my head again. "Well, I'm very glad I was able to change your opinion of me to a better one. Although I won't deny that I'm quite spoiled. It's a bit difficult to live such a privileged life and not start to expect the maids to clean my messes, expect the chef to prepare my meals when and how I want them, expect my clothes to be laundered and ready, expect tea to be delivered to me whenever I want it, and on and on."

It left me somewhat baffled when I thought of how Heng could still have so much energy after taking care of all of his chores at home. All I had to do was tell someone else to do it and it would be done, but since Heng wasn't dating anyone, engaged, or married, and thus had no significant other with whom he could split the housework, his "house staff" consisted of himself and his three younger brothers, who were, understandably, more focused on school than what had to be done at home.

Unlike myself, who was completely unable to channel any and all of Aeolus' amazing skills, Heng seemed to have the ability to access Dib's endless hyperactivity. Perhaps he was pushing himself to be so energetic all of the time, but it was quite impressive whichever way he did it.

"That wasn't really what I meant by 'spoiled,'" Jiao continued, "but you do have a very good point. It's easy to take all of those nice things for granted and start assuming life will always be like that." She fell silent for a moment, then frowned in a displeased way. "Thinking of it like that makes me feel lazy and ungrateful."

Laughing at her words, I nodded. "Ah…Well, technically, it is the house staff's _job_ to do what we want. After all, we're paying them to do it. But yes, I suppose…it makes me feel quite lazy as well. Perhaps we should start showing our gratitude to them more prominently from now on."

When I attempted to remember a time I'd shown my thanks to the staff at my father's house, it made me ashamed of myself when my mind brought back nothing. They had always treated themselves as tools, thus I'd done the same. But they were living people, no matter how emotionless and inhuman they seemed on the surface.

That treatment was yet another similarity between my father and I that I didn't really want to acknowledge…

Thankfully, my attention was drawn elsewhere when Shuang and Chen came scurrying back, holding three cakes and a cup of tea. The tea was handed to me, and a cake to Jiao. By the time I'd finished thanking Chen, Shuang was already halfway done eating the cream-filled cake.

While I was marveling over how fast the little girl could down the dessert, Jiao suddenly stood up, eyes fixed on a spot near the escalators. My gaze followed a blob of white cake filling as it plopped to the tile floor after Jiao's grip had tightened on the poor snack. "You squashed your cake," Shuang observed somewhat pointlessly while Chen held out a napkin.

Jiao didn't move for several seconds, then said, "Huh?" and looked down at her fist and the mangled cake. "Oh." She took the napkin, wiped at her messy hand, then started walking away in the direction she'd been staring. "I'll be back in a moment."

I took a sip of the hot tea and watched her stride off. Much to my surprise, she didn't go to a garbage can or anything, but instead stopped in front of a young man in a green jacket and dark blue jeans. His short, sporty and light-colored hair was poking up every which-way—much like Heng's, although his was longer and wavier—and, as always, he was much thicker around than I was. Looked to be a little taller as well, although not as big as…

Pausing, I inwardly kicked myself. Why did I keep comparing everything to Heng…

Attempting to block the Annoyance from my mind, I refocused my attention on the two as they began, not conversing amiably like I'd been expecting, but arguing. I glanced up at Chen for an explanation, but she was too busy watching the two, a slightly worried expression on her face.

Several minutes passed and they seemed to be nowhere near finished, so Chen finally sat down on the bench and gave me a crafty stare. "Go interrupt them."

"Why?"

"Because you should." She gave me a rough shove and took my tea away. "Tell them Shuang is about to die of hunger and wants to go home for dinner."

"But she just had a cake–"

"I'll stay here with Shuang and watch the bags, so _go_!" Chen repeated, shoving me harder. Why was everyone in this family so bossy?

Sighing, I gave her an indignant frown, then stood up and nervously walked toward the still-arguing pair. Neither of them noticed my approach, even when I stopped right beside them, glancing cautiously from one red face to the other while they snapped things about phone calls and canceled plans.

"Jiao," I quietly called when they both paused for breath. She jumped and turned to look at me, a terrified expression falling onto her face. "I'm sorry for interrupting your, um, conversation," I quickly continued when it seemed the man was about to yell something at me, "but Chen-mèi says Shuang-mèi is hungry and wants to go home."

"We're not finished yet!" the man snarled, glaring furiously at me. "So go the hell away!"

I fell silent for a moment, staring at him in bewilderment, then returned his angry look with one of cold irritation. "Well then," I added, pointing my hand back to the other two, "perhaps you would care to go over there and explain to the hungry four-year-old why your argument is more important than her dinner. I am sure she will be _completely_ understanding."

His face turned a shade redder at my sarcastic finish, but at least he closed his mouth.

Jiao turned and grabbed my arm. "Okay. Let's go."

"Jiao, wait!" He hastily took hold of her other hand and pulled her back, nearly causing her to topple over backward as she hissed in pain.

Feeling extremely angry, I stepped between the two and upped the icy expression on my face, grabbing his wrist. It took all of my strength to undo his grip on her. "I would very much appreciate it if you would not treat my fiancée so roughly," I requested, fighting to keep my voice level. Slipping my hand into Jiao's, I took a few steps away. "I assume you both have each other's contact information, so please continue your conversation at a later time."

"I just–" he started, but Jiao cut him off with a promise of "I'll call you later," then tightly gripped my hand and dragged me back to the bench. A quick glance over my shoulder told me he was thankfully not following.

Jiao slowed her steps halfway there, gave me a morose glance, and murmured, "Sorry about him, he's just in a really bad mood. He's almost never like that."

"Oh, good." Although a tiny bit assured that he wasn't a thoroughly horrible person, I was still very angry with him for hurting her. If he hadn't stepped down, and if I was stronger, I probably would have hit him.

"And," Jiao added softly, smiling a little, "thank you for intervening."

I thought about saying, "Chen-mèi forced me," but settled for "You're welcome," instead and gave her hand a slight squeeze. After another backward glance—I was very relieved to see that the irritating man was gone—I looked forward again and asked, "Who is he?"

A moment of silence passed as we stopped beside Chen and Shuang. "No one, just a friend." Her tone told me that that was the end of the conversation.

Judging by the way she was obviously avoiding looking at me and the redness creeping back onto her tense face, she'd just lied to me. But, seeing how agitated she already was, I didn't press the matter, although I was very bothered by it. It wasn't like I was expecting her to share every little thing with me, but honesty between us was something I wanted to keep hold of. Plus I didn't like that person at all.

Chen shot me a grateful look, hooked two of the shopping bags onto my arm, gave back my tea, then cheerily suggested, "Well, let's go home now, shall we?" and took the slightly grumpy-looking Shuang's hand as she hurried off toward the escalators. My bad mood, forgotten after playing in the park, started to creep back when I watched Jiao rub the spot on her wrist where that man had grabbed her. Taking a long drink of my tea, I held in all of the things I wanted to say, and instead silently followed after her.

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><p><em>One Taiwanese dollar is worth about three cents of an American dollar. <em>

_So 10 million TWD (the amount Kuo Li sent every month) is around 330,000USD, 1,000-2,000TWD (the amount Zian normally carried) is around 40-60USD, and 50,000TWD (the amount in his wallet) is around 1,600USD. (Information for those of you who are American. If you're not, there are calculators online with which you can figure out how much money was being talked about earlier.) And of course, these are present-day exchange rates, not 22nd century exchange rates. lol._


	37. Cryptic Confessions

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>I bumped the heels of my slippers against the side of the ledge just outside the window seat, looking down at the pretty garden that surrounded the Lin house. Burrowing deeper into the electric blanket I had wrapped myself up in, I silently chewed on a bite of my lunch—a bowl full of sliced, raw veggies and fruit. Something Delun always called "pet food," but something I actually liked eating. Somewhat.<p>

The eating process itself was still annoying. If there had been a way to teleport the food directly into my stomach, I would have done it. Assuming the teleporter chewed the food first, of course—if not, that would probably be painful later on…But unfortunately, even with technology as advanced as it was, there was no such thing as a food teleporter. Even ones that didn't chew food.

Thus I was stuck eating it all the old-fashioned way—with my mouth.

After swallowing the carrot I'd been chewing, I switched my music player to the next song—one of Tchaikovsky's piano concertos—then went back to staring at the swaying trees below me, and the bright blue sky above me, feeling thankful that this guest room was situated at just the right place that it got quite a bit of sun during the mornings and afternoons. Although the day was a bit cold—when was it not?—I was feeling nice and toasty under the sun and the blanket, regardless of how I had the window wide open and my legs hanging outside.

The pretty view, music, warmth, plus yesterday's outing had helped boost my mood quite a bit. Well, at least until that annoying man at the mall had butted in. But even he hadn't been enough to completely ruin my day all over again, and, although still concerned about Jiao, I was already feeling better by the time we arrived home again and I finally got to have a shower and a nap.

A nap which had been interrupted when Delun came bursting into the guest room to drag me downstairs for dinner only a little while after I'd gone to sleep. Apparently he'd noticed that his dresser had been messed with, and then Chen had admitted that I'd borrowed some of his things, and as I had predicted, he had been very huffy about it.

However, he was glad when he heard the news that I wouldn't be stealing his clothes anymore now that I had my own for "task number one." A task I'd already started on, very unwillingly, at five this morning when Jiao and her three siblings had, regardless of my alarm being set, dragged me out of bed and forced me to join them in their morning exercises down in the basement.

And now I was very sore and tired, but glad that I had something to do.

Along with that, Chen had said I could mess around in Delun's little workshop beside the garage, where he did woodworking—Delun was very annoyed with that idea, but Chen had pressured him until he agreed. So Jiao had told me to make something for "task number two." It was difficult with only my right hand, but, unlike my in-game-only combat skills, it was relatively easy to remember the simple movements I used to make arrows.

"Task number three" had turned out to be somewhat simple, although the maids had put up a fuss. Cleaning the guest room. It really didn't need to be cleaned very often, but there was enough work to take up a bit of my time. Dusting, sweeping, changing the bedsheets, taking my laundry down to the laundry room—though I did need help with folding it all after it had been washed—the maids seemed a little too enthusiastic to help me with that—and other such things. I'd never done any sort of housework before, so it was a very interesting experience.

With those three activities in place—plus the music room, where I was a bit reluctant to return to after yesterday—I felt a tiny bit more fulfilled now that I wasn't going to be lazing about all day long. Jiao had been extremely helpful.

I popped a cube-shaped piece of watermelon into my mouth and chewed slowly, running my mind over the trip to the park. Unlike when Jiao had been bullying me in the work-out room, she'd been sweet and patient with Shuang. Although she did still tease me for being "wimpy" whenever I fell behind, unable to keep up with them as we romped all over the playground, she was also so very motherly and warm, giving a feeling of safety and care.

This new part of my family was turning out to be so different from the other part. My brother left me, my father sent me away, I didn't even have any memories of my mother, wherever she was. That part of my family was a mess. One that probably would never be cleaned up. And although this new part wasn't without its own problems, it was so much brighter.

Smiling contentedly, I bounced my heels off the side of the ledge again and returned my attention to staring at the garden. The numerous maple trees that were planted down below had changed from rich greens to fiery reds, oranges and yellows, sending even more splashes of color across the already-colorful area. With all of the leaves falling down and blanketing the ground, I could imagine Shuang—and probably Mei Rong as well—begging us to get out a leaf rake to gather together piles of the leaves to jump in.

Hopefully, if they did, they wouldn't ask me to join. They would definitely tackle me.

The mental images I had of Shuang enthusiastically leaping into the leaf piles was suddenly lost when someone behind me screamed. The sound was drowned out somewhat by the music coming through my headphones, but I heard it quite clearly all the same. Twisting about, feeling terrified at the very unexpected noise, I watched as Heng raced across the room, nearly tripping over the end of the bed in his haste to get over here.

Even more unexpected than his scream was how he dragged me out of the window and threw me on the floor, then flopped himself down on top of me. Headphones askew and still playing very unfitting, pretty music, I stared in utter bewilderment up at the ceiling as Heng yelled, "DON'T DO IT!" over and over.

"What–" I began, but he interrupted me with more frantic yells of "NO, DON'T DO IT!"

Don't do _what_? I hadn't been doing anything. Unless he included eating lunch and staring at trees.

"I-I'M SORRY!" he sobbed, squeezing me so tightly that I was having trouble breathing. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE SO MEAN! I WON'T DO IT AGAIN! SO DON'T JUMP OUT THE WINDOW! YOU'RE STILL SO YOUNG! DON'T DO IT!"

Jump out…what the hell?

"Please, get off of me," I requested, feeling extremely agitated for many reasons.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU JUMP!" His arms tightened even more.

"Heng–" I wheezed.

"N-O-O-O!"

Fighting to breathe under his crushing weight, I didn't try to say anything else while he rambled on about how sorry he was for being mean to me and how he'd never let me jump out the window. Just how conceited was he, thinking that I'd kill myself over something he said? My father said malicious things to me all the time, yet not once had I considered suicide. What would that accomplish, aside from making trouble for everyone around me?

_"He's just a big kid."_ Chen's words from the afternoon before repeated themselves in my mind, and I slowly gathered together my patience with his ridiculousness. It was very difficult. Kid-like in mind or not, he certainly wasn't kid-like in his aggravatingly huge body.

It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Heng calmed slightly, face buried in the crook of my neck while he continued to cry and plead with me, sounding much more like Dib than he usually did here in real life. I would have patted him on the back, but my right arm was uncomfortably pinned between him, the electric blanket, and my stomach.

"Heng." I decided to attempt it again. This time, he didn't interrupt me.

"Hurmnyah?" he replied incoherently.

"I wasn't going to jump."

"Then why were you sitting in the window like that‽" he demanded, sounding very mistrustful, as if it was common knowledge that everyone who sat in windows was planning on killing themselves.

"Because the view of the garden is nice, so I was eating lunch there. And if I was actually contemplating suicide, which I _never would_," I added in annoyance, "do you really think I would bother with the electric blanket?"

"Um…" He fell silent, seemingly not able to figure out why I would wear a blanket during such a moment.

"Why did you think that I was suicidal?" I quietly asked.

"Well," he answered, hysteria once again increasing as he continued, "because all that other stuff happened at your father's house, then I was stupid and so mean and I said those horrible things, and then you looked so sad and stomped off and…and I didn't get to say sorry, and I was so worried and…and then you were dangling out the window and I got scared! I'm sorry! I really didn't mean to say that stuff. I know how important your father is to you, but I still…I just can't understand why." The arms that had loosened suddenly got tighter again. "Why am I not enough for you?"

Although confused over at that last bit, I answered seriously. "I'm a greedy person."

He snorted in disbelief. "One look at this bare room would tell anyone otherwise."

Smiling faintly, I sighed. "I didn't mean that in a materialistic sense."

Greedy for affection, acknowledgment, attention. My father's. I wanted it all so badly, though I knew already that I was never going to get it. I didn't need Heng there to point out that fact. But just because I knew it was hopeless didn't mean I wasn't going to continue to try in any and every way that I could, to make my father approve of me.

Then again, approval from that sort of sadistic person…It was a twisted and irrational want to have, I supposed.

"Anyway," I continued a moment later, "I would never ever kill myself."

…Well, not on purpose.

"Really?" His tone was hopeful, but still slightly skeptical.

"Yes," I murmured, turning my head to rest against his, since I couldn't pat him with my trapped hand. "People only get one life, after all. I plan on using mine as best I can for as long as I can. Just because things are bad from time to time doesn't mean they'll never get better. If I'm alive, I have the opportunity to turn things around."

He let out a long sigh against my neck and relaxed, heart rate noticeably slowing down. I let him lay there for a while, just giving him more time to calm down, but then glanced at the ear that was poking out of his long, wavy hair. "Heng."

"Huh?" he mumbled.

"Don't take this the wrong way," I warned, feeling extremely uncomfortable as he continued to squash me, "but you are very heavy and it's a bit difficult to breathe down here. Please, get off of me."

"Oh!" he exclaimed as if he hadn't even noticed how he was turning me into a pancake in our very misleading position, then hastily lifted himself up, giving my compressed lungs and personal space that much-needed relief. His face flushed deeply as he helped me to my feet. "Sorry…"

I nodded and sat down on the edge of the window seat, taking deep breaths while I turned off and set aside my music player, attempting to keep the discomfort off my face. My ribs had healed a great deal, but getting thrown to the floor and flattened like that had made them ache again.

Heng sat down beside me, pulled over my bowl of fruit and veggies, then set it down between us. "Sorry for interrupting your lunch," he mumbled, unfalteringly staring at some spot across the room. Now that I had the chance, I gave him a look-over. His eyes were dark, puffy, and as red as his cheeks, his whole face tired and pale, though it usually glowed with endless energy, and judging by the stubble, he hadn't shaved that morning. He also hadn't logged into _Second Life_ last night, and I wondered if he had even slept at all. He must have been more upset yesterday than I'd thought.

Feeling a bit guilty that I'd stubbornly refused to speak to him again after our fight, I picked an apple slice out of the bowl and held it out to him. It wasn't a cookie, or a slice of cake or pie, or a bowl of ice cream, or a piece of candy, or a donut, or any of the other sugar-loaded foods he ate so often, but it was still sweet.

A faint smile found its way onto his weary face as he took the offered fruit. "Thanks." However, he paused before he ate it, giving me a suspicious glance. "You aren't just trying to get out of eating your food again, are you?"

Laughing, I shook my head, supporting my words by taking out a carrot stick and popping it into my mouth. "The bowl was full up to the rim before I started, if that gives you any indication of how much I've eaten already," I told him. Only seven pieces were left, laying in the bottom of the ceramic bowl.

"Oh, good." He finally ate the apple, slowly chewed it, then brought up the topic I'd been meaning to ask about, since here he was again, visiting in the middle of the afternoon when I'd told him not to. "I called my boss last night. She said I'll start on Monday."

"Ah," I breathed, nodding in approval. "Four more days of freedom, then."

With a small smile, Heng also nodded, then went on to describe the job—secretarial duties as well as small handyman sorts of jobs around the building—and the daycare itself. Apparently, ever since he was much younger and had been sending his brothers there, he had been friends with the woman who owned the place, as well as the part-timers who worked there nearly every day. He even knew some of the neighborhood children who attended there.

He sounded very excited about it all, and it made me relieved to know he would be okay. With my father's wealth to support me, I couldn't relate to Heng in a financial sense, worrying about bills and his brothers' school fees and simple day-to-day expenses, so I had no idea how much stress he'd been going through over the past month since he'd been fired, if it was a little stress or a lot, but I knew that it couldn't have been easy.

When the conversation slipped into a lull, I switched off the electric blanket and closed the windows, then got to my feet. "You should go."

Heng's face immediately fell. "B-but why? I…Yesterday you said I could visit in my free time."

"How much sleep did you get last night?" I asked, giving his haggard appearance another look.

"Um…well, none," he quietly admitted, glancing down at his lap. "Didn't want to login to _Second Life_, 'cause I thought you probably didn't want to see me, and I had trouble getting to sleep, so…I was up all night."

"I thought as much." Tugging on his arm, I pulled him to his feet and led him across the room. "You have a few hours until your brothers get out of school, so go home and take a nap. You look terrible."

Although it seemed to be a very reluctant agreement, he gave a small nod. He paused before he opened the door, turned and stared down at me, his face turning a bit pink again. "May I give you a hug?"

Feeling a bit apprehensive to be so close to him after he practically body-slammed me on the floor earlier, I took a step away and started to shake my head. "I…I don't–"

"Please?" he immediately interrupted, putting on a very cute, Dib-ish expression—how did he get his face to do that?—as he stepped forward and held up his fingers in a pinching gesture. "Just a little one?"

It was one thing to let Dib hug me; my mental view of him was, for the most part, still a little boy, so I supposed I didn't mind very much. However, the idea of having this huge man squeeze me was a very not-so-nice thought. But I had the suspicion that he was going to keep bothering me until I agreed, so I decided to get it over and done with.

"Yes…if it's small," I softly answered. "Just don't flatten me like earlier, please."

He smiled and slowly took another step forward, looping his left arm around my waist and his right around my shoulders as he pulled me against him, gently but still tightly. He hummed contentedly into my shoulder, breathing deeply, warming my neck when he exhaled. "You smell good."

"That's generally what happens when one bathes regularly," I alluded, rolling my eyes when he started laughing. Was he expecting me to be stinky, with as important as hygiene was to me? He didn't smell so bad himself. Whatever cologne he used had a much more masculine scent than mine. Musky, but not overpoweringly so. It was quite the difference from Dib, who mysteriously always smelled like blueberry pie.

After a minute or so, I deemed the hug over and attempted to back away from Heng. However, he apparently wasn't finished, and tightened his arms so I couldn't escape. Although I was starting to feel a bit annoyed, I let my head flop down on his shoulder, which just so happened to be at just the right height. It wasn't exactly comfy, laying my head on his muscle-packed shoulder, but it didn't feel bad either, I supposed. It was a very sturdy feel, all of those muscles.

Jealousy started to prick at my mind for the second day in a row when I compared my extremely scrawny self to his burliness. Even if I had put on weight this month, I hadn't put on any muscle, meaning all of that new weight was…I was getting _fat_.

My face paled at that horrible thought and I attempted to push it from my mind, but it seemed to have gotten stuck. Was that why he liked hugging me? I was squishy and flabby?

When I started making very determined resolutions to train much harder in the work-out room every morning, Heng suddenly said, "Hey," causing me to jump slightly. "…Are you doing this only because I asked?"

"Yes," I answered at once, leaning away from him when his grip loosened. I stared up at his forlorn expression and asked in return, "Did you apologize to me earlier only because you thought I was going to kill myself?"

He immediately started shaking his head. "No! I really do feel bad about it! I was going to apologize anyway!" A desperate look taking over, he pressed his right hand to my face and shook his head one last time. "I'm sorry I said all that. I mean, well, no…Honestly, I'm not sorry about _what_ I said, but the way I said it. I didn't mean to get so angry about it…I'm sorry."

Sighing, I leaned leaned against him again and closed my eyes, feeling a bit better now that I'd heard it again. "Apology accepted," I said quietly, smiling a little when he hugged me again, his body becoming much more relaxed. "However," I added, "about what you said–"

"Al, I–!"

"Heng," I interrupted his anxious words and he fell silent, his breathing turning shallow. "About _what_ you said…" Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my arm around him. "I'm not going to tell you to never bring up that topic again, because I know it bothers you, but please, have more tact next time and think about what you're saying before you say it. I already feel uncomfortable enough, talking about such things with a person I barely know, but if you're just going to yell at me, then don't talk about it at all." Drawing away again, I smiled up at him. "Okay?"

Face scrunching up the way Dib's did when he was trying not to cry, Heng nodded and weakly replied, "Yeah, okay," and then hugged me a third time, swinging me back and forth. I thought about telling him to stop it and let go of me, since he was breaching the agreement of "just a little one," but stayed silent and let him do as he pleased, not wanting to start another argument.

However, it was impossible not to protest when he suddenly scraped his rough cheek across mine. "O-o-ow!" I exclaimed, shoving him away—well, as far away as he could go when he refused to let go of my waist—and then put my hand to my stinging skin while I glared up at him. "Don't rub your beard on me! It hurts! Go home and shave!"

Big kid, my ass. Kids didn't grow beards.

A gleeful grin stretched across his mouth as he bent down and started scratching it against me again. "STOP, STOP, STOP!" I yelled, attempting to push away his face. He grabbed my hand, yanked it downward and swooped toward me again. I flinched and prepared myself for the scratchiness of his stubble, but instead felt the oddly familiar sensation of something warm and slightly moist pressing against the corner of my mouth.

Eyes flying open, I stared at his much-too-close face, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment as he pulled away, his smile losing its playfulness, instead filling with something else entirely. Something I didn't want to see, and had never even expected to see on his face when that look was directed at me.

"What was that for‽" I asked defensively, leaning as far away from him as I possibly could in an attempt to get away from that very unwanted expression of somewhat lusty affection.

He paused a moment, pressing his lips together in a thoughtful look, and then answered, "When you know, I'll tell you."

I frowned at him. "Isn't that statement backwards?" When he shook his head, I initially felt a bit confused. How was I supposed to know if he didn't tell me first? Unless…"In that case, have you already told me?" I quietly asked.

"Not directly," he whispered, looking pleased that I'd already figured it out, "but you knew." He raised his hand again, this time running it through my hair. "And you felt the same."

Heart pounding, I averted my eyes and stared at his chest instead, feeling utterly bewildered. Before that last addition, the suspicions had started whirling up. Suspicions that his reasons for getting close to me had finally surfaced. He was just like the other people who were after me for their own selfish wants. Those select few who had been daring enough to ask for, not money, but my body.

However, that suspicion was completely eliminated if the feelings had been mutual. I didn't know if Heng was that sort of shallow person—he didn't seem like it—but I most certainly wasn't. I would never involve myself with someone else when I felt no commitment to them. But why had I allowed myself to feel something like that in the first place? That was completely…idiotic. Why would I have ever involved myself with anyone else when I knew perfectly well that I was engaged? I had never ever done that before. I'd never _wanted_ to before.

Thus I was completely confused; this situation had never happened. I didn't know what to do, what to say, where I was supposed to look—why did the patch of his chest I could see peeking out of the top of his button-up shirt have to be so damn nice and well-toned‽

I quickly moved my gaze to the wall, feeling my face burn even hotter. I barely refrained from yelling at him not to touch me when he gave my hair one last ruffle, then finally stepped toward the door, waving his hand. "See you later, Al."

"B-bye," I stiffly replied, watching while he opened the door, left the room and disappeared into the hallway. I waited until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, then hastily shut the door and ran to the bathroom, turning on the faucet and running cold water all over a hand towel. Slapping it on my face afterward, I took several deep breaths, glaring angrily at the inside of the towel. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, _dammit_! What the hell is wrong with you‽" I snapped at myself, furiously rubbing the cold cloth all over my flushed face as I inwardly cursed Heng for making me think about unwanted things. If he hadn't kissed me and said that stuff, I could have gone on in blissful ignorance. Now my mind was all muddled.

The towel-scrubbing method of cooling myself down didn't work, so I draped the towel over the side of the rectangular tub, then hurried out of the bathroom, out of the guest room, through the hall and down the stairs, only pausing to throw off my slippers and cram my feet into my shoes before running outside to hide in the garden until everyone else came home.

That night in _Second Life_, I nervously walked with the other four toward that house the Odd Squad was using as temporary headquarters. Dib had sent us an annoyingly cheery message that said he was eating dinner in there, so there we went. I hadn't wanted to see him the night before, and now I wanted to see him even less, although for much different reasons. But I wouldn't be able to avoid him forever, so…

Wei Bo opened the door and they all filed inside. Taking a deep breath, I reluctantly followed after. A very long, drawn-out, echoing yell of "A-A-A-AL!" greeted us as Dib stampeded in our—well, _my_ direction, an insufferably ecstatic smile on his face. The other four jumped out of his way, and I thought about doing the same, or maybe logging off, but resigned myself to my fate when he launched himself into the air and crashed into my chest, tightly wrapping his arms and legs around me while I attempted to keep myself from falling over backward. Now that I actually took the time to think about it, I felt like an idiot for not noticing before now how abnormal his behavior toward me was.

"I see you two made up," Xiu Chen happily observed.

Glancing down at Dib, who was holding onto me so tightly that I didn't even need to support him, I then gave the priest a sarcastic look and flatly inquired, "How did you guess?"

"Oh, well, you know," she replied with a chuckle, waving a hand as she turned to continue on toward the Odd Squad. "I just had a small suspicion."

"It must be a woman's intuition!" Avila added, laughing as she hurried after her sisters. Wei Bo gave me a confused look before turning to follow.

Sighing deeply, I gave an experimental tug to the back of Dib's top, but the only thing that accomplished was getting Dib to squish me further, so I dropped my hand and gave up on trying to pry him off as I continued forward, coming to a halt beside the other team, who were all seated around a table, eating dinner like Dib had been before our arrival.

"Sit there!" Dib ordered, pointing at an empty chair, which was knocked over. Feeling all the more annoyed, I put the chair in its correct position and sat. Dib finally let go of me and turned around, using me as a booster seat as he started eating again.

While the other four sat down around the table and started chatting with the other team, I glanced up when I heard someone sniggering. Lolidragon stared back at me, smirking. "Such a pushover," she remarked, dropping her eyes to her food afterward.

Knowing that her goal was to rile me up, I resolutely didn't respond and instead looked at Gui. "Hello, Gui Wen…" I greeted over Dib's purposefully noisy chewing sounds.

He took a moment to chew his food, swallowed, then replied, "Hi, Zian," with a small smile as he popped another bite into his mouth.

"How come," Lolidragon asked, pointing her chopsticks at us both in turn, "you two always call each other by your real names?"

After a moment of thought, I answered, "Because it feels more natural." Much to my surprise, Gui had said the same thing at the same time. He shot me a perturbed look.

"Are you two sure you're not twins?" Yu Lian quietly added, smiling in amusement.

"We're _not_," we both answered, Gui sounding much more irritated.

Dib tilted his head back to stare up at me with wide eyes, then laughed. "It's like a surround-sound stereo system…Quick! What's the first word you both think of when I say 'cheese'?"

"Cheese," Gui and I answered. Gui glared at me as if I was doing it on purpose.

"That's not what I meant!" Dib snapped.

Sighing deeply, I explained, "If you tell us one word and ask us what the first word we think of is–"

"The first word we think of will always be that one word," Gui ended for me, nodding. I gave him a glare in return for the one he'd given me.

"If you want us to think of something different, give us an entire phrase," I suggested.

"I don't want him to," Gui huffed, "you'll just copy me again!"

"How was I _copying_ you‽" I demanded. "We said the stuff at the same time!"

Gui's mouth opened and shut several times, then he pointed one of his chopsticks at me and loftily declared, "I'm older than you, therefore you're copying me! I was here first!"

"So what if I'm younger than you‽ Age has nothing to do with this," I snapped. "You're being completely irrational!"

"Am not!"

Irritation taking over, I stole Dib's chopsticks, used them to pick up a dumpling off his plate, then threw it at Gui. He caught it in his mouth and gave me a muffled, triumphant "Ha-_HA_!" while Dib let out an anguished yell over his dinner being eaten by someone else. Ignoring Dib's distress, I quickly picked up a second dumpling and threw it at Gui before he could finish chewing the first. My second attack struck him on the nose, much to my satisfaction.

Eyes burning with anger and competitiveness, Gui stood up and drew his hand back to throw a piece of chicken at me, so I dropped the chopsticks and shielded myself with Dib. Someone yanked my chair backward a second later, and I looked upward to find a very annoyed Ugly Wolf staring down at me. "Stop the food fight!" he sternly ordered, then gave Gui a reproachful look and sat down again.

"Thank you, dear." Yu Lian gave his arm a fond pat.

Settling down on the chair again, I sighed and looked downward, just now noticing that Dib was crying. "Y-you…you big f-fat jerk, Al…!"

"What'd I do?" I asked innocently, feeling somewhat worried about how he'd just called me fat.

He pointed a shaky finger at his plate. "You messed up my dumplings!" he screamed. "I had them all perfectly arranged, then you stole two and wasted them on the purple meanie over there!"

I stared down at him for a moment while he covered his face and dramatically continued to weep, then I picked up his chopsticks, leaned forward and grabbed another dumpling off the large platter on the middle of the table, and set it down on his plate. After putting on a second one, I leaned back in the chair and handed back his eating utensils. "There. I replaced them."

"THEY'RE NOT THE SA-A-AME!" he wailed. "I spent so-o-o-o long picking out the dumplings I especially wanted to eat!"

"You did not," Gui denied. "You immediately grabbed all the ones nearest to yourself."

Dib fell silent, gave a glance to his plate, then let out another yell. "THAT ONE'S TOUCHING THE RICE! NOW IT'S RUINED!"

Frowning in disbelief, I looked at his plate. One of the dumplings I'd set there was indeed touching one grain of the pile of rice he'd heaped onto his plate instead of using a bowl.

How terrible.

Picking it up with my bare hands, I ate the soiled dumpling and narrowed my eyes at the unreasonable boy. "There. It's not contaminating your plate anymore. Now stop whining and just eat." Since when had he been so picky, anyway? He'd eaten that apple slice from my lunch earlier, and it had been touching other fruits and veggies, as well as laying in juice from the watermelon pieces.

After a great deal of coaxing, pleading, and threatening, Dib finally, with a lot of grumbling, ate the rest of his dinner and at last our whole team left the city to go train. While we walked along, I gave a small glance to the boy as he lay curled up in my arms, eyes tightly shut, arms crossed, and lower lip sticking out in a pout. Inwardly rolling my eyes, I ran my mind over the things he'd said before he'd gone home. Although earlier it had flustered me, now it all seemed a bit absurd.

If he was telling the truth and I had interpreted his words correctly, in the past I must have been out of my mind.

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><p><em>When I was a child, I never wanted one type of food touching another type on my plate. xD It was completely unacceptable and caused both foods to be inedible afterward. In this case, Dib didn't really care, but just wanted to cause more trouble in revenge for Al stealing his dumplings.<br>_


	38. Never Ending Problems

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>There was a problem growing in my mind, irritating and worrying me endlessly. It was the sort of problem that I was dying for an answer to, yet was far too embarrassed to ask about. Not once had I ever worried about something like this before. The situation was completely alien to me. But here I was, stuck in the middle of it.<p>

Once again I mentally asked myself, "_How did you not notice something so obvious?_"

Okay, so I was a little dense…or maybe a lot.

I gave a very small glance to Jiū—she was walking along nearby, cheerily talking to her sisters—and then switched my attention back to the scenery, half-listening to Dib while he excitedly rambled on about something involving our nightly training.

Dib. He was the reason I'd noticed my problem. That made me at least a little bit grateful that he'd said and done all that weird stuff earlier in the guest room. However, just because I'd noticed the problem didn't mean I was anywhere near a solution. After all, this problem had been going on for a very long time.

The source of the problem was laughing at something Xiu Chen said moments before, and was now brushing her long, curly white hair over one shoulder.

Thinking about how Dib had, in a somewhat vague way, told me that he had feelings for me, it was obvious that Jiū did not. While Dib openly showed his affection for me at every possible opportunity, Jiū treated me like she treated her siblings. And basically, I didn't really mind that, but I wasn't supposed to be a _sibling_; I was supposed to be a _husband_.

How long had it been since I'd met her? I couldn't remember directly, but from what I'd heard from the others, it had to have been at least two months. I'd even been living with her and her family, yet it seemed that I had made no progress in getting beyond the "friend" stage. Not that I had been trying very hard to woo her, but still, it was discouraging.

In the past, countless people had been attracted to me, with no effort on my part at all. It was fending them off and getting them to leave me alone that was the difficult part. And yet Jiū hadn't once shown any interest in furthering our relationship to a place beyond that of friends.

And so I was worried, trying to figure out what it was about me that she didn't like. But the longer I wondered what was unlikable about me, the longer the mental list of my negative traits got, until it completely overshadowed the measly number of positive traits, and at that moment I came to a conclusion; it was no wonder she didn't like me; _I_ didn't even like me.

Heart pounding, I tapped the tips of my fingers on the metal buckle on my quiver strap and frowned down at the ground, trying to think of some way to speak to her about it. With as scared as I was feeling while simply envisioning the conversation, I wanted to _never_ do it, but I also wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

We had around an hour until we were going to arrive at the training spot we were aiming for—a gully full of giants, which Dib was oddly excited about killing, regardless of how teeny he was. I had the time right now, and nothing important was going on that I would interrupt, and the problem would never go away unless I just faced it, so…

A muffled giggle and a small laugh broke into my attempts at scraping together my courage to ask Jiū for a moment alone, and I turned to questioningly look at Wei Bo. His eyes widened and he quickly looked away from me, trying and failing to suppress an amused smile. The three women also were sending many looks and giggles in my direction, so I paused in my steps and gave a sigh, raising a hand to my ear.

Something was tickling it.

Closing my fingers around something smooth and flat, I pulled off the thing and blankly stared down at it.

A pink flower.

I nearly threw it away, but instead my grip tightened as I ran a finger over one of the silky, rounded petals. "Why are…" I slowly began, but my voice dropped off, a different moment overlapping with what was happening.

_"Why are you putting plants in my hair?"_

_"They aren't _plants_! They're _flowers_!"_

_"Flowers _are_ plants. I do not want leaves tangled in my hair, so please, stop."_

_"It'll look pretty when I'm finished! And I'm not tangling it, so quit your complaining!"_

_"I do not want to be pretty!"_

_"Too bad, 'cause you're gonna be pretty whether you want to or not! You're already pretty and girly, even without flowers adding to your looks, anyway, so just let me do your hair!"_

…Dib had done this before.

The breathless excitement I had over my abrupt remembrance of something only lasted a few moments before it was erased by an unexpected wave of sharp pain that stabbed through my head. The flower was crushed in my hand and I squeezed my eyes shut, hands flying to my forehead. "Ah…ow…!"

"Al?" Dib's worried voice sounded so small and far away. "Al, what's wrong?"

I slowly shook my head, not opening my eyes just yet as a dull throb began. A slight feeling of confusion filled my aching mind when I tried to remember what I'd just been about to say to him. The words kept evasively slipping out of my grasp, succeeding in their attempts to elude me.

"Hey, Twig. You okay?" Wei Bo asked, moving to stand in front of me. "Did one of the flowers have a thorn or something?"

Cracking open my eyes, I stared downward and took a deep breath. "I'm fine. It's nothing. Just a headache."

"Headache?"

"It's nothing," I repeated in a whisper, lowering my hands. My eyes widened slightly when I saw that I was holding a squished flower, pale pink petals folded over on themselves, stem broken in several spots. All the more confused, I opened my hand and let the blossom fall to the ground, watching as it landed soundlessly in the grass at my boots.

"Al?" Dib gave a light tug to my hair to get my attention.

My hair…that's where it had come from.

I raised my hand again and ran it over my hair, which at some point Dib had braided and decorated with numerous flowers. Trying to keep my rising irritation to a minimum—how did I not notice something like that happening?—I tilted my decorated head back to look up at the halfling. "Dib."

"Yeah?" he asked, eyes wide with concern.

Raising both hands, I grabbed him under his arms and lifted him off my shoulders. "You can say 'goodbye' to your shoulder-riding privileges. Walk on your own."

"Huh? What‽ NO-O-O-O!" he screamed, holding tightly onto my wrists so I couldn't set him down. "DON'T WANNA-A-A! NO! NO! NO-O-O! YOU JERK!"

Irritation blasting sky-high, I watched while he flailed around, shaking his head and yelling, "NO!" over and over as if he thought that throwing a temper tantrum would make me change my mind. Rather than making me want to let him continue to sit on me, all of the screaming and bratty behavior was making me want to knock him unconscious so he'd be quiet, but I did my best to resist the urge.

"Dib."

"NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!" He held on even tighter, eyes squeezed shut. I took advantage of the fact that he couldn't see what I was doing, and quickly unbuckled my arm's bracers, shaking them off. Dib fell to the ground, hands still clutched tightly around the pieces of armor. Finally not screaming anymore, his eyes popped open, a surprised look on his face as he glanced down at the bracers.

"After we train, I will carry you all the way back to the city," I promised, "so walk by yourself on the way to the giants."

"Why-y-y-y‽" he whined, irritably throwing one of the black leather armor pieces at my leg.

"I just…" I murmured, feeling my face heat up with renewed embarrassment, "want to talk to Jiū alone for a little while, if she agrees."

"Talk about what‽" he demanded, eyes narrowing.

"Um, I don't mind, but if it's about your hair," Jiū herself suddenly cut in, looking somewhat defensive, "it was all Dib's idea!"

"S-so what if it was‽" Dib snapped, giving her an angry look. "You handed me three of the flowers! You're an accomplice!"

Sighing, I shook my head, wincing when a flower suddenly fell in my eyes and dropped to the ground. "It's not about my hair. And you," I added, frowning down at Dib as I took back my thick bracers and buckled them onto my forearms, "don't have to know what it's about." Straightening up as I adjusted the bracers, I gave a nod to Wei Bo. "Walk on ahead. I'll fly Jiū and I over once we're done."

Glaring mistrustfully at me, he crossed his arms and planted himself a few centimeters away, face shoved obnoxiously into mine. "Talk alone? Why do we have to leave? Planning something sneaky‽ Planning on molesting my sister while I'm not here‽"

"Of course not." I returned his glare and shook my head. "I would never do that. I just want to talk to her."

Much to my surprise, he looked angrier after I denied his accusation. "What, is something wrong with her‽ You don't like her‽ Not good enough for you‽"

Leaning away a little bit, I shook my head again. "That isn't what I meant at all." There was simply no winning against Wei Bo when he had his Protective Older Brother switch set to the _ON_ mode.

"You…!" Whatever he was going to say was cut off when Avila clobbered him with the flat of her sword, then helped Xiu Chen drag him away.

Inwardly rolling my eyes at his silly behavior, I glanced back down at Dib. He gave me a very reluctant, grumpy frown. "Will you be long?"

"I doubt it." Turning away from him before he could stall me any longer, I strode off in a north-east direction. Jiū followed me a moment later and a glance back told me Dib had finally stood up and was slowly, with dragging feet, following the other three while they headed east toward the gully of giants.

After several minutes of walking, I sat down in the grass and gave a somewhat annoyed look up to Jiū. "Would you help me dismantle my hair, please?"

Her gray eyes crinkled into one of her amused smiles as she knelt down behind me and started gathering together the numerous flower-dotted braids. "Are you sure you want to put it back the way it was? All the flowers make you look so pretty."

Frowning at her playful remark, I took one of the braids over my shoulder and started undoing the sections. "Was that meant to be insulting?"

"No. Did you take is as an insult?"

"I hate being called pretty," I mumbled, tossing aside several blue flowers.

"Why?" she quietly asked, fingers gently tugging at the hair. "It's a compliment."

"Back in college," I explained, feeling my face grow hot from embarrassment, "from the first day to the last, people kept calling me 'Princess' and told me I was pretty. And from them, it was _not_ a compliment. They always had such mocking expressions on their faces whenever they said it…Sarcastically asking things like 'My lady, may I carry your bag?' whenever they saw me in the hallways…It's not my fault my looks are so effeminate," I ended in a dark tone, feeling all of that old hate start to swirl up. They had been so persistent, it was like they had nothing at all more worthwhile to do than make fun of me all day long.

"People like that always stick themselves to a person who has an advantage in one area or another," Jiū observed. "Bullying others is their way of making them feel better about themselves. They were just insecure. Or maybe they secretly liked you and wanted your attention."

"That makes me no more sympathetic than I was before," I grumbled, forcefully tearing a flower stem out of a messy knot in my hair.

"Well, I wasn't trying to make you sympathetic." Jiū gave a small laugh. "I meant you shouldn't pay attention to what they say, since all that does is make you angry. Instead you should listen to what your friends say, and accept their words for what they are; I was _complimenting_ you, not _mocking_ you."

"Then in that case, thank you," I replied, smiling faintly. Of course, I still didn't like having "pretty" attached to me, but I supposed that hearing it from Jiū wasn't as bad as it had been when the people in the past had only meant it in a malicious way.

"Now then, I assume you didn't ask to speak to me about your femininity, so what is it?"

I watched as she dropped several tiny white flowers to the grass at my side and I took a deep breath, feeling heat creep across my cheeks again. After what we'd just discussed, asking if she liked me or not seemed like it would make me appear even more girlish, which was not what I wanted at all. But still, it was worrying me.

"Promise you'll try not to laugh," I requested, drawing my eyebrows together in firm concentration as I stared down at the ground, shakily undoing another braid. Three leaves fell out of the strands and came to a rest on top of my knee. I forcefully brushed them away in a want to keep my hands busy.

"I'll try," she agreed, curiosity coloring her tone.

"Well, I…um…was wondering…since earlier…if you…like…me at all," I slowly, hesitantly and very, very quietly said, my whole face burning like it had been set on fire from the embarrassing words. All of those people who had confessed to me in the past must have had nerves of steel. Here I was simply asking if Jiū _liked_ me, if only a little bit, and my poor heart was about to explode from the anxiety.

Several minutes passed by in thick, awkward silence, then Jiū finally said in a strained voice, "I assume you mean 'like' as in the sort between a man and a woman."

"Y-yeah."

Another long, silent moment crawled went by.

And then Jiū suddenly started giggling, making me blush even more. "Oh, I'm sorry…Ha-ha-ha! I tried, but something … something like that…Here you are saying how you hate being called 'pretty,' and then you go and ask something so girl-like."

"Well, sorry for asking!" I yelled, glaring down at the ground while she continued to laugh. It had taken me so much courage to bring it up, and this was how she reacted…I wished with all of my might that I had kept my mouth shut.

"No, don't…don't apologize," she gasped, roughly patting my shoulder as she did her best to stop her mirth from leaking out. Taking one last deep, shuddering breath, she quieted herself. Mostly. "I'm sorry for laughing, it was mean and I shouldn't have." Giving my shoulder a much more gentle pat, she busied herself with my hair again and fell silent for a bit, supposedly thinking up an answer.

"To put it bluntly," she began, her careful tone giving me a sinking feeling in my stomach, "no. I don't like you in that way. I do think you're a very nice person, of course, but, um, no."

"I thought not," I mumbled, tangling my fingers in the ends of my hair while I wondered if being "a very nice person" was enough. Then again, that was basically how I thought of her.

"Oh, come on," she reproved, "don't give me that disappointed tone. I've wondered about this same thing, you know. You also don't like me in that way, do you?"

Feeling somewhat confused, I shrugged. "I…I don't know. I mean, I guess not. I don't really have anything to compare it to."

"Well, hm…" She paused, running her fingers down the length of my hair. "Have you ever thought about kissing me or something like that?" she asked. "Dàgē says men think about those sorts of things a lot, even when the other person isn't someone they necessarily want to have a relationship with."

"I haven't," I answered, lightly shaking my head. "And to be honest, the thought of kissing you in a romantic way sounds a bit creepy…"

"Not once have you made any moves on me or flirted even a tiny bit, so I suspected that you didn't like me. It was pretty obvious. And also, not to insult you again," she warned, pulling my head back so she could see my face, "but are you gay?"

My eyes went very wide at her question and my face paled slightly. "I-I don't know," I blurted before I had much time to think. "I mean, I've never thought perverted things about men before." Pausing, I mentally recalled the moment I spent staring at Heng's chest earlier that afternoon, contradicting what I'd just said. Feeling somewhat horrified, I pushed that from mind and shook my head. "But, um, I've also never thought about those things about women…I guess I don't like either gender. Or something."

Jiū quirked an eyebrow in a bemused way. "So in conclusion; you're asexual."

While that sounded plausible—if I wasn't heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual, what else was left?—that also made me feel extremely worried; saying I was asexual made it sound like I was impotent, and being impotent was very bad; my father was obviously expecting me to make an heir to whom I would pass on the company whenever the time came for me to retire, but how was I supposed to make an heir if I had no sex drive whatsoever? Adoption was out of the question; my father would never allow his precious company to be passed to someone out of the direct blood line. That was a given fact, seeing as how he'd made me—the person he apparently hated the most—his heir when he could have chosen one of my cousins or one of his employees.

This was terrible.

And completely unforeseen.

**"HEY!"** screamed an unexpected person called over our team channel.

Oh, thank goodness. A distraction.

**"Who's that?"** Wei Bo's voice added quickly after.

**"Lolidragon!"** she replied.

**"How did you get into our team channel?"** I asked, feeling confused as my head rang with the obnoxiously loud volume of her voice. I'd thought only team members would be able to come into a team channel. Then again, the six of us still weren't an official team, so maybe that had some sort of impact on our channel's security.

**"STOP ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS!"**

**"Geeze, you sure are grumpy. They only asked two,"** Dib remarked.

**"SHOOSH!"** she rudely told him. **"Come back to the city! We need you guys!"**

**"Yu Lian didn't give me more work, did she?"** I wearily inquired. **"I only just finished making those damned short bows for her. All one hundred of them. And the five hundred arrows before that. And the random pieces of archer's armor before that. And the two hundred health potions before–"**

**"JUST COME BACK!"** she snappishly ordered. **"WE'LL EXPLAIN WHEN YOU GET HERE!"**

**"Okay. We'll be back in an hour or so,"** Jiū assured.

When Lolidragon disappeared from our team chat, I stood up and sighed, reluctantly looking to the west, not wanting to return so soon, especially when we hadn't even had a chance to train at all. I held out my hand to Jiū. "I would fly you and I straight back to the city, but then Dib would complain, so let's go join them."

Giving a small laugh, she took my hand. "Alright. This is my first time flying, so please be gentle with me." Smiling, I carefully picked her up, unfurling my wings and jumping into the air. Only around two minutes had passed before we spotted the others down on the ground, and I landed, switched Jiū with the sour-faced Dib, and then we continued over the hilly land in a westward direction, back to Infinite City.

Slightly less than an hour later, we were filing into one of the largest meeting halls of the central tower, and the members of the Odd Squad—still sans Prince, it seemed—Dark Phantom, and that one tattoo-faced, pokey-haired warrior whose name I couldn't remember all turned in our direction, anxiety smothering their faces.

"What's wrong? Why have you called us?" I asked, looking at each person in turn as we came to a stop.

"Fan is leading an army to attack Infinite City," the unknown warrior informed quietly. "They'll be here in a few days."

I stared at him for a moment, wondering if that announcement was supposed to make sense. It didn't, in several ways.

"Who's Fan?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He was one of the three leaders during the Grand Melee," Dib explained, tilting his head back to look up at me. "The competing teams were all clumped into three groups. Nan Gong Zui here was one alliance's leader, and Fan was another."

"Oh," I said, feeling relieved that Dib had unintentionally answered two of my questions.

"Why's he attacking the city?" Wei Bo inquired.

"He doesn't like Zui," Doll answered, sighing slightly from her chair. "They're rivals."

"The city…is being attacked by an army because of something as trivial as a rivalry…?" I stared at Nan Gong Zui in utter disbelief. What in the world was the matter with these people? This was just a game. How ridiculous could they get, starting an entire war with one another for some stupid reason like that?

When Nan Gong Zui's face fell into one of extreme offense at the word "trivial," Doll added, "Fan doesn't like Prince-gēge very much, either. Since he's the city lord and all, it adds to Fan's motive for stealing the city."

Was that continuation supposed to make me see all of this as less idiotic? If anything, that made me think this Fan person and his battle was even more pointless than I had initially.

"We only just got word about all of this," Yu Lian said, "so we called you all back to help us spend the next few days preparing the city and yourselves for the attack." She looked over the five of my teammates, but then surprised me by suddenly staring at me as well. "Aeolus, I know you're not in the military, but…" She paused when I began to shake my head in refusal for what she was going to say next. There was no way I wanted to take part in a war, much less one being fought for such stupid reasons.

"I don't want to fight. That was the reason I declined joining the military department in the first place," I said, giving her a stubborn glance. I couldn't actually remember when I'd been assigned to my position, but knowing myself, that had definitely been why.

An icy glower settled on her face and she stepped forward with deliberate forcefulness. The sight was absolutely terrifying, but I stood my ground, determined to win against her. "Aeolus, you are not in a position to decline our request for help when the city is in the danger it's in. As a member of the Odd Squad and as one of the city owners, I have the authority to command you in any way I so choose. As one of Infinite City's citizens and a subordinate to the Odd Squad, you can hardly refuse. However, since you are Gui's younger brother, I would prefer not to use drastic measures to change your mind, for his sake, not for yours."

"I've already done what you asked of me and made you a great deal of weapons, armor, and potions. I refuse to fight," I answered as steadily as I could manage, attempting not to wonder what she meant by "drastic measures." Knowing Yu Lian, it was probably something horrible, like throwing me in a torture chamber and doing unspeakable things to me until I agreed.

With a long sigh, she crossed her arms and stared up at me, a calculating expression falling over her eyes. "We'll give your team a room in the castle if you agree."

"No, thank you. I don't want a room."

"You already offered that to us a long time ago," Wei Bo added, looking a bit annoyed. "And we declined."

"We don't spend much time in the city," Xiu Chen agreed, "so we don't really need housing for our team."

Doll scampered up to Yu Lian's side and offered me a partially eaten cookie. "I'll give you this!"

"No, thank you," I declined, shaking my head. She immediately shrugged her shoulders and stuffed the snack into her mouth.

"As if food bribes would work on Al," Dib snorted, scowling at the girl.

Staring at Yu Lian again, I put on a very firm frown. "I'm not fighting, and that's my final—OUCH!" Whirling around to look for the source of the sharp, stinging pain in my shoulder blade, I glared furiously down at Lolidragon. She waved a fistful of tiny black feathers at me, then threw them at my face. Reaching a hand around behind myself, I rubbed my feathered skin through the holes in my leather top. There was a large bald spot interrupting the thin lines of plumage running across my back. "Why are you ripping out my feathers?" I demanded angrily, hoping they would grow back soon. Since when had she been behind me, anyway?

"Cooperate, or else I'll pluck every single one of your precious little feathers!" she threatened, stabbing her finger at my nose. "There's no time to stand around here and argue until you agree, stupid! We don't have nearly enough archers for the city defense, so you're gonna help us whether you want to or not!"

"Why should I involve myself in Nan Gong Zui's battle for superiority over this Fan person?"

"Because it isn't just Zui's battle anymore!" she yelled, grabbing a lock of my hair and roughly tugging on it until I slapped her hand away. "All the rest of Infinity City has been pulled into it, and we've got to fight or we'll lose the city, and there's no way I'm gonna let that prissy man get his mits on the Odd Squad's property!"

"Why are you so reluctant to help us?" Ugly Wolf asked quietly in the silence following Lolidragon's words. I clamped my mouth shut in a refusal to explain myself. As if I would blurt out such personal things in front of a large crowd of people I barely knew.

Lolidragon lobbed one last glare at me, stomped over to her team, grabbed Gui by his shirt front, and then dragged him back to my team and I. "Convince him!" she ordered, pushing us both toward a nearby doorway.

"Let's get the rest of you organized," Yu Lian suggested to the others, and they were promptly herded outside. I stared after them, and then glanced at Gui, not feeling at all prepared to suddenly speak to him. We'd been plenty friendly with one another as of late, if one could call it that, but that didn't mean I was okay with having a spontaneous heart-to-heart talk. He didn't look very enthusiastic over the idea, either.

Gui sighed slightly and turned in a very reluctant manner toward the door Lolidragon had shoved us at. Giving one more longing look in the direction of where everyone had left, I followed after him, closing the small meeting room's door behind myself. A very long stretch of silence took place, and I glanced awkwardly between Gui and the stone floor.

"I guess I'm supposed to be saying something convincing," he mused. Sighing again, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "So why _are _you so reluctant?"

"I don't like violence," I muttered, resting myself on the closed door as I continued to stare downward. "It reminds me of him," I answered quietly, feeling somewhat surprised that I'd said it so easily.

"I assume you're talking about father, but he has nothing to do with this," Gui pointed out, tilting his head to one side as he looked me over.

I laughed lightly, briefly shaking my head at him. "Says the person who hasn't lived with father's constant torment for his entire life. You have no idea what it was like, so please, don't say such things so casually as if you're completely understanding of what I've gone through."

Anger flashed across Gui's eyes, and it seemed as though he was about to yell something, but he looked away, forcibly calmer than before, and nodded. "No, I don't understand," he said carefully, "but I would appreciate it if you would stop talking to me as though you're the only person who suffered while we were growing up. My childhood was nowhere near wonderful, either. All the damn pressure to be perfect every single second, I could hardly even…" Gui paused and took a deep breath, letting his head fall back to rest on the wall. "Okay, we're getting off-topic. Not a good place to be."

His eyes darted about the ceiling for a moment, and then he stared at me with a guarded expression. "Don't think I'm calling you wimpy or anything like that, because I'm not, but you're plenty fine with killing monsters, to the point of looking like you're completely bored while training. And the pain level is only thirty percent of that in real life. So, well, um, I know getting injured still hurts and all, but–"

"If I was afraid of pain, I wouldn't play _Second Life_," I interrupted, smirking slightly at his perplexed frown.

"What's the problem, then?" he asked.

Exhaling slowly, I went back to staring at the patch of stone floor between my boots. "Monsters are just part of the _Second Life_ program, it's not like I'm actually hurting them whenever I train. However, these are real people we're talking about killing. I don't want to hurt anyone," I whispered. "I know it may not seem like a big deal to you or other people, since this is just a game and it's not like I'll really be killing them, but…but that doesn't mean they don't feel pain.

"The thought of…being like _him_, of hurting people," I said, my breath quickening as I pressed a hand to my eyes. "I don't want to be anything like him…but sometimes I reflect on how I've behaved, and I wonder why in the world I acted like that. Whenever I lose my temper over tiny, insignificant things, and when I get angry with people when they don't do things the way I want them to be done, and how judgmental and condescending I am…I see him in me and it makes me so sick…It makes me so sick."

Pressing both hands to my eyes as hard as I could, I gritted my teeth and tried to beat down the urge to cry. But, before I knew what was happening, Gui's arms were around me and he wordlessly hugged me with all his strength. Whether out of shock at his actions or the fact that he was squeezing me so tightly, I suddenly couldn't breathe. The unexpected onslaught of brotherliness caught me completely off-guard. It had been the one and only thing I'd ever wanted so desperately from him, but now that I had it, I wasn't sure how to deal with it.

"You moron," Gui snapped. My eyes widened in surprise and I stared at the side of his head, wondering what he was so angry about all of the sudden. Without letting go of me, he continued, "Eleven years may have passed since I've last been around father, but I can say without a doubt you're nothing like him at all. _Everyone_ deals with anger issues at some point or another." He leaned away from me and slapped his hands on either side of my face. "You need to stop being so pessimistic," he scolded. Sighing slightly, he continued in a softer tone, "You've got plenty of prominent, positive traits that make you completely different from him."

"…Like what?" I inquired hopefully as he proceeded to squish my face. I'd been mentally listing all of my negative traits just earlier that evening, and was extremely happy that someone had said I had some good ones as well.

"Well, for one, you're hopelessly compassionate," he answered, smiling slightly. "And you're kind, and selfless, and whiny, and silly, and embarrassing, and obnoxious, and childish, and–"

"Okay, okay, I get it," I grumbled, cutting off his ongoing list of "positive traits." Since when had I been whiny? _He_ was the whiny one.

He laughed for a moment, smiling warmly as he finally let my slightly sore face go, and then he grabbed my shoulders instead. After a few minutes of silent staring, a hopeful look slipped over his eyes. "So, do–"

"No," I interrupted.

Gui briefly glared at me, but quickly replaced it with another bright smile. "Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"If you don't want me to tell all of your embarrassing childhood stories to your teammates, you'll agree to fight," he threatened with a dark scowl.

I thought for a moment, wondering to which embarrassing moment he was referring. "I don't have any of those," I muttered, raising an eyebrow at him.

He made an almost inaudible "tsk" noise and glanced away, lips pressed together in annoyance. Apparently the threat had been empty. Either that, or he was going to make something up.

"Okay," he sighed and stared at me again. "Well, what about this; what would you do if someone was attacking Jiū?"

"Stop them," I answered at once. "Though she would probably beat me to it. She's taken self-defense lessons and can get pretty fierce."

"What about Dib? Would you help him if he was in trouble?"

"Of course," I answered again, somewhat reluctantly. I could see where he was going with this.

"What about someone you didn't even know? A stranger on the street who you just happened to be passing by when they were getting mugged or something of that sort?"

"Yes…I would."

"If so, why are you contradicting yourself by refusing to fight alongside an entire city of people who need your help?" he finally asked.

Darn it.

Stupid perspectives.

I stood silently for a minute, and then finally sighed, looking back at him, determined not to give in so easily without gaining something in return. "Get Yu Lian to hire more people into the supply production department, so I'll actually have time for other things. Even when I'm outside the city, I'm still working on Yu Lian's tasks while my teammates are training. Tonight was the first night in so long that I've had no work to do…" And that Fan person ruined it.

Gui blankly gazed at me and suddenly laughed at my terms, shaking his head in amusement. "Deal," he agreed, still laughing slightly as we left the meeting room to head outside. He glanced at me while we headed for the tower's main entrance. "Though, you know, there are actually several people in that department."

"Then why does it seem as though I am the only one who ever does any work?" I asked, frowning as we stepped into the bright sunlight and directed our steps toward the north gate. "Even with my teammates' help, the lists Yu Lian gives me are so long, it takes forever for us to work through even one of the tasks."

"Well," he muttered, shrugging slightly, "there are different sections in that department; one for people who make melee items; one for magic; one for archery—that's the one you're in, and yes, you're the only one so far—one for things like furnishings; one for supplying the city restaurant with ingredients, and so on and so forth. But at the moment, most of Infinite City's citizens are in the military. Once the population expands more, I'm sure Yu Lian will be able to hire more people into all of those departments. They're all understaffed, really, not just the archery section.

"Our finances are pretty tight at the moment, especially with the preparations for this battle, so just be a bit understanding with Yu Lian and her decisions. Though she seems cruel for having you work alone, we don't really have any funds for hiring more people just yet."

"Well, she could take my pay and use it for a second worker," I said. "I rarely buy things, and I have quite a bit saved up. My team's expenses aren't very large, either."

Gui laughed again. "She'll like that offer, I'm sure," he murmured.

He and I fell silent as we approached the northern gate, and the mass of people came into view. I looked about myself with rising apprehension, searching the crowds for my teammates. I couldn't see them anywhere, but the Odd Squad, Dark Phantom, and several other people from various teams turned to watch us walk toward them, and Yu Lian smiled with relief at my presence. As Gui and I stopped beside the teams, I stared down at her. "What do you need me to do?"

She gestured to a blond-haired elven archer dressed all in green. "This is Legolas from Team Rose. He's the one in command of the archers."

I expectantly looked to him instead. "Ah, yeah," he said with a nod. "Come with me." He led me away from the gate, to a wide, rectangular field set between two buildings, then waved a hand toward the round targets placed at regular intervals at one end of the grass. "We don't have enough archers, so we have to use some of the warriors. Just help them get used to using a bow."

At my disbelieving stare, he faintly chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm not asking you to make them archery masters in a measly three days." He walked over to where the line of warriors were standing, shooting haphazardly at the targets. Attempting not to give them all critical frowns for their messy shots, I sighed and looked back to Legolas. He pointed at one of the targets. "Yu Lian may think you have skill, but let's see what you've got."

Feeling annoyed at his superior tone, I pulled out my bow and an arrow, settled into my stance as I lifted the weapon, carefully drew back the arrow and aimed, then let it fly. It buried itself in the center of the target, so I gave the other archer a questioning stare, wordlessly demanding a critique.

"Hm…" He pressed his lips together and raised an eyebrow. "You're not so bad."

"Thank you," I replied somewhat sarcastically.

"But you're way too slow," he added and crossed his arms, abruptly throwing me further into my bad mood. "If you shoot like that during the battle, you'll be no use to us at all. The enemies aren't going to spend time planning where they'll stab our troops, you know. You have to be fast as well as accurate! In the middle of a war, there's no time to be leisurely!"

Just to make him shut up, with a burst of speed I effortlessly shot five more arrows in a fraction of the time that I'd shot one, each forming another corner of an evenly-spaced pentagon that surrounded the original arrow. I then glared at Legolas' mildly surprised expression and went to fetch all of the arrows from the center of the target. When I returned to the line, he finally smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "I guess you'll do."

Refraining from giving him another sarcastic remark, I simply nodded.

"Alright, you take the ten over here, I'll take the other ten. Later tonight we can switch these guys out for new ones," he instructed, pointing at my new pupils, who were most likely going to come to hate me before the night was over; I was not a patient teacher at all. But I tried my hardest to keep my irritation to a minimum when I gave Legolas another nod, and then turned to watch while the ten warriors wandered over to me, lost and confused looks mixing with the worry on their faces.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to smile and focus my mind on the task at hand rather than all of the other problems that kept digging their way into my thoughts. "Let's get to work, then, shall we?"

* * *

><p><em>Just to clear up something; the sexual orientation of asexuality is not the same as the process of asexual reproduction. xD Al is not a bacterium, plant, fungus, or whatever else which reproduces asexually.<br>_

_**Asexuality** (sometimes referred to as **nonsexuality**), in its broadest sense, is the lack of sexual attraction and, in some cases, the lack of interest in sex. Sometimes, it is considered a lack of a sexual orientation._


	39. A Wish for Peace

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Time passed slowly over the three days and nights before the battle. Since I had nothing important to do in real life, I spent much more time than usual inside <em>Second Life<em>, helping wherever I could to prepare the city for the attack; fortifying the walls and gates, continuing with my archery supply-making, and teaching warrior after warrior the basics of how to use a bow.

In the first night alone I had managed to reduce four women and one man to hysterical tears with my fierce training methods before Legolas had told me to go away and do something else for a while. I'd thought I had been doing pretty well—I actually got all of them to shoot their targets, though understandably none of them hit a bullseye—until Yu Lian had stopped by the archery range and had praised my teaching. At that moment I had realized that I had been doing something very wrong if Yu Lian, the Magician of Terror, thought my methods were praise-worthy. And so I had decided to do what Legolas had told me, and had taken a break to fly around outside the city and collect fletching supplies as well as calm myself down. Perhaps it was simply the looming threat of the slaughter to come, but it seemed everyone, myself included, had been very emotionally unstable all through those three days.

The only consolation I could give myself was that it would all be over eventually, although I wasn't sure if I wanted to be grateful or terrified when that inevitable "eventually" came and Infinite City's troops were called to arms.

Standing behind the parapet of the city wall, I stared up at the bright blue sky, half-closed my eyes, and focused my attention on the warm breeze blowing all around me, lifting up the ends of my tied-back hair. Although the air was filled with the repugnant smells of oil, sweat, and fear, the wind smelled like summertime—a not easily noticed, yet stark contrast to the rich autumn scents surrounding the outdoors in real life.

Gaze trailing after a pure white fluff of cloud, I felt myself become somewhat irritated. Why did the weather have to be so nice, I wondered, glaring up at the pretty sky, which was always that impossibly intense, deep color. Hardly weather for a battle to take place in. It could have at least rained a little.

But, of course, the time I actually wanted it to rain, there were no storm clouds in sight.

Then again, there was never a storm cloud in sight in _Second Life_; the weather was perpetually perfect, this moment being no different than all of the rest, regardless of how I felt as though there should be a lot of rain, wind, and spectacularly huge lightening bolts.

It would suit the mood much better.

And would be a lot more interesting to look at.

Sighing exasperatedly at the sky's lack of a suitable appearance, I dropped my gaze to stare at the rippling stretch of green grass outside Infinite City, watching while two tiny, brown birds fluttered past, twittering to one another, seemingly oblivious to, or perhaps simply uncaring about the army that was marching along below their zig-zagging path of flight.

I looked away from the enemy troops, giving a glance to my left, where another archer was standing, bow and arrow in hand, face hardened against the conflict to come. Next to him was one of many gigantic vats of oil, steaming and boiling and ready to be poured on anyone who dared come too near to the walls.

Even if the pain level was thirty percent of that in real life, getting smothered in boiling oil still seemed to be a horrible, slow, excruciatingly painful way to die.

My stomach started to churn at those disgusting thoughts, so I stopped looking at that, going back to observing as Fan's army marched steadily toward Infinite City, giving my nausea a twist of cold dread. Their high-level armor glittered in the sunlight as they tromped along in neat lines, some carrying tall ladders to scale the walls with, others crowded around a giant construct meant to break down the gate.

With trembling hands, I pulled out an arrow ahead of time and carefully fitted it onto my longbow's string, watching as the enemy approached. All of those miserable, pitiable people, coming to fight for such a stupid reason as some man not liking another…I doubted I would ever understand, even a little bit, why they'd chosen to do such a thing. There were so many other more positive, and far more interesting ways to spend gaming time than going to war.

Perhaps I was simply a hopeless pacifist, but I had no idea why they couldn't just choose peace.

It took nearly half an hour longer, but all too soon the opposing army was arranging itself outside the wall. Their loud leering and shouting was as unsettling as the mere sight of their forces. But what I found to be most unsettling of all was their facial expressions—they all were wearing excited, energized smiles as if they were about to do something extremely fun.

I felt very startled when Nan Gong Zui—he was standing some distance away and waving his sword around in what I assumed was supposed to be an impressive way—unexpectedly roared, "For our Infinite City, we shall fight to the death!"

"TO THE DEATH!" the warriors echoed deafeningly, making me cringe at the grim words, making me hope my team's three warriors were not part of the violent chorus, making me pray that the players I'd taught would remember their archery lessons, making me wish I was somewhere where the war wasn't.

Legolas' voice broke further into my near-trance-like state. "Archers, nock your bows and wait behind the arrowslit for the signal. Get ready for the first volley of arrows."

Slightly further down the wall, seeming to be a lot calmer than I was, Wicked gave a sweeping look down the line of archers and warriors. "Warriors, move the cauldron of oil into place, and then attack using your bows first! Once someone begins to scale the walls, pour the hot oil on them immediately. Also, protect the archers and the mages well," he ordered.

While the warriors hurried to obey, a faint hum filled my ears when the magicians, all down on the ground and placed at a safe distance from the gate, put up the protective barrier, enveloping the whole city. My hands trembled all the more when the other army began to advance on the city.

And so it began.

The air was abruptly filled with raw-throated bellows, the soft whistling of arrows, the sharp twangs of crossbows, the sizzling crackles of magical spells, and the metallic clashes of swords. Setting my jaw, I raised my bow, leaned over the parapet, and aimed for the exposed neck of one of the enemy warriors wildly dashing about on the ground far below. Taking a deep breath of the hot, thick air, I tried to block out all of the noise when I let my arrow go, eyes closed against the sight which followed. The shrieks of pain, not only from the man I'd shot, but from all of the other people being injured on the ground and there on the wall around me, made bile rise in my throat, nearly making me gag.

Before I could hesitate, I pulled out a second arrow, aimed at another warrior and shot, falling into rhythmic movements as I depleted my supply of arrows far more slowly than I would have liked.

Soon after that, several of the warriors nearby dropped their bows and rushed forward, tipping one of the enormous vats of oil, pouring the thick liquid down onto the ladder the enemy army had leaned against the wall. A lit torch was then put to the dripping oil a moment later, setting the ladder and quite a few people on fire. The warriors then took hold of the top of the flaming ladder and pushed it away from the wall, causing it to fall back to the ground. All of the agonized screams, the smell of burning flesh, the horrific sight of people going up in flames, the oddly pretty pillars of light spiking upward whenever someone died; everything slowly melted together as I focused all of my attention on simply keeping myself from throwing up.

I was going to need a very, very long break from training after this…

The battle raged on, and some amount of time passed—I couldn't tell anymore—then suddenly my arm was being yanked on. Blinking my eyes back into focus, I stared with bewilderment at the anxious face of the archer who'd been standing beside me.

"We have to retreat, didn't you hear‽" he asked wildly, pulling me away from the edge of the wall and hurrying me toward the wide stairs, filled with people running downward. I let the man drag me along, not really caring what was happening at that point, and concentrated on keeping myself from collapsing. He and I stumbled to a halt when we'd gone through the gate to the central tower where everyone had retreated. He ran off to join the other archers, but I didn't move other than turning to glance behind myself, watching while the Odd Squad and the warriors blocked the entrance to the tower when the army spilled in through the destroyed city gate. Streak after streak of light shot up into the sky when the battle resumed after its brief respite.

Jiū and Xiu Chen ran up to me a moment later and I smiled with relief that it seemed they were okay. They both crashed into me and gave me a tight hug, and I moved to shakily put my arms around them as well, but then stumbled backward, blinking when tiny dots swam in front of my eyes, the edges of my vision blackening, my head going very light, a loud buzzing filling my ears and drowning out the noise of battle.

"Oh, great," I muttered as their hazy, dimming faces looked up at me in concern. Falling to one side, my hands slipped off their shoulders and I fainted.

Mind sluggish, swirly and confused, I woke up what felt like ages later, laying on my back on a cold, hard surface, people talking around me. Feeling too tired to do anything, I just kept laying there, eyes closed, hoping the fighting was over.

"I can't believe he fainted, that light-weight," Wei Bo muttered.

"Leave him be. Gēge didn't do it voluntarily," Xiu Chen reprimanded quietly.

"No one _else_ fainted. And stop calling him 'Gēge'!"

"Give him a few good punches and he'll probably wake up," suggested a smooth voice I couldn't place.

"Try it!" Lolidragon urged, her tone sounding as though she was eager to pester me yet again. I was quite tired of her endless determination to annoy me every chance she got. In fact, I'd passed "tired" a very long time ago.

"WHA! PLEASE WAIT, YOUR HIGHNESS!" Gui yelled, and there was quite a bit of stomping and the sounds of people rushing about.

Judging by Gui's words, it was Prince that had spoken. The violent elf had finally returned.

Thin arms wrapped protectively around my head, and Jiū angrily ordered, "Don't you dare hit him!"

Someone jumped onto my chest and there was the sound of a sword being drawn. "I'LL STAB YOU IF YOU TRY!" Dib added in a fierce, threatening tone that didn't match at all with his childish voice.

"Okay, fine! But he better wake up soon. I'm getting bored," Prince grumbled, his boots retreating a few steps back from where he'd advanced to beat me into awareness. Several relieved sighs sounded out in the silence afterward. What sort of person would immediately resort to punching when waking someone up?

Definitely not the sort I wanted my brother to date.

"Was it really so bad up there on the wall?" Ugly Wolf asked.

There was a clanking of armor as someone else moved. "No, not really," Wicked answered. "I hadn't thought so, anyway. It wasn't any worse than it was everywhere else."

"Maybe the reason is low blood sugar. He never eats, after all," Doll commented.

"Is that even possible in a game?" Yu Lian wondered. "It's not like eating is really necessary, as long as you drink potions."

"It _is_ necessary!" Doll and Prince both corrected her at once. I nearly laughed at their indignation, but couldn't muster the energy, so I stayed mute and lifted a hand to rub at my tired eyes.

"Shhh! He's awake!" Xiu Chen exclaimed.

I didn't bother to tell her that I'd actually been awake for quite some time, and instead slowly blinked upward at Dib's armor-plated butt—he was still standing on me. At the priest's silencing words, he twirled around, sheathing his scimitar and beaming down at me, relief flooding his sky-colored eyes as he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could say whatever it was, I pushed him off of my chest and stared up at the mass of faces wearing varying levels of curiosity, annoyance, and worry as they looked down at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

A cool hand was placed to my forehead and I glanced toward its owner. "Are you okay?" Jiū asked slowly, eyes wide with anxiety.

"Not particularly," I mumbled, not making any effort to sit up just yet. I was too dizzy. It seemed as though I'd been moved into the tower while I was unconscious, so at least I wasn't laying on the dirty ground outside.

"Sheesh, Twig. Always causing problems whenever you can, huh?" Wei Bo grumbled, flopping himself down onto the stone floor to sit beside me.

"Causing problems is my specialty," I replied, smiling slightly. "But I could say the same to you. I can't begin to count the times you've started arguments with me about incredibly pointless things."

"You do, too!" he countered, punching my arm.

Putting on a serious air, I grabbed his shoulder and used it to sit up. He looked somewhat reluctant to allow me to do so, but let me, anyway. "Of course," I said thoughtfully, fighting to keep my face straight as I settled myself into an upright position and attempted to quell the wooziness which came with it. "It is my duty as your older brother to pick on you at every opportunity, just as it is your duty as my younger brother to be irritating to no end, with which you are doing a very thorough job. What else are siblings for but fighting with one another for the amusement of the initiator?"

Wei Bo's mouth dropped open in outrage.

"What, am I wrong about your motives?" I asked, sending him a tiny smirk. Before he had a chance to retaliate, I looked upward toward Prince, giving him a critical once-over. The elven city lord was thin in an agile way, and handsome, although he was kind of short for a man and had a very air-headed sort of expression. There was also a weird-looking, round, white thing sitting on top of his head and staring at me with large, watery eyes.

My eyes widened slightly as I took in its bizarre appearance.

I'd seen that thing before. That loud, obnoxious pet who wouldn't shut up, and had cried all over the top of my head…

"Meatbun!" I exclaimed. At my call, the bun gave me an extremely terrified look and immediately leapt off of Prince's head and into the safety of his arms. The bun then buried its face in Prince's chest and started wailing that I was evil and was going to "bun-nap" it.

My team fell silent at my remembrance and blankly stared at me. Dib suddenly began punching my shoulder. "Al, you jerk! How come you recognize a _bun _straight away, but you couldn't remember _me_, in-game or in real life‽"

I sat still—or at least as still as one can sit while getting beaten up—while Dib's fists pounded against my shoulder. "I can't control what I forget or remember," I sighed, frowning down at the top of his curly head while he continued to pummel me. He didn't seem to notice I'd said anything.

"It's not like talking meat buns crop up every day, you know! It's kind of a memorable thing!"

"NEITHER DO BEST FRIENDS HAPPEN EVERY DAY, YOU JERK!" Dib bellowed at my excuse, punching even harder. I could feel my health steadily drain, and I quickly attempted to think up something to say that could calm him down. Nothing especially mellow came to mind, since I was too busy trying to block out the steadily growing pain in my arm while he yelled random threats. I wasn't sure if I should even try to calm him down. After all, he had every right to be angry at me, I supposed.

But still, I wanted him to stop.

"I don't particularly want to die from you punching my arm. Please, stop." Shooting a pleading look at the rest of my team, I leaned away from the tiny boy's angry flailing, but he refused to give up so easily. The others looked like they didn't quite know what to do about Dib's abrupt outburst. Wei Bo actually seemed rather amused.

"Stop me yourself, you overgrown chicken!" Dib yelled as he began to yank back and forth on my hair tie in an attempt to tear it off, one booted foot braced firmly against my waist.

"You could at least come up with better insults," I proffered in annoyance while I tried to pry his little fingers off the white string for fear of getting some of my hair ripped out.

Dib gasped at my suggestion and gave me an extremely offended look as if he'd thought what he'd been saying should have brought me to tears in a moment. Giving my hip a kick, he turned away with crossed arms and upturned nose. When I inhaled to ask him if he was okay, though I supposed it was my arm which should have been getting the sympathy, he gave me a brief, fuming look. "Don't talk to me! I'm mad at you!" he snapped, and then looked away again.

That was obvious, but I refrained from telling him so in an effort to keep him from getting angrier, and instead gave Jiū a helpless glance. She shrugged in reply, looking like she was attempting to keep herself from smiling. Big help my team was.

A cough from beside me startled me slightly. I turned to send an apologetic look to the other teams, all of whom I'd forgotten for a moment were there. "Sorry," I mumbled at them, then gave Prince what I hoped was a friendly grin, although I was still angry with him for threatening to punch me. "Um, welcome back."

"Thanks," he replied, a hesitant smile flashing over his face as he patted the top of his sobbing pet.

"Aeolus," Yu Lian called. I immediately looked at her instead. "Thank you for agreeing to fight, though you were so against it," she said stiffly. "I hadn't known this would, um, happen."

I stared at her a moment, not really caring that I'd fainted, as long as I wouldn't be forced to fight again in the future. "Neither had I," I replied and ran my eyes over the other people standing around me for whatever reason. The Odd Squad, a few members of Dark Phantom, two women I could vaguely remember seeing somewhere at some point—both seemed to be completely occupied with staring at Prince—three men and a woman I'd never seen before, and my entire team.

Why were there so many people? Was staring at an unconscious person really so interesting?

"Well," Yu Lian breathed, sticking her hand into her pouch. After a short search, she pulled out a keyring, flipped through the large, brass skeleton keys on the ring, then removed one and held it out to Wei Bo. "Third floor, east wing, fifth door from the end of the hall. I know you don't want housing for your team, but please take it anyway. It might come in handy later."

After a second of hesitation, he sighed, slowly reached out, and took it from her. "Yeah…thanks."

Yu Lian straightened, gave a stern look at the crowd surrounding us, then loudly cleared her throat. "And why are you all standing around‽ If you have so much free time, go help clear the rubble around the gate!" Turning away and yanking a somewhat frightened-looking Prince along behind herself, she snappishly continued, "Just because the battle is over doesn't mean we can relax! And you, Prince, you're coming with me!"

Gui gave me one last tiny glance before running off to follow Yu Lian and Prince. **"Don't forget to talk to Yu Lian about my terms,"** I reminded, staring after his retreating back. After getting put through such a horrible experience, I was going to be very annoyed if I didn't get the promised relief from my oppressive Supply Production Duties.

A brief wave of his hand was all I received in response.

I felt a bit jealous when he slipped up to Prince's side, smiling happily at the elf and seeming as though he'd barely even heard me. I'd gotten used to having Gui there with me so often. Now that Prince was back and Yu Lian would have them focusing all the closer on Infinite City's affairs, I doubted Gui would have much time for me anymore. But I tried to ignore the loneliness. I'd been living without Gui for over a decade, I supposed I could do so again. It wasn't as though I'd never see him again, anyway.

Sighing, I slowly pulled the tie out of my hair and let the strands fall down my back again. Shakily standing up, I carefully rolled up the white tie and put it in my pouch, giving a glance to Wei Bo when he let out a dark-sounding chuckle. "They're at it again already."

Wondering what he was talking about, I turned to look out the tower entrance, eyes going very wide when I watched Gui pick himself up off the ground, lip bleeding. Much to my horror, he romped up to Prince's side and attempted to hug him, but Prince, looking very irritated, drew back his fist and smashed it into Gui's face. Heart pounding furiously, I was filled with the urge to fly out there and pulverize Prince in return for thoughtlessly hurting my brother, but did my best to restrain myself.

I'd already heard about Prince's treatment of Gui, and of course didn't like it then, either, but actually seeing it for myself was infuriating.

However, Gui was an adult, I reminded myself, crossing my arms to keep them from pulling out my bow and arrow to shoot Prince as many times as I could. An adult…a very stupid one, but an adult all the same, and he could make his own choices about who he wanted to fall for.

Even if I was beginning to despise the person he'd chosen…

Biting the inside of my cheek, I turned to the rest of my team and tried to clear my mind of Gui and Prince. "What should we do now?"

"Hm." Wei Bo shrugged, twirling our new key around on the index finger of his right hand. "We could go help with the gate, or the parts of the wall that got damaged. Yu Lian will probably yell at us if we don't do something productive."

"Are you feeling better now?" Jiū asked, peering up at me, her silvery eyes still wide with worry. "We could go look at our new room instead, and rest for a while."

"No, I'm fine," I assured, "just a little light-headed."

"Twig was out for nearly three quarters of an hour," Wei Bo grumbled, glowering at me. "He's already rested plenty. I vote for work."

Nodding, I uncrossed my arms, grabbed the still-grumpy Dib and lifted him onto my shoulders, then strode outside, ignoring Dib's snappish order of "No! Put me down, you jerk!" while he squirmed around and yanked on my hair. Knowing that he probably didn't really want me to put him down, I grabbed his ankles and tightly held on, directing my steps out of the tower, out of the tower's closed-in plaza, and into the wide-spread wreckage that once was the gate.

For a very brief moment, the scene in front of me made me abruptly stop in a panic; a lot of the players walking around were wearing the enemy's armor. But, seeing as how they were clearing rubble and not attacking anyone, I tried to relax myself and continued forward, though still giving the suspicious people many cautious looks, not trusting them to behave themselves.

Stepping carefully over a large, broken brick, I gave a sweeping look about the dismantled, smoky area, which was oddly silent after the chaos that had been raging through but a little while ago. There were chunks of stone from the wall and splintered beams from the gate scattered all over the ground, arrows—mostly broken—peppered the area, and some of the nearby houses and shops had also taken various levels of damage during the fray.

Players from both sides of the conflict worked side by side, clearing the aftermath of the destructive clash of two men's pride.

"Ridiculous," I mumbled to myself, inwardly scowling at Nan Gong Zui and Fan's silliness for causing such a thing to happen.

"This'll take ages to fix," Wei Bo mourned, brown eyes trailing up, over, and down the gaping hole where the gate used to sit. Taking a deep breath, he began to scan the workers. "And the people who caused all this aren't even out here helping."

"Well, they do have their own responsibilities," I pointed out, though I was also feeling the sharp stabs of injustice.

"Ri-i-ight," Avila sardonically agreed, raising a pink eyebrow at me. "Know what they did while you were unconscious, Gēge? While all these people were out here slaving away? They went and had _dinner_."

Not knowing exactly how to respond to her—no defense seemed justifiable—I simply shook my head. "Leaders give orders, subordinates follow them; it's the way of the world, so you had better get used to it."

She gave a somewhat reluctant shrug, then we all fell silent, watching the workers walk around.

"Fascists," Wei Bo eventually muttered under his breath, then heaved a sigh as he led us forward to join in on the task of clearing the area.


	40. A Small Situation

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Although the wreckage of the gate initially seemed to be endless, the progress we made was easy to see the longer we worked. The piles of rubble got bigger, more of the ground was visible, the things we had to pick up were getting smaller and smaller until, a few hours later, the rocks and bits of wood still left were small enough to simply sweep away with a broom.<p>

The gateway still didn't look anything like it had before the battle, but it was at least tidier.

Straightening, I gave a tiny groan from my achy muscles and tossed a few more rocks onto the enormous pile, then turned to run my eyes over what little was left to gather. Pausing in confusion, I looked away from the rubble and instead directed my gaze across the road, where a group of twenty-some women were standing under the eaves of one of the half-collapsed houses. They were all glaring at me. Attempting to remember if I'd done something to earn myself such angry looks, I quickly went back to work, feeling uncomfortable under their stares. I was fairly certain that I hadn't done anything.

Maybe I'd accidentally fallen on one of them when I'd fainted earlier.

Only a few minutes later, Wei Bo wandered up to me and frowned. **"Have you noticed our audience? They look like they're trying to dismember you with their eyes."**

"**Yes, I noticed them."** I shrugged. **"But I have no idea why they're there or who they are…"** Giving the scary group a tiny glance, I slowly reached down to pick up a cracked roof tile that had come from one of the ruined shops. A few were vaguely familiar, but only because I'd glimpsed them here and there around the city. I'd never spoken to any of them.

Dib gallantly dashed up to my side a moment later, grabbing my leg and glaring at the women. "Hey, you people! Go away!"

I was briefly relieved when Jiū and her sisters also came to join us, but then the women's anger seemed to go up a notch at Dib's huffy order. They waited for a few workers to pass by before they crossed the road and stopped in front of me, glares no less intense than before.

"What's this, huh‽" the one at the front demanded, waving a hand at my team's women as her red eyes flashed dangerously. "Chasing after Prince all the time isn't enough for you, so now you're starting a harem‽"

"What? No…" I replied, leaning away from her and raising an eyebrow. Yet another group of people mistaking me for my brother. My team and I hadn't spent much time in the city, but for goodness sake. I'd thought people would have gotten over this misunderstanding by now. Couldn't they at least tell us apart by our drastically different clothing? Gui's purple and white bard's clothing looked nothing at all like my black leather archer's armor.

"Don't try to talk your way out of this!" a second woman ordered, crossing her arms over her chest. "We saw you! Earlier you were following Prince around, yet now you're here, hanging around with these women while Prince isn't looking!"

"Even putting on a disguise‽ As if we wouldn't recognize you!"

"It's not a–" I began, but was interrupted.

"You're completely shameless!"

"You gay bard, go crawl in a hole somewhere and die!"

"Wait!" I exclaimed, shaking my head. "I'm not–!"

"Don't bother with your excuses!"

"Stay away from Prince!"

"Gladly," I snapped, glaring at them in return. "Now leave me alone!"

"Yeah right!" several of them growled. "As if you'll stay away from him that easily!"

"Just listen to me! I'm not–!" I started, but was interrupted again when they continued with their bitter insults, of which they seemed to be well-practiced in. Heaving a sigh, I blocked out their voices and glanced helplessly at Wei Bo.

**"Gui causes just as much trouble as you do," **he remarked, shaking his head in a tired manner.

"Leave him ALO-O-ONE!" Dib screamed, kicking one of his short legs at the nearest woman, the one who'd spoken first.

Woman One gasped and looked down, then sent me a completely disgusted and shocked expression. "Y-YOU'RE…ADDING INNOCENT LITTLE BOYS TO YOUR HAREM‽ YOU'RE A PEDOPHILE AS WELL‽"

"I'M _NOT_!" I angrily bellowed, backing away from the seething group.

There was a ringing chorus of "PERVERT!" and "CREEP!" with a few "SCOUNDREL!" thrown in here and there.

Brown eyes narrowing in irritation, Wei Bo looked down at the halfling. **"Nice going, Dib. You just made things worse."**

**"…Oops."**

"T-this is all just a big misunderstanding," Xiu Chen carefully told them, smiling hesitantly as she waved a hand.

"Oh, don't worry!" a different woman answered, hand darting forward to grab Xiu Chen's arm. "We'll protect you all from that pervert!"

While she made that idiotic declaration, three others grabbed Jiū, Avila, and Dib and dragged them with Xiu Chen to the back of the group.

"No! Let go of me!" Dib shrieked, wriggling around in an attempt to break free. "AL! HE-E-ELP!"

"Dib!" I yelled, stepping forward to grab his outstretched hand, but a warrior roughly shoved me backward and I fell down.

"YOU MANIACS! LET GO OF MY WIFE AND SISTERS!" Wei Bo yelled, plowing through the mass of women to take back the three from their clutches, probably assuming Dib could get away on his own. However, Wei Bo was quickly and easily overpowered by the sheer number of obstacles in his way, though he admirably didn't give up.

"YOU'RE EVEN HITTING ON OTHER PEOPLE'S WIVES‽" the women exclaimed in horror, raising the volume of their voices even more to be heard over Wei Bo's shouts.

"YOU DISGUSTING, DEPRAVED MAN!"

"A-A-A-AL, SAVE ME-E-E-E!"

"I SAID LET GO OF MY WIFE AND SISTERS, DAMMIT!"

Not bothering to say "I'm not" or something yet again—it was obvious they wouldn't listen to me—I picked myself up and opened my pouch to take out my quiver—I'd stored it in there earlier to get it out of the way while clearing the rubble. Buckling it on, I took out my bow and an arrow and pointed the weapon at the face of Woman One. "Let go of my teammates right now, or I swear I will shoot all of you," I threatened coldly, furiously staring at her down the long arrow shaft. I was extremely disgusted at the thought of injuring someone else directly after fighting in that battle, but if they were going to kidnap my teammates, I would unhesitatingly fight back to protect them.

The woman initially looked confused when she saw what weapon I was wielding, but immediately pulled out a magic staff and pointed it at me in return. Several more staves, some swords, a couple bows, and what looked like a whip were all suddenly brought out and aimed at me.

"You're despicable! You would attack a woman‽"

Although I wanted to just shoot her out of the way, I allowed enough time to answer her. "Normally, no. But when my teammates are being kidnapped, the gender of the kidnapper is irrelevant." Anyway, they were the "despicable" ones in this situation, coming out of nowhere and doing all of this…

"We aren't kidnapping them, moron! But go ahead and shoot! We can take you on! It's our duty as members of the–" Woman One paused to take an enormous breath, "–_Rescue the Super Handsome Prince from the Demonic Clutches of the Gay Guiliastes and Help Prince Understand the Goodness of Women Once Again Support Group_ to protect them from you, Gui!"

"It…it's…What?" Staring at her in extreme perplexity, I attempted to process whatever it was she had just said. What the hell kind of a name was that? No wonder she was an idiot. It must have taken all of her mental capacity to remember the ridiculously lengthy name of their equally ridiculous group.

"We won't allow you to mislead any of the innocent ladies of Infinite City!"

"And the innocent little boys of Infinite City, too!" added someone else.

"Oh, he's so cute!"

"It would be such a waste for women who like this type if that gay bard were to warp his mind with pervertedness!"

"Aw, his chubby little face is so…"

Dib, looking absolutely horrified, disappeared under a mass of women, then screeched, "OUCH! DON'T PINCH MY CHEEKS! A-A-AL! SAVE ME! OW! OW!"

"Prepare to die, Gui!" Woman One angrily commanded, stepping to the left and blocking my path when I attempted to push past her to save the distressed halfling. She lifted her staff, and the large red gem placed in the top began to softly glow. "This is what you get for cruelly playing with hearts of these people! No matter what you say, no matter how you disguise yourself, we'll–!"

"Wait, everyone!" a voice frantically called. "Stop!"

Everyone quieted and turned to look down the road, though no one lowered their weapons. Yet another woman—auburn-haired and clothed all in red—ran up, looking worried. After a moment of thought, I recognized the new arrival as one of the people who'd been in the tower when I'd woken up a few hours ago, meaning she had seen Gui and I together, meaning hopefully she would be able to finally clear up this stupid misunderstanding.

"Why should we stop, Fairsky?" Woman One inquired, only taking her eyes off me briefly. "We've finally got the pervert cornered."

"He's not Gui!" she hastily replied, pointing at me with one hand, brushing some of her reddish brown hair out of her eyes with her other. Very happy to have more backup, I gave her a grateful smile, which she returned, though our attention was drawn away almost immediately when that woman spoke again.

"Don't be silly! Of course he is! He's just wearing different clothes, is all! Don't be fooled!" Although the woman's tone was still forceful and stern, the confidence in her red eyes was faltering and she lowered her staff a few centimeters. Thankfully, it had also stopped glowing.

"No, really!" Fairsky insisted. "He's Gui's brother!"

Falling silent, the woman gave me one last look of suspicion, then turned to Fairsky and whispered, "'Brother'? Are you sure? He could just be pretending…Who knows what sorts of sneaky methods he'll use to trick people."

While the numerous women all huddled together and spoke in low tones about my identity to one another, Wei Bo quickly extracted his wife and sisters and I put away my bow and arrow. As my team hurried back to my side, Dib stopped in front of me, face shining with tears, cheeks red from all of the pinching and crying. He raised his arms for me to pick him up. Bending down, I quickly grabbed him and stood straight again while he wrapped his arms around my neck and tightly hugged me.

When I was about to turn and run while they weren't looking at us, Woman One's staff was suddenly pointed at me again. "Stop right there, Gui!" she ordered. "I'm not convinced yet!"

"I'm _not_ Gui Wen!" I denied snappishly.

"Where's your proof?" she demanded, eyes narrowing.

"For starters, I dislike Prince very much."

"Yeah right, you liar!"

"My eyes are gold, not purple."

"You could be wearing contact lenses!"

"There's no such thing as contact lenses in _Second_ _Life_!"

"Whatever! It's not good enough!"

I briefly pointed at my quiver before wrapping my arm around Dib again. "Gui Wen has a guqin, not a longbow."

"Still not good enough! A lot of people were given bows for the battle!"

Frowning at her, I strained my shoulder muscles. My wings exploded out of my back and I forcefully waved them at the crowd, causing many of the women to cover their heads with their hands and indignantly yell that their hair was getting messed up by the wind. "My brother is a demon, not an angel like I am! He doesn't have _wings_!"

"W-well, I…um…" Her cheeks flushed a little as she patted her white hair back into order, and I could tell she was stubbornly attempting to think up another retort, so I gave a desperate glance to Fairsky. Rather than adding anything helpful, she whirled around and ran across the road. Feeling like my team and I had just been deserted, I anxiously looked back at the mob of women still staring me down. At some point, quite a few passerby and workers had stopped and gathered to watch the spectacle unfold.

"Starlight, please tell them to stop!"

Looking toward where Fairsky had gone—she hadn't run off like I'd been thinking she had—relief calmed me slightly as she pleaded with a female magician dressed all in blue. The woman, unnoticed by me until now, apparently had been standing over there the whole time, simply watching like the rest of the spectators.

"Why?" the magician asked. Her amused, dark eyes flickered over to me from under her dark blue cloak, as if she regarded the whole fight as a show for her own entertainment.

"Because they're mistaken! He's really not Gui! He's Aeolus!" Fairsky explained.

A moment of silence passed while everyone's attention shifted to the magician. After a brief glance around the sea of faces, she abruptly looked extremely remorseful and let out a sigh. "To think that my fellow sisters would fall upon this kind of misunderstanding. This Starlight is so saddened for her little sister's actions of ganging up on an innocent person, I couldn't help but stay on the sidelines, taken aback, hoping for you to notice your mistake." She paused dramatically—thankfully, the women seemed to be subdued a bit by her impressively delivered words—then she continued. "You should be aware that you have gravely disappointed me. You even failed to see that the man in front of you is not the one we took an oath to protect Prince from."

Starting with Woman One, they all shamefully lowered their heads, like little children whose parents had scolded them for bad behavior. I gave them a skeptical glance and took a tiny step back, not believing that they were really regretting what they'd done.

"I'm really sorry for my little sister's mistake," Starlight said, addressing the saddened women and apparently referring to Woman One's actions, "for she is no fool and will never make this mistake again. And remember the reason you follow her, for it is her pure heart and devotion to Prince that—even though they caused this small situation—will give us the strength to keep us on the right path to reach our goal."

At that, Woman One fully lowered her magic staff, then turned and gave Starlight a thankful look while I inwardly scoffed at "small situation." They'd kidnapped four of my teammates and had almost murdered me—that was definitely not what I would refer to as a _small_ situation.

"Now that you have learned from your mistakes, there is no shame in your actions, but you should still apologize properly to the ones you have harmed," Starlight reprovingly finished.

Letting out a deep, relieved sigh, I watched as the twenty-whatever women all backed away from my team and I, sheepish grins slipping onto their faces as they murmured quiet apologies for their antics. Giving them a short nod, I once again moved to escape from them all, but Starlight came forward and placed herself at the front of the crowd. Judging by her speech, how she had made herself prominent, and how all of the ladies were looking at her in a creepily worshipful way, she was the ringleader of their cult.

Well, their "support group."

"Aeolus," she called. "Earlier you said that you dislike Prince. Would I be correct in saying you don't want those two to be together, then?"

"That's correct," I slowly affirmed, nodding. "I know Prince has his reasons, but…well, seeing him hurt my brother so often bothers me quite a bit."

"Do you want to join our group?" Starlight invited. "Help us in our crusade for separating those two! Your efforts would be beneficial for us both; you get to protect your brother, and we get to protect Prince."

Opening my mouth, I almost said "yes" right away, but caught myself before I could say the word. I may have disliked Prince, but Gui was madly in love with him. How would he feel and what would he think if I tried to separate them, even if it was for his own good? I'd only just gotten on companionable terms with him after being hated for eleven long years. Taking away Prince, someone precious to him, would only make him angry with me all over again. Anyway, I knew Gui wasn't a _complete_ idiot, therefore Prince must have had at least a few redeemable qualities.

Smiling faintly, I slowly shook my head at Starlight. "No…I'm sorry, but I won't help. Gui Wen is very important to me, so I will respect his decision. Even if it's a stupid choice to stay with Prince, it's _his_ stupid choice to make, not mine."

There was a moment of stillness and silence, then I flinched when all of those death glares, filled with flaming murderous intent, were abruptly back on all of the women's faces—even Fairsky was joining in this time. I gripped Dib a bit tighter when Starlight smiled maliciously, filling me with icy dread. Knowing that this was once again a very bad place to be, I took a step back. "A-and that's my final answer!" I hastily told them all, then turned and ran for the ruined gate, herding my teammates in front of myself.

It wasn't until we were nearly out of sight of the city that we finally came to a halt, gasping for breath. Giving a glance over my shoulder, I looked down the hard-packed dirt road to make sure we weren't getting chased. The only people in sight were the ones working on rebuilding the wall and gate, so I collapsed in the grass on the side of the road, turning my attention to Wei Bo and his family. "Are you all okay?"

Wei Bo nodded, putting his arm around Xiu Chen and hugging her close. "I got elbowed in the face a few times, slapped around, almost got doused with pepper spray—I managed to dodge that, though. So nothing serious."

I involuntarily winced at his list; I hadn't known pepper spray existed here in _Second Life_…I would have to be very careful in the future not to cross the paths of those women, just in case they decided to mace me for no good reason. They were dangerous enough with just their weapons.

"We're fine, too," Avila added, leaning her head on Jiū's shoulder. "They held onto us pretty tightly when we tried to stop them, but they didn't do anything else."

"Dib got terrorized the most," Jiū told me, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

My eyes widened when I looked down at Dib—he was still latched around my neck—and ran a hand over the back of his head. "Dib, are you alright?"

"No," he whimpered. I pulled gently on him and he slowly let me go, slipping down to sit on my lap, head resting on my knees, one fist firmly wrapped around some of my hair. "T-they pinched me s-so many times! And hugged me so tightly, I almost broke in half!" Sticking out his bottom lip, tears started to gather at the corners of his eyes. His cheeks still had obvious reddish splotches on them from the pinches, and smeared on his forehead, unnoticed until now, was a bright pink mark shaped like lips.

Pulling my handkerchief and canteen out of my pouch, I brushed his curly hair away from his forehead, feeling even more irritated with the women for forcing a kiss on him, just because he was small and cute. If anyone should have received their kiss attacks, it should have been that stupid elf, Prince, who I was coming to dislike more and more and more.

After pouring a bit of water on the cloth, I dabbed it at the smudged lipstick until his skin was clean again. "Sorry I couldn't get to you," I murmured, carefully running my hand over his sore cheek. "I suppose I should have been more assertive…I just didn't want to hurt them unless I absolutely had to do it."

Dib didn't answer right away, but instead simply returned to his place around my neck and made a growly noise. Smiling, I quickly put away my water and handkerchief, then hugged him back, relieved that he was okay.

Not wanting to return to the city so soon after what had happened, instead we wandered around in the area just outside the gate, ignoring the fact that Yu Lian was yelling at us over the messaging system for slacking off instead of helping with the reconstruction. The Lin siblings spent the whole time killing things, and I sat out of the way, dutifully continuing with my supply-making. Dib, under the excuse that those vicious women might pop up again at any moment and pinch him some more, refused to leave my side.

Three days passed and we finally returned to the city, seeing that the angry messages from Yu Lian were reaching a dangerous number. Rather than going to the gate to continue the rebuilding, Avila dragged us to the central plaza and through the door on the side of the prominent building. Most of the Odd Squad and a few people from a couple other teams looked up when we stepped inside. I froze when Yu Lian glared at us.

"I see you six have finally decided to grace us with your presence!" she snapped, crossing her arms and leaning back in her wooden chair. "Did you have a nice little holiday‽"

"We had some trouble a few days ago," I hesitantly explained. "It was too dangerous to stay in the city…so we left for a while."

Her stern expression softened a fraction. "What sort of trouble?"

"I'm sure Gui can help us explain," Wei Bo gruffly told her as we walked forward. Gui, seated beside Ugly Wolf, looked over to us in confusion. "Some of Prince's fans showed up while we were working, and they started harassing us."

"It was the…they were…what was it?" Jiū wondered, giving us a sweeping glance. "_Rescue Prince from_…_from Gui and_…I can't remember what the rest of the name was. It ended in _Support Group_."

"They got violent, so we left the city," Xiu Chen finished.

Yu Lian and Gui both let out a long sigh. "I see," Yu Lian mumbled. "I'll have to speak to the city guards, I think. But that matter will have to wait."

"How much longer until the concert starts?" Avila suddenly asked, wringing her hands around themselves as she bounced up and down on her heels. She looked extremely excited.

I gave a bewildered look to the girl, then looked toward the Odd Squad. "What concert?" Wei Bo and I asked in unison.

Yu Lian raised an eyebrow. "The first concert for the Infinite City Band. It'll start fairly soon, we're waiting for Prince and the girls to finish getting dressed." At our continued confusion, she frowned. "Isn't that why you came here?"

"Avila-mèi dragged us here, without bothering to tell us why," Wei Bo grumbled, sitting down with Xiu Chen and his sisters on the vacant chairs nearest to us. Yu Lian gave us a brief explanation of what was going on while I slowly wandered over to Gui and sat beside him. Dib immediately jumped onto my lap, then gave a superior, smug expression to Doll, who he probably thought had been targeting my lap.

"I'm so nervous," Gui quietly told me, hands twisting the edge of his cloak. I vaguely nodded in reply, feeling annoyed. While so many people had been working to clean the wreckage of the battle, while my team and I had been attacked by a group of insane, Prince-obsessed women, the city leaders had been forming a band and organizing concerts…These people were ridiculous.

"So-o-o nervous…" Gui repeated. His knees started bouncing up and down and another moment passed in silence. He suddenly turned to stare at me with overflowing bucketfuls of anxiety. "I'm so–!"

"Yes, I know," I cut into his third declaration of how nervous he was. Quickly standing up, I put Dib on my chair and attempted to walk away from Gui, only to have him immediately follow after.

Somehow, now that Prince had returned, I thought he would have started unintentionally ignoring me. And yet he wouldn't leave me alone. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be happy or annoyed over it. The latter was growing with increasing speed.

Well, maybe walking around would help him relieve some of his pent-up energy, so I led him in a large circle around the edge of the room. The others looked happy that he wasn't near them anymore.

"What if we mess up some of the songs?" Gui moaned, pressing one hand to his face in worry. "We only had a few days to practice…If something goes wrong, Yu Lian will kill us all!"

Forcing down my smirk, I set a hand on his shoulder and gripped it as tightly as I could. "No, she won't. Killing you would make you lose levels and that would be inconvenient for her. Torture, perhaps, but not kill."

He didn't look like he thought that was any better.

"Anyway, you stand in front of people every single day in your classes and do just fine, right? How is a concert much different?"

"It is!" he snapped, prying my hand off and wincing in pain. "It's not like I stand on top of my desk and suddenly start playing a guqin for my students, you know! Performing music is totally different from rambling on about literature! Plus, knowing how the majority of people here in-game react to good-looking people, and seeing as how the whole band—especially His Highness, Prince—is good-looking, what if the crazy people start a riot‽"

"You have a point," I murmured, nodding in agreement. Three handsome men—five if you counted their guards, Kenshin and Sunshine—and two beautiful women definitely had the potential to start a very chaotic stampede of looks-chasing players, of which _Second Life_ seemed to have an unfortunate excess. Hopefully Gui and the others wouldn't die when they toured the other three cities in a week.

I slowed my steps as we started our second lap of the hall. "Consider this concert as an opportunity to test out your city guards, then. As for messing up the performance," I said, grabbing his shoulder again. He turned to look at me and I narrowed my eyes into a challenging stare. "Use that fat brain of yours and concentrate on doing your best. You have to work hard for Prince, right? So don't make any mistakes."

His initial look of indignation and offense at my calling his brain fat disappeared into one of determination when I added on Prince's name for motivational purposes. So effortlessly manipulated…

"You're right!" he answered much more confidently than before. "If it's for His Highness' sake, I will play any song perfectly! I can't let him down!"

Smiling in amusement, I let his shoulder go and went back to my chair, leaving him to finish his loop around the room by himself while he continued to mutter about how much he would make Prince proud. Yu Lian's eyes darted between Gui and I several times. "You managed to calm him down in a matter of moments? Your persuasive abilities are wasted on supply production. I think you'd be better suited for a public relations position," she commented, looking rather calculating.

"Not…at…_all_!" I firmly denied, picking up Dib so I could sit again and frowning at her for thinking of such a thing. "Gui Wen is ridiculously easy to persuade when the situation has something to do with Prince. Don't you dare think of transferring me to some horrible PR job. And speaking of jobs, did Gui Wen talk to you about expanding the archery supplies department?"

She glared at me for changing the direction of the conversation, but nodded slowly. "Yes, I looked around and have several people in consideration to help you. Since we have quite a few of Fan's troops under our control now, there are a lot more opportunities to expand the archery department's employee core, and other departments' as well. All we need is the funds to do so."

"After the concerts are over, we'll hopefully get enough money, and possibly even more workers for you with any people who decide to come live here after watching the performances," Ugly Wolf added cheerily.

"Excellent," I muttered, grinning at the pair and feeling quite a bit less annoyed with what I initially thought of as a pointless endeavor now that I knew they were using the concerts to gain money and citizens. That made it all much more worthwhile.

Hopefully the new recruits would actually be of use. I didn't know about the work ethic of those who used to serve under that moron, Fan, but I wasn't about to trust random, unknown people to work hard when they decided to join Infinite City simply because they thought the band was nice.

But, I reminded myself, I mustn't be so judgmental when I hadn't even met them.

A nearby door opened and out stepped the three missing band members, plus Lolidragon, and they hurried toward us. "All ready now," the thief announced, waving a hand excitedly at the other three, who were wearing horrendously flashy clothes, which I was very happy Gui wasn't matching. My eyes dropped to Prince's hand and the microphone he was holding. Since when did _Second Life_ have electronic stuff like that?

Weird game…

The others stood up and Yu Lian took a deep breath while Gui raced over to join us. "Okay, you three are going out first. Remember your little intro, Prince?"

"Yeah," he answered queasily, red eyes fixed on the door he'd be walking out of in a matter of moments.

"Good. The four rock songs with the girls will be done first, and then Wicked and Gui will switch out to do the slow songs," she said, looking just as nervous as the band itself. "It's just a short concert to launch the band, but…" She paused and smiled at them. "Do your best, okay?"

The five nodded frantically.

Giving Gui one more reassuring pat on the back, I turned away and walked with my teammates toward the side entrance to join the audience outside in the plaza. Raising Dib up to sit on my shoulders so he would be able to see over the heads of everyone else, I positioned myself with the other four off to one side where the crowd wasn't so thick. One glance at the mass of people told me that all of those support group members were attending, but I was very relieved to see they hadn't noticed my team and I. They were far too occupied with staring at the front entrance of the building, so, hoping they weren't going to cause a riot like Gui had mentioned, I turned to intently watch the band file out onto the stage.

Under the hyper cheering of the crowd, the concert quickly began. The upbeat rock songs weren't exactly my style of music, but I did feel relieved over how well the band had prepared themselves in such a short amount of time. They played the songs very nicely for only having a few days to practice. Especially the slower songs they played after the rock stuff was finished. Or maybe that was just because I was feeling so overwhelmingly proud of Gui as he stood there so serenely, looking like he hadn't been worried at all. I'd never been to a concert before, but it went rather well. Even if they had made some mistake or another, I hadn't noticed, and thought Gui'd done perfectly.

Though, I supposed that, since he _was_ my beloved brother and all, I was a bit bias.

Just a little bit.

I smiled as I watched him gracefully strum his guqin's strings, then ran my eyes over the stage and the entranced crowd, feeling a twinge of loneliness prick at my mind. That same loneliness that I'd been wallowing in for all of the years that he'd been missing.

Gui's books, crowding the shelves in the guest room of the Lin house, entered my thoughts. The books I'd been keeping for him, if he ever decided to come back and reclaim them. I'd spent eleven years waiting for him to come home. Eleven long years, frozen in one place while he was off living his life, walking forward toward the future he wanted. He had moved on a long time ago, but here I was, still in the same spot that he'd left me.

Shifting my position, I gave another glance around myself, eyes eventually drifting downward. My feet…I had a pair of those, and they worked perfectly. So why had I never thought to use them?

Perhaps my lack of ambition was due to the fact that I knew that my father would have, without any hesitation at all, taken away my title as his heir and given it back to Gui, if Gui had chosen to come home. However, even if I'd hoped for his return, I had still already known that it was never going to happen. I felt completely silly for having wasted so many years, pointlessly waiting for something that was unrealistic.

Gui had his own life now.

I wanted one of my own.

Regaining my smile, I tapped Wei Bo on the shoulder when Prince began to sing the last line of the final song. The approving roar of the crowd filled my ears while we all walked back to the side entrance of the plaza building, slipping through the door to wait for the band to leave the stage.

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><p><em>The first portion of this chapter was so fun to write. Quite some time ago, the very talented author and fellow fanfiction reader, Chicaalterego, suggested that she and I do a crossover of our stories. <em>

_Starlight is an OC from Chicaalterego's story, Lukewarm Ice. She will be seen again in this story at a future time, as well as several other of Chicaalterego's wonderful characters. :D_

_Starlight's POV of this chapter will soon be in Lukewarm Ice, so you should all be sure to keep an eye on that story as well if you're not already!  
><em>


	41. Disconcerting Appointment

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note __–__** The chapter at which I have passed 200,000 words. O_O I feel accomplished. lol__

__As always, I give a very hearty thank-you to all of you readers, reviewers, lurkers, and whoever else! :D You guys are awesome!  
><em>_

* * *

><p>"Stop that." I lifted my hand and patted the back of my head, then went back to staring at my laptop screen, scrolling down the web page to be able to see the bottom of the business news article I'd been reading. Apparently my father had bought a small automobile company while I'd been away from home.<p>

Something lightly hit the back of my head again, for the seventh time. "Stop that." My words were immediately followed by an eighth tap. "Stop that!" I repeated, giving a brief glare over my shoulder. Heng was laying on the bed, chin propped up on all of the pillows at once. In his hands were tiny, crumpled-up bits of notebook paper that he had torn off a blank page in that memory notebook I didn't use anymore.

"But I'm so bored!" Heng whined, burying his face in the top pillow and bouncing his feet up and down. "You've been reading the news for hours and hours!"

"I have not! It's only been ten minutes! Anyway, you've only got yourself to blame that you're bored, since I told you before you came over that I wasn't doing anything interesting."

"That's _why_ I came over!" he exclaimed. "To help you find something interesting to do!"

"Well, thank you for the thought, but I already have things to do, interesting or not," I told him, then turned back to my computer and switched to another article. "If you want something to occupy yourself with, pick up those pieces of paper you threw." Lifting my hand, I pointed it to the bookshelves on my right. "Or read a book." Pointing to the left, where the door was, I ended with "Or leave. I don't even understand why you came over today when you knew ahead of time that I have my doctor's appointment."

"I came 'cause I wanted to!" he snapped, sliding off the bed to obediently clean the mess he'd made.

"Surely you have more entertaining things to do at your own home than come here and lay on the bed until my doctor arrives?" Eyes narrowing with suspicion, I turned my chair around and watched as Heng stood up, wads of paper in his hand. "You aren't planning on harassing him, are you?"

He shook his head and dumped his handful of paper into the waste bin by my desk. "I won't harass him, I just have stuff I wanna ask." He wandered over to the bookshelves and pulled that green Greek and Roman mythology tome out of the neatly organized row on the second shelf. "You should get some comics."

"Ask what?" I inquired as he flopped himself down on the bed again. "I doubt he'll stay for a Q and A session afterward; he always dives right into the examination and leaves straight away once he's finished."

"Oh, just stuff I'm curious about…and I can ask during the examination, then," Heng said, flipping open the book to the contents page. "If he'll let me stay in the room, that is."

Feeling assured that Heng wasn't going to throw stuff at me anymore, I once again turned back to my computer. "He hasn't minded when my father and maids came into my bedroom when he's done it before at home, so I don't see why he wouldn't let you. But it's just a cast removal and my normal checkup, not anything worth watching."

"Yeah, well, normal for you is usually completely abnormal for everyone else."

Laughing faintly in agreement, I smiled and went back to reading the news, falling into a comfortable silence, broken only by the infrequent sound of Heng turning the book's pages. It wasn't until several minutes later that Heng gave a small chuckle and asked, "Hey, Al, did you know you've got a son?"

"What? I do not," I denied in confusion, turning my chair around again for an explanation.

"Yeah, you do!" he insisted, tapping a finger on the open book as he bent forward to read off something. "His name is Si…Siffie…Siffiefus. Why'd you name your kid something so stupid?"

"His name is Sisyphus," I tiredly corrected when I realized what he was talking about, "and he is not _my_ son."

"Yeah, he is!" Heng teased with another laugh. "This says he's the son of Aeolus."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a Greek deity," I mumbled, frowning.

"Wow," he went on, running his finger over the lines of text and ignoring me, "you've got a lot of kids, now that I look. But this Siffiefus guy doesn't sound very nice."

"He wasn't," I agreed, inwardly rolling my eyes at Heng's mispronunciation, which he was probably saying on purpose just to annoy me.

"Really crafty and mean…killed a lot of people. Then he got punished to roll a rock up a hill over and over forever. Geeze, mythology is creepy."

"If you think that's creepy, read what the book says about what happened to Prometheus, one of the Titans," I told him, rolling my chair forward to watch while he looked up the Titan's location in the chapters. I smiled in amusement when he found it and began reading, an eager look on his face. That eagerness soon turned into disgust when he got to the right part; for giving fire to the mortals, Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock and having a giant eagle eat his liver over and over.

"E-e-e-ew, Al!" Heng yelled, looking up at me and frowning. "What the hell! That's gross!" Looking back down at the book, he quickly closed it and pushed it away. "This is scarier than a horror novel! Aren't there any happy stories in here?"

"Happy," I mumbled, leaning back in my office chair and running my mind over all of the mythological stories I could remember from the days of Gui Wen's obsession with it all; the fact that he liked mythology was probably the only reason I'd ever bothered to learn about it as well. But happiness was an uncommon theme. Most of the people's lives were horrible and tragic, ending in some sort of death or punishment.

"Even the peace-loving beings were very violent," I replied, shrugging. "I would say Apollo–"

Heng interrupted me to say, "Oh, I've heard of him!"

"Yes, he's very well-known. He's supposedly very harmonious, loves music and art and all that nice stuff. But his birth was pretty messy; he's the son of Zeus and some woman whose name I can't remember, not Hera—Zeus' wife—so she was really angry about that and tried to kill the other woman. Plus Apollo himself killed a lot of people—sometimes for completely silly reasons—and had lots and lots of lovers…completely normal for a Greek deity, really."

Thinking for another moment, I smirked. "There's Dionysus, another one of Zeus' sons—another one that wasn't birthed by Hera, of course; the people in that book never seem to value being faithful to their spouses."

"Was Hera mad again?" Heng asked, sounding amused.

"Naturally," I answered, sighing. "Out of jealousy she tried to kill him and tormented him just as she did Apollo, and probably every other child Zeus had by impregnating random females. But anyway, Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, or wine. He spread ecstasy and drunkenness wherever he went, so perhaps you could call that 'happy.'"

Heng burst out laughing and nodded. "Yeah, I guess that counts. Sort of." Shifting on the bed, he picked up the book and stared at the cover. "Hearing the horrible things the gods put each other through, it kinda makes reality seem more…I dunno, tolerable? It makes all my problems look really little in comparison. Sometimes we get the idea that having a bit more power or whatever will help smooth things over and make life easier, but just look at how these guys used their power; all they did was make each other's lives miserable."

"Power or not, not even gods can escape the inevitable troubles of life," I murmured. "No one can. Thinking a bit of money and power can fix that will only bring a person frustration."

Silence stretched out for a long moment, then Heng lowered the book and gave me a morose glance. "Sounds like your father."

I gave a tiny, humorless laugh through my nose. "My father, plus the vast majority of the Earth's population…" Sighing faintly, I rolled back over to my desk and powered down my laptop, assuming Heng would keep interrupting my reading of the news. "Even I think that way sometimes."

"Yeah, me too," Heng mumbled, was quiet for a bit longer, then tapped a finger on the book. "May I borrow this?"

Smiling, I comfortably stretched my legs out and tapped the tips of my slippers on the end of the bed. "Why? Didn't you just say it was horrible?"

"I didn't!" he denied, shaking his head. "I said it's scary! But I still think it's interesting."

"Ah, I see. Well, yes, you may borrow it. I don't think Gui Wen will notice its absence."

Heng snorted and shook his head again. "Nope, I don't think he will." Smashing his face into the stack of pillows, he made a humming noise and turned his head to stare at the door. "How much longer 'til your doctor gets here?"

I glanced at the bedside digital alarm clock. "Not long. He said he'd be here at five, so we've got about a quarter of an hour left."

"Alright." Rearranging himself, he yawned and began filling the air with idle chatter just to pass the time. It didn't take long for the fifteen minutes to pass, and soon the door was swinging open. Delun and the doctor both strode inside.

The doctor paused two steps into the room and stared at me. His poofy white hair floated forward and backward at his abrupt stop. Bushy gray eyebrows lowering, he gave a glance to Heng sprawled all over the messy bed, then a look to me, then a dramatic look around the rest of the room. "Excuse me," he loudly said, "but I am looking for a very sickly, skinny person about as big around as a toothpick, usually has bruises all over, looks grumpy most of the time…" His brown eyes came to a rest on me again and he smiled politely. "Perhaps you know where I can find him?"

I shook my head, feeling amused as Delun and Heng both attempted to smother their laughter. "No, I am afraid I have not seen him in quite some time. But perhaps you would be content to examine me instead?"

He heaved a sigh and stepped fully inside, setting down his enormous bag of equipment. "I guess I'll have to make do." After a very serious pause, he gave a laugh and looked me over. "Oh my, just look at you. You sure have changed. Moving you away from that moron, Kuo Li, was definitely a good choice."

Heng abruptly snorted, then buried his face in the pillows, wheezing and shaking as he tried to stop laughing at the word "moron."

"You there," the doctor suddenly said in a curious tone, stepping over to the bed. Heng's head snapped back so he could look at the older man. "Are you the infamous Shi Heng?"

Heng's eyes went wide as his face paled. My heart began to pound as I glanced between the two. I'd only agree to let Heng stay because I had thought my doctor wouldn't know who he was. This could end very badly if my father found out about Heng's visits. I wouldn't have been surprised, really, if he'd already known, but having it discovered right in front of me like this was terrifying.

"Y-yes," Heng replied in a very small voice, then looked somewhat angry and continued in a snappish, challenging tone, "Are you gonna tell on us?"

There was a pause, then my doctor flatly asked, "Why in the world do you think I would ever do that?"

"…Because," Heng quietly said, looking confused, "his father doesn't like me."

"Kuo Li might hate you—he's complained about you quite a bit, you know. That man is so annoying, complains about everything. However, I certainly don't think badly of you. You, him–" he gestured to Delun, then waved his hand around, "–this house, this whole environment is obviously much better for Zian than living with Kuo Li. Zian's health is a top priority, therefore telling Kuo Li that you're here would just be stupid."

Heng looked extremely surprised, but he finally managed a reply of "Oh."

"Now then, clear off," the doctor ordered and crouched down by his bag. "I have a schedule to keep."

"Ah, um, may I stay in the room?" Heng hastily asked.

"I want to stay as well," Delun added.

"As long as you two don't get in the way, I don't mind if Zian doesn't mind," came the reply as the doctor began removing the things needed to cut the cast off of my arm.

"I do not mind," I told him.

Straightening, he gave a mutter of "Alrighty," and stepped over to me, a pen light held in one hand. "How's your head doing?" he asked, shining the intensely bright light into my right eye. "Look to the right. Good, now up."

"The headaches have stopped, for the most part. Just small ones here and there," I answered as he proceeded to stab both of my retinas with his beam of light.

"And your memory?" he asked, setting down the light and bending over to pick up his clipboard and a pen.

"I have not forgotten anything lately, but I still cannot remember anything from early July up until a couple weeks ago."

"Mm-hm…" The pen flew across the clipboard as he wrote whatever it was he was writing.

"Will it come back?" Heng anxiously cut in.

"Hrm…Not the things from the day of the accident until when he began to retain his memories again. All of that is gone forever, since the damage to his hippocampus made it impossible for him to store all of it in his long-term memory. Sounds like his head has been healing fine, though. There have been medical cases where people with serious head trauma are never able to form long-term memories again."

I was very glad that I wasn't one of those cases.

"But all of the rest," he continued, "the things from those missing months, well, it depends on if he wants to remember them or not. Though I can't imagine that he would want to remember getting beaten, and then getting pushed down a huge flight of stairs."

"HE WHAT‽" Heng bellowed and sat up, but the doctor calmly proceeded with the examination as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Usually cases of repressed memories are dealt with by attending therapy sessions, since that which is repressed is sent to such a deep part of the mind, where they can't be accessed. It tends to be a pretty lengthy process."

When the doctor began to poke and prod at my head, periodically asking me if it hurt, Delun gave me a bewildered look. "Why did your house staff not stop your father? They would have heard all of the commotion, I'm sure."

I raised an eyebrow. "Intervene and put themselves in danger? They would never do that. They are just as frightened of him as I am. Although the wages are very impressive, I cannot count how many men and women have left the staff after getting terrorized by him. Not once did anyone try to stop him whenever he…" My voice trailed off and I slowly shut my mouth, not really wanting to elaborate on the things that had happened at home.

Delun shook his head and mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't hear.

"Take off your coat." The doctor began to set up a portable stand, then picked up the small hand-held saw. I quickly removed my coat, jacket, sweater and sling, then laid my left arm on the stand, mentally saying a goodbye to the clunky cast. He set the circular saw at the top of the cast and turned it on. With a high-pitched whine, the saw buzzed right through the cast as he slowly drew it down the length of my arm, carefully cutting me free.

My eyes involuntarily widened with extreme eagerness as I watched him work at the cast. I barely noticed when Delun and Heng both came to stand next to my desk to get a better view. Pressing my lips together, I continued to stare as the saw went past my elbow. Anticipation filled me more and more with each passing moment, and I hardly even dared to breathe. It was like I was being reunited with a dear friend I hadn't seen in years.

It seemed like it took hours, but at last the doctor set down the saw and began forcing open the gap he'd made from my shoulder all the way to my hand. Once he'd pried it open, he took out a pair of scissors and cut away the inner wrappings.

All of my excitement immediately disappeared into disappointment and horror as my arm was finally revealed and the cast was slipped off. I blankly stared down at the limb, feeling like I'd just been cheated out of something.

Delun began to roar with laughter.

"Be quiet!" I ordered in embarrassment as I hastily covered up my silly-looking arm with my sweater, though it didn't help at all, since he'd already seen.

Delun continued laughing, his face turning red as he shook his head and pointed at my now-covered arm. "It's so skinny! You twig!"

"C-come on…don't laugh," Heng said, completely failing to sound persuasive through his own giggles.

I refrained from glaring up at the doctor, as if it was all his fault my arm was so pale and scrawny—even more so than it had been before my accident—and angrily stared at the creamy-colored wall instead, silently seething at Delun's reaction. This must have been why he'd insisted on staying to watch.

He was going to pay for this later.

"It's completely normal for a newly-healed broken limb to be a bit thin," the doctor loudly explained over Delun's gasps for air. The doctor, looking confused over how hilarious Delun thought this all was, cleared his throat and continued. "Since you haven't used it for so long, the muscles have atrophied. With exercise, it'll be back to how it's supposed to be soon enough." Leaning forward, he gave a squeeze to my right arm's bicep. "Looks like you've been exercising already."

"I have," I sulkily mumbled.

"Good. Keep it up. Now take off your shirt." He pushed Heng and Delun out of the way while I reluctantly put down my sweater and took off my t-shirt. As usual, the rest of the examination went quickly. The only disruption happened when the doctor went to take a blood sample and Heng and Delun both began to interrogate him on his reasons—apparently that wasn't a normal thing to do during a check-up, though I initially hadn't thought it was strange, since he often took blood samples from me. However, the doctor deflected all of their questions with many round-about variations of "Because," and began to put away his equipment once he had drawn the wanted sample of blood.

Feeling my curiosity rise, and having gotten a bit of courage from the fact that Heng and Delun were also throwing around questions, I took a deep breath and asked, "May I ask you something?" to the doctor as he crouched on the floor, tucking away the saw into his bag.

He paused and stood, hand immediately grabbing for his clipboard perched on the corner of my desk. "Yes, you may, but I don't promise you any answers."

"My medicine," I quietly began, watching intently as his wrinkly face stiffened. "Why did you tell Delun's family that I have always been taking it?"

"Because you have," he answered simply, writing something down.

"No, I have not." I shook my head and glanced at his clipboard, wondering what he'd written.

"Yes, you have."

"Have not."

"Have so."

"Have not."

He frowned at me. "If you hadn't, you wouldn't be alive. So there," he added childishly, but I barely noticed through the shock brought on by the completely unexpected, flooring remark. Without saying anything, I continued to stare up at him. His elderly face had a somewhat pitying expression as he returned my gaze, then turned his head to look at the two seated on the bed. "Nothing," he doctor replied to something one of them had said that I hadn't heard. "He's perfectly healthy. Healthier than he's ever been, actually."

Breathing shallowly, I gave Heng and Delun a brief, panicky glance. "If there was nothing wrong with him, he wouldn't need medicine," Delun gruffly pointed out, looking much more more serious than he had a few moments ago.

"There is nothing wrong with him _because_ he takes his medicine." The doctor turned back to me. "As for why you never knew about it, Zian, that's because Kuo Li wasn't giving to you in capsules, like you've been taking it here. He was mixing it into your food and drink. He does so like to be in control, and all that."

Slowly blinking, I took a few purposefully deep breaths and watched his right hand move as he wrote something. "But…but what's it for?" I faintly asked.

"It's to keep you alive and well, of course. What else would it be for? Anything beyond that, I'm not authorized to say."

My eyebrows drew together with renewed perplexity. "Authorized by who? My father?"

"I don't answer to Kuo Li," he denied, "and who I do answer to, I'm not authorized to say. Now then, no more pestering me about the medicine. Take it everyday, like you've always done, and everything will be fine. Is there anything else, or may I leave?"

"Why's he never hungry and why's his body temperature so low?" Heng swiftly blurted, leaning forward as if he would be able to hear better.

"I'm not authorized to say. Just have him eat normal-sized meals regularly and keep him warm. He'll be fine."

I frowned at those last two orders. He was making it sound as though I was a pet.

When the doctor went back to packing up his belongings, Heng once again spoke up. "What do you keep writing on that clipboard?"

"Notes on Zian's condition, of course."

"Like what?"

Sighing in annoyance, he went back to packing. "I'm not–"

"–authorized to say?" Heng ended for him, scowling.

"Exactly."

"Is that why you've never shown him the results?"

"Yes. Now, I really do have to leave." He straightened and quickly hefted his bag up onto his shoulder, then turned and smiled at me before Heng could continue his interrogation. "I'm glad to see you're doing well, Zian. It's very relieving, not having to treat a bunch of wounds from Kuo Li's temper tantrums."

I slowly nodded. "Yes…it is relieving to me as well."

"I imagine so." His smile faded slightly as he continued. "I also have a short message for you, from Kuo Li. He says, 'Now that you are healed I expect you at work from Monday morning onward as usual. Although you are no longer living at home, you are still my successor and I will not stand for any laziness.'" The doctor had done an amazing impression of my father's smooth, cold voice, giving me a slight chill that had nothing to do with the fact that I was half-naked.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"And don't worry about having trouble from Kuo Li. I won't tell him Heng was here." With a wave of his hand and a quick "Goodbye!" he twirled around—it never failed to amaze me how agile he seemed, though he looked so old—and hurried from the room, most likely not to be seen again until my next examination, in another few months.

Trying to keep my mind off the newly-discovered, inescapable mortal peril I was in, I glanced down at my lap, pressing my forearms together to compare them. It was a lucid and harsh presentation of the before and after of my condition from when I moved from my father's house to the Lin estate. One arm skinny, pale, kind of flaky-looking…the other thicker, with much smoother, healthier skin. It was somewhat unsettling to see just how much my physique had changed in a month and a half.

Standing, I hurried to the closet, suddenly realizing something.

"I think I have more questions now than I did before he came," Heng remarked, watching as I threw open the door and went inside.

I made a distracted "uh-huh" noise in reply while I carefully removed one of my silk vests from its hanger, then slipped it on and laboriously buttoned it up. The vest, which once fit perfectly, now was uncomfortably tight and the shiny silver buttons were straining against the black fabric. I was still quite lean, but in a much more natural way than the appearance of starvation I used to have. My dress shirts and suit jackets and slacks would still fit, I knew without trying any of those on, since they had always been a bit baggy just to give me room to move. But my vests…

"Delun," I called hurrying out of the closet and firmly holding out my left hand. "My car keys and wallet. Return them, please."

He narrowed his eyes at me, obviously not wanting to return my belongings. "What do you need them for? You've still got half a week before you're expected back at the office."

Frowning irritably, I continued to hold my left hand out to him and pointed my right hand at my vest. "My suit vests are too small. I have to get at least a few of them refitted by Monday so I have something to wear at the office." Raising my hand, I ruffled up my hair, which, for the first time in my life, had grown long enough to fall in my eyes. "I also need a haircut, so…" I wiggled the fingers on my left hand, thoroughly enjoying the ability to once again move the limb around however I wanted. "I promise I won't go home," I added tiredly.

Delun was silent, eyes never losing their suspicion, then he glanced at Heng. "Dib, when do you have to go home?"

"I don't need a babysitter!" I indignantly huffed, already knowing what he was going to ask him next.

Heng glanced between us, but it was apparent who he was going to side with. "My little brothers are sleeping over at a friend's house tonight, so I can go home whenever I want."

"In that case, could you go with him?" Delun asked, throwing me another disbelieving look when Heng nodded. "I still don't trust that Twig's not going to run away."

"I'm _not_ going to run away!" I snapped, glaring at him as I turned and went back into the closet to collect all of my vests.

"Okay, fine. I'll be back in a moment."

I didn't bother to reply when I heard him stand up and leave the room. Ten minutes later, I had redressed myself, gathered up all of my vests and packed them in a box, snatched my keys and wallet away from Delun, and then had dragged Heng out to the garage attached to the side of the house, coming to a halt beside my black car. My hands were nearly shaking as I unlocked one of the rear doors and opened it to deposit my box of vests onto the back seat.

Afterward, I excitedly hopped into the driver seat and shoved the keys into the ignition as Heng slid into the passenger seat. Twisting the keys, I listened to the smooth, satisfying noise of the engine starting up, then bent forward, flicked the switch at the base of my seat to turn on the seat heater, turned on my radio to my favorite classical station, adjusted my mirrors—whoever had driven my car to the Lin house was shorter than I—buckled my seat belt, and then began slowly reversing out of the garage.

"This is a nice car. Very sporty and sleek-looking," Heng observed, inspecting the interior as he buckled his seat belt. "What kind is it?"

I shrugged. "It doesn't have a 'kind'; I designed it myself."

Heng turned to look at me in surprise. "Whoa, you did?"

Feeling a bit embarrassed, I nodded. "After I got my license, my father told me to pick whatever car I wanted. I took advantage of the fact that he didn't give me a price limit, and went to a local branch of one of the big auto companies that specializes in sports cars, and had one of their designers help me make one."

"Geeze, a one-of-a-kind car. I bet that was expensive…" he breathed. "I think I'd be too scared to take it out on the road."

Wrapping the gloved fingers of my left hand around the wheel, I smiled and shifted out of reverse. "Well, this is one instance where I do enjoy all of the money my father gives me. Any accidents I might get into—I haven't yet, mind you—any damages will be easily paid off." That being said, I stomped on the accelerator and shot away from the house, humming along with the pretty music coming out of the speakers as the garden flashed past in a blur outside the windows.

"A-A-A-A-AH!" Heng looked absolutely terrified and began pressing down an imaginary brake pedal. "STOP! STOP! SLOW DOWN, YOU CRAZY DRIVER!"

I switched my foot over to the brake and carefully slowed us down, giving Heng a disappointed glance. "What? We're just going down the driveway. I'm not going to drive like that on the road, of course. That would be dangerous."

"I DON'T CARE WHERE WE'RE DRIVING, JUST DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!" he screamed, eyes looking like they were permanently stuck open as far as they could go.

"Why?"

Chest heaving, he leaned back against his seat, shaking his head as he gulped down air. He tensed when I gently pulled out onto the road, obediently driving the speed limit. Perhaps I'd gotten a little carried away in my excitement to have my car back, but for goodness sake. It wasn't like I'd been flooring it or anything…Okay, so maybe I had. But it was only for a few seconds.

It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Heng finally let out a whoosh of breath and glared at me. "My parents died in a _car crash_, dammit! Drive safely!"

"Oh…I'm sorry, I didn't know," I meekly apologized, feeling horrible for scaring him so badly. I hadn't thought at all that he would react like that, since he was perfectly fine with flying really fast in _Second Life_. In fact, he liked it quite a bit when I flew as fast as I could and performed dangerous stunts way up high in the air whenever I was carrying him with me.

"It…it's okay. Just…Geeze, don't do it again. Nearly gave me a heart attack," he huffed, wiping a hand across his forehead and giving a few more deep breaths. I tried to think of something else to say, but couldn't, so instead I fixed my eyes on the road and continued to mentally berate myself for being so inconsiderate. There were a lot of things I was scared of in real life that I didn't find frightening at all in _Second Life_, so I probably should have known that Heng had those sorts of things, too. Why couldn't I have just pulled out of the driveway normally?

Stupid self.

"Stop that," Heng scolded me a moment later. I gave him a small glance, wondering what it was I was supposed to be stopping. "You don't have to be so down…I did tell you once about my parents—one of the many things you've forgotten—but I didn't tell you about my fear of cars, so don't blame yourself."

"Oh," I mumbled, not feeling any better, since that didn't change the fact that I'd terrified him.

Several more minutes passed in silence, save for the music still playing out of the radio. When I stopped my car at a traffic light on the outskirts of the bustling metropolitan area, Heng looked at me again. "Hey…are you still planning on asking your father if you're allowed to go home?"

I rubbed my thumbs over the curve of the steering wheel, watching the clumps of people stride over the crosswalk from either direction. Sighing, I rested my left elbow against the door frame and pressed my hand to my forehead. "I don't know," I eventually murmured.

"Well, if what I think is worth anything, you already know that I don't think you should," he added softly.

"It is," I assured. "But…um…to be honest, I still _want_ to ask, but I did give the matter some more thought after you, ah, 'discussed' it with me." He frowned morosely, so I gave his left shoulder a comforting pat before continuing. "If I did ask, and if I went home…I think I would regret it. The main reason being Gui Wen. If I went home, I wouldn't be able to play _Second Life_ anymore. My father would make sure of that. Thus I'd once again lose contact with him. And, well, I value my relationship with Gui Wen far more than getting to live at home."

Seeing the somewhat sulky look settling onto Heng's face, I quickly added, "And my friendship with you as well. I suppose I would be able to find some way or another to secretly meet with you—we did that before, after all—but staying at the Lin house gives me a great deal more freedom than I had at home.

"And of course, also there's the health benefits I get while living away from my father…Quite a bit of the stress I'd had to deal with in the past was due to him, so I suppose it would be easier to work and all if he wasn't around as much as he used to be.

"The logical choice, then, would be to keep my mouth shut and just stay where I am. He's the one who sent me away, after all…But…" I sighed heavily, "…the silly son in me still hopes that…if I just work harder, push myself beyond my limits, keep close to him, that he'll eventually acknowledge me…if only a little." My eyes started to burn, signaling the arrival of unwanted tears, so I closed my mouth before I could say anything else and went back to silently driving, beating down all of those unwelcome emotions that kept plaguing me.

"Maybe it's mean of me to say," Heng warned, "but I…I really think it's unrealistic to hope that he's going to change his behavior and, you know, treat you the way you want, even if you work harder." He momentarily paused to play with his jacket's zipper. "You already work a million times harder than anyone else I know. Back in university, I never stopped marveling over how I would spot you studying in the library so often, staring at your textbooks with so much focus that you barely even blinked. And you did that at the office, too. So I really don't get why he's expecting more. You're already more than adequate, in my opinion."

I automatically smiled as he spoke, feeling my face grow warm. It felt overwhelmingly spectacular to finally have my efforts praised, even if the praise wasn't coming from my father. Although extremely flustered and not really knowing what the proper response was to something like that, I simply said, "Thank you," and went back to not talking, repeating his nice words in my head over and over, faintly still a little confused as to why he had such an impact on me. Perhaps it was residual, unconscious feelings from how close we used to be, but he always had the strange ability to alter my mood in drastic ways, with very few words on his part.

And we weren't even in _Second Life_, where Dib could effortlessly manipulate me with his cuteness.

Several minutes later, I pulled my car into a public parking lot, shutting off the engine and pocketing my keys. "So was that a yes or a no?" Heng asked before I could get out of the car.

I silently adjusted my gloves before answering. "It was a no, I suppose." At Heng's extremely relieved smile, I quickly added, "For now. I'll see how things go before making a permanent decision."

Although he looked like he didn't much like that addition, he didn't say anything to try to change my mind. So off we went, first to stop at my tailor to get new measurements for refitting my vests, then to a hair salon where I got my hair trimmed so it was the usual short, tidy length it always had been under my father's orders. I would have left it as it was, but I already knew I would get scolded for looking "unkempt," so it was simply easier to get it out of the way ahead of time and avoid unnecessary conflict between my father and I. After all, we already had far more than enough of that without causing more.

Slightly over an hour later, we were back on the sidewalk, mingling with the evening crowds. Giving a sweeping look about the store fronts surrounding us, I turned to Heng and asked without thinking, "Do you want to have dinner with me?" After I finished saying it, and seeing his surprised and slightly awkward smile, I hastily made up an excuse to invite him to dinner, although initially it was simply because I wanted to. "For scaring you earlier. An extended apology."

Guilt poked at me when Heng's smile faded a fraction, clearly displaying his disappointment. "…Oh." He was silent, then shook his head. "No. You already said sorry. That's enough."

It was my turn to feel disappointed and I frowned, mumbling, "Well, fine. Never mind, if you don't want to." After an uncomfortable pause, I started off down the sidewalk again, heading for the parking lot. Heng slowly followed after me, not saying anything.

Barely thirty seconds later, I was halted by an obnoxiously loud call of "Zia-a-a-an!" and I froze in horror, immediately placing the sing-song voice, which wordlessly told me that the speaker had been drinking quite a bit that evening. As usual.

Heng and I both turned around and I felt my stomach drop when I spotted the blond-haired, green-eyed young man sauntering through the crowd, pushing people out of his way to get to me. Of all people we could have run into…

I heaved a sigh and tried to erase my grimace. "Dammit."

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><p><em>Ahh, more insight and confusion into Zian's health. xD Also this time around, I decided to give Zian's 'friends' a bit more face-time than they did in the original, where they were only mentioned in passing. Should be fun. :P<br>_


	42. Nothing More

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>"Who's that?" Heng quietly asked as the drunken young man continued on his boisterous journey down the sidewalk, followed closely by several mutual friends. People I hadn't seen—as far as I could remember—since mid spring earlier this year, some of them even further back than that. Not that I cared at all; I hated these people.<p>

Especially the loud one.

Quickly making sure I looked presentable—I hadn't predicted I'd run into a clump of my future business partners, after all, but at least I looked reasonably passable in my gray slacks and the usual numerous layers of coats they were all completely used to seeing me in—I gave a stern glance to Heng and felt annoyed that he was in a red fleece pullover and denim jeans. Personally, I didn't care at all how he dressed, but appearances were everything in front of these people.

"Don't you dare say or do anything rude," I warned.

He gave me a disappointed frown. "Does that mean I can't pick my nose?"

Feeling disgusted, I snapped, "Of course you can't!" and glared at him before starting forward to meet the new arrivals.

"Geeze, lighten up. I was just joking." He sighed deeply behind me.

Ignoring the tired noise, I locked my eyes on the blond man as he swayed through the pedestrians. He jovially waved a hand when he noticed that I'd spotted him, although it was impossible not to. Only seconds later, he covered the last meter between us with a lunging stumble and grabbed me around the shoulders. To someone who didn't know him, they probably thought it was because he would have fallen over otherwise. However, I—a person who regretfully knew him better than I would have liked—knew he had done it completely on purpose.

"I've caught you, my darling!" he chortled, giving me one of his cheeky grins as he looked up at me.

"Good evening, Victor…" I greeted uncomfortably, patting him on the back a few times, then attempting to remove his arms from around me before he could do anything else. However, I was too late. He held on tighter when I started to struggle, and planted a sloppy kiss on my lips.

"BWAH‽" I reflexively exclaimed, shoving his face away and glaring down at him as he started to laugh. "How many times have I asked you not to do that‽" I snapped, disgustedly wiping my mouth off, and wishing very much I could run away and find a bathroom where I could brush my teeth and get rid of the awful tastes of alcohol and tobacco.

But first, I wanted to punch his girly little face.

Victor paused. "A lot?" he offered, then gave me a pouting stare, his green eyes brightening as if he were about to cry. "You haven't come to see me since my Christmas party last year, you cruel man. Not even a call! I've been so lonely!"

Lonely? Yeah right. And why the hell would I call him of all people…

"I have been a bit…indisposed…Please, let go of me," I begged, giving a hopeful stare to the bulky and very sour-faced man standing nearby. Victor's best friend, whose role always seemed to be more of a caretaker than a companion. He was the only one in the group who I didn't have bad feelings toward, given that he had rescued me more times than I could count from the blond devil wrapped around me.

"I can't." Victor sighed. "My legs have got no strength left in them, so you must hold me up." Contradicting his claim, he started to pull me toward the nearest building—a bar, entrance brightly lit with neon lights. "Come, have a drink with me!"

"No, thank you." Trying my hardest to stop him, I leaned backward and shook my head.

"Why not?" he demanded, his voice wobbling slightly in his drunkenness.

"For one, I have to drive later," I told him, then frowned at his flushed face. "And another, you look like you have had far too much tonight already. Perhaps it would be best if you were to go home…?" I gave another hopeful glance to his friend.

"Nonsense! I'm completely sober! And anyway!" Victor waved a hand at Heng. "This is what drivers are for!"

Inwardly rolling my eyes, I shook my head again. "He is not my driver."

With sudden interest, Victor's pale gaze snapped to Heng. "Oh! Who is he, then?"

Shoving on Victor's chest with one hand, I gestured to Heng with my other as I began the belated introductions. "This is my friend, Shi Heng. Heng, this is Victor Larson."

Heng, obviously looking extremely furious, managed a twitchy smirk. "Hello," he snapped, "nice to meet you."

Oh, dammit.

Smiling coyly, Victor replied, "My pleasure," and looked back to me. "Zian…Did I interrupt your _date_?" My face started to burn slightly at his whispered words, which were unfortunately loud enough for everyone to hear. Why even bother whispering if he was going to do it so vocally?

"He is just a friend, nothing more," I firmly denied, mentally setting aside the fact that, moments ago, I had invited Heng out to dinner. Forcing myself to keep the irritation off my face, I began to shove Victor harder, although he still wasn't budging. For such a small person, he was ridiculously strong.

His smile spreading, he pulled me further along, away from the others, and stopped us under the eaves of that bar. "In that case, may I borrow him tonight? He looks like he'd be fun to play with. Very nice lips as well."

"_No_." Just barely, I kept myself from yelling the word, but couldn't keep the abrupt wave of rage out of my voice.

"Stingy."

"He is off-limits, so keep your filthy hands off him! You have plenty of other 'toys' to play with!" I snarled under my breath, once again filled with the urge to punch him over and over and over. Thankfully, Victor was one of the few "important people" I could argue with, without a worry that he would be offended.

Victor simply laughed. "Okay, okay…calm down, I won't do anything." Sighing out his nose, he gave another glance to Heng, seeming to be somewhat disappointed, but brightened when his eyes came back to mine. "You know that I'd always settle for you instead."

My discomfort with him rose to new heights as I put a hand to my forehead. "And you know that my answer to that will _always_ be no."

"I know," he agreed, chuckling mischievously. "It was so fun, that one night I drugged you, and then–"

"Please, do not bring that up." It was more of an order than a request, and he knew that very well.

That night was one of the worst nights of my life. It had been during my first year in university, my first time attending a social event, and the first time I'd met the monstrosity standing in front of me. My father had forced me to go to the party. Victor, who had only been fourteen at the time and had looked misleadingly innocent, had happened to be attending as well. He'd given me a glass of champagne, which I had found out too late that he'd put something in it. The next thing I'd known, I'd been naked and locked in a hotel room with him. Thankfully, his friend had burst into the room and had dragged Victor away before he could rape me, or whatever the hell he'd been planning.

I'd hated him—and champagne—ever since. Normally, I wasn't the sort of person to hold a grudge against someone, but I doubted I'd ever be able to forgive Victor for what he'd done. He'd never offered me an apology, anyway—on the contrary, he seemed to be thoroughly proud of himself for having managed to drug me so easily—so I considered forgiveness to be eliminated from the situation.

"Ah, such fond memories," he said in a nostalgic tone, and fell silent. I was too angry to reply, or contradict him, or whatever else. Eventually, he cleared his throat, crossed his arms, and leaned back against the brick wall of the bar. "So, about your friend–"

"I said _no_!" I waspishly lashed.

"Zia-a-an," he pleaded, "at least let me give him my number. Where's the harm in that? He can decide if he wants to contact me or not, right? And anyway, if you're not dating him, it's none of your business!"

I bit my lip at that last remark. Although completely reluctant to admit it, he was right; it was none of my business; Heng and I were, if a little forcefully declared so, just friends. He was an adult, capable of choosing who he wanted to sleep with. And single as well, so it wasn't like he would be cheating on anyone…But the thought of Victor putting his slimy hands on Heng pissed me off far more than it should have.

Out of a want to get rid of him sooner, I nodded. "Okay, give it to him." I was definitely going to take the number away from Heng as soon as possible. If he didn't actually want it, that is.

Victor gave me a gleeful slap on the arm, then turned to hurry away. I grabbed his shoulder to stop him and threateningly whispered, "Your number. Nothing more than that."

"Fine!" He frowned at me, then scurried toward my poor, unsuspecting friend. Resisting the urge to knock Victor over, then grab Heng and run, I wandered over to the rest of the group, fixing a mechanical smile onto my face as I muttered some greetings and forced myself to keep my attention away from the other two.

"Ah, Zian, how are you doing?" one of the men asked. "My parents heard from your father that you had a bad fall recently."

"I am fine now, thank you," I told him, eyes briefly glancing to the pair nearby. Victor was snatching Heng's phone away from him.

"Mm, I would have visited you but, well, you know how busy we all get, right?" The laugh that followed his words was forced and hollow. I had never expected or wanted these people to visit me when I was sick, injured, or otherwise incapable of spending time with them.

"Yes, it is completely understandable," I agreed.

Another one of the men gave Heng an openly disgruntled look. "What did you say your friend's surname is? Shi? I can't recall meeting him before…"

The unspoken question of his social status hung heavily in the air between us.

"I doubt you would have met him," I said, tone somewhat icy.

"Overseas company?"

"No, local. He is a secretary," I corrected, leaving out the fact that it was a daycare he worked at, and thus saved Heng from at least some of the ridicule about his job they might throw at him.

"Hmph, I see. Rather scruffy-looking, isn't he?"

"And your point is?" I glared at the man. He immediately shut his mouth. Stepping over to Victor's friend, I gave him an annoyed stare and said, "Heng and I should be going. Could you please round up Victor?"

The frown on his face—it never seemed to go away—deepened as he gave me a short "Yeah," and finally, much later than I would have preferred, went to collect his friend, who at that moment was laughing and playfully poking Heng's chest with one finger.

Oh, how I wanted to punch that man.

"Have a nice evening," I told the rest of them, and went to rescue Heng.

Once I'd put myself between Heng and Victor, Victor gave me a questioning look. "Are you sure you won't join me for a drink?"

"I apologize, but we really have to be going," I replied at once, desperate to escape.

"That's a shame." He sighed and leaned all of his weight against his friend, pulling a half-full carton of cigarettes out of his pocket. "I'm having another Christmas party in a couple weeks. My father is opening a new hotel that night, and has allowed me to host the party there. Do you want to come? I promise I won't mess with your drink again," he added with a laugh while he popped a cigarette into his mouth.

Liar. The fact that he had brought it up probably meant he was scheming something.

"Perhaps," I allowed, smiling faintly. "I will check my schedule." Check it and plan something else on that day, so I couldn't go.

"Alright. Call me!" he said to me, then gave a smile to Heng. "And you, too!"

Heng looked like he didn't know how to reply. I backed away, protectively shoving Heng along with me. "Goodbye." I turned away, grabbed Heng's sleeve, and hurried down the crowded sidewalk, heading once again for the parking lot where I'd left my car.

After we'd gotten quite a ways from Victor and his group, Heng inhaled sharply. "T-that guy was flirting with me!" he sputtered, face going red as he stabbed one finger at his phone's screen. "And he forced his number on me!"

"I know," I growled. "And I'm warning you now, you shouldn't get _involved_ with him. I know it's not my place to restrict you and all that, but it's for your own good. That man sleeps with nearly everyone he lays eyes on. Who knows what sorts of diseases he's caught during his philandering. It's absolutely repulsive."

Many times in the past, I'd had the misfortune of being subjected to Victor's proudly-delivered tales of his nighttime activities, and the partner he spoke of was different every time. It seemed as though the man, whose family owned a chain of hotels, had taken it upon himself to "test out" every single room, in every single hotel, with anyone who happened to be nearby.

Simply being in his presence made me want to take an extremely hot shower to wash off any germs that might have gotten on me. My skin crawled and prickled at the thought and I gave another rub to my mouth, still wishing I had a toothbrush and toothpaste and mouthwash with me to thoroughly scrub away his gross kiss.

Heng smiled and lifted his cellphone, pressing his thumb to the buttons as he opened up the menu. "Don't worry, Al. I'm not gonna call him, or anything else. Especially not _anything else_. It's obvious what he was after, so I kinda tried to be as neutral as I could. He just took me by surprise; I wasn't expecting him to suddenly come onto me like that, especially with how all the other people kept giving me grossed-out looks, like they thought I smelled bad or something…There." With a chirpy beep, Victor's number was deleted from Heng's contact list, although of course that wouldn't stop Victor from calling him. However, Victor would—probably this very night—find someone else he thought was interesting and would hopefully forget he ever met Heng.

Sighing with relief as we crossed the street, I pulled my keys out of my pocket, relaxing now that we were alone again.

"Does he always kiss you?" Heng quietly asked, his voice regaining his earlier anger.

Grimacing, I shrugged one shoulder. "Only when he thinks he can get away with it. Usually I'm able to stop him, though." Anyway, he almost always had someone else around to slobber all over.

"Oh," he mumbled, not seeming to be any happier. I gave him a small look, but didn't know what to say to cheer him up, so I looked away again and held my tongue. I didn't want to continue that conversation anyway, or any other conversation about that lewd man, for that matter, so I hoped Heng would also drop it.

Once we finally got back to my car, I quickly unlocked it, climbed in, and opened the glove compartment to retrieve my package of peppermint candies. I popped three in my mouth, swished them around a bit to coat the inside of my mouth with their sharp and cold flavor, then held the package out to Heng as he buckled his seat belt. "Want any?" I offered.

He wordlessly took one, and I put away the remainder before preparing to pull out of the public lot. In the silence, I let my mind wander to work and the office, wondering if everything had run smoothly in my absence. After being idle for so long, I was a little excited to go back to work, really, although kind of distressed that I would have to deal with my irritating employees some more. Still, I was very happy that I would have something to fill my days with again, instead of being useless and sitting about the house, not doing anything productive at all.

Several minutes later, there was a lot of loud crunching from the other side of the car when Heng began to gnaw on his mint. Once the noise had finally stopped, signaling that he had chewed the candy into nothing, he called, "Al?"

"Hm?" I glanced at him. He was looking out the window.

"Do you wanna have dinner with me?"

Feeling confused at his question, I glanced at him a second time. "I seem to remember asking you that same question not half an hour ago, and I seem to remember that you turned me down."

"That's 'cause you offered it as an apology, stupid," Heng grumbled, turning about in his seat so he could face me. "I'm offering it just 'cause I want to, not 'cause of any obligatory shit."

Smiling faintly, I gave a nod. "Alright, fine. Where do you want to go?"

His face brightened considerably as he straightened in his seat and pointed out the windshield. "To the grocery store, 'cause we need ingredients, and then to my house!"

Confusion rose again, this time with worry. "You do know that I don't know how to cook, right?"

"Yeah, but I know how," he told me, looking very proud of himself. "And I'm super good at it, too, since I've had to make my own meals for so long. So I'll do the cooking, and you can set the table or something."

"Okay."

Heng listed off the directions to the nearest grocer, then stared eagerly at me. "Other than raw fruit and veggies, what kind of food do you like? Spicy? Sweet? Foreign stuff? Pasta? Meat? Pick whatever you want."

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I shrugged and took a moment to think. "I guess I lean more toward soups and pasta…Italian sorts of dishes, I suppose. Creamy and mild stuff, preferably not with many vegetables; I don't like their squishy texture when they get cooked. Is that too narrowed?"

"Nope, I can think of lotsa things to make," he chirped.

"Would you call Delun and tell him I'm eating with you, then?" I requested. Heng nodded and quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I don't want to go back late without warning…He would definitely think I ditched you somewhere and went home." I half-frowned as I pulled my car onto a small side street. "I don't really get why Delun is so determined to keep me from going home at all. Always yelling at me and thinking I'm trying to 'escape' whenever I ask to go out."

"He's just concerned," Heng told me, then laughed. "In his own little control-freak way." He quickly lifted the phone to his ear. "Hi, Wei Bo! I called to tell you that I'm kidnapping Al for the evening!…No, he's not." He gave me an amused glance. "Yeah, see you." He ended the call and opened his phone menu, laughing. "He asked if you had me at gunpoint and forced me to say that, so he wouldn't know you were running away."

"Good grief," I mumbled, scowling. Delun's version of "concern" was extremely annoying. He was treating me as though I was a prisoner. I felt slightly bad for Shuang, having a father like that…I could only imagine trouble Shuang's future boyfriends were all going to have, facing it off with Delun of all people. He would probably meet them at the front door, a knife in his hand and a glare on his face. _"Get your hands off my daughter!"_ No time at all for the boys to explain themselves before Delun chased them out of the house in the name of protecting his precious Shuang…

"What're you laughing about?" Heng asked, looking up from his cellphone.

Quickly trying to wipe the mirth off my face, I shook my head. "Oh, just imagining how Delun will treat any boys that Shuang-mèi decides to date in the future."

Heng was quiet for a moment, then started sniggering and looked back to his phone. "Oh, geeze. I bet he'd go ballistic if she brought home a boy. Run him outta the house before he even gets a chance to introduce himself."

"I know. That's exactly what I was thinking," I admitted, laughing along with him.

We spent the remainder of the drive to the grocer picking on Delun while Heng searched for recipes on the internet through his phone—he eventually decided on some cheesy tortellini dish that I agreed sounded good. Once we arrived, he dragged me through the unfamiliar aisles, searching for whatever he needed. It took quite a while to find everything, given that I kept stopping and looking at anything that caught my eye; it was my first time in a grocery store, so I felt that my fascination with things he thought were boring and unremarkable was completely justified.

After we finally had everything—Heng threatened that he would never take me to another grocer if I acted so "touristy" again—normally he probably would have found my excitement to be funny, but he was still somewhat cranky after our run-in with the pests from earlier, plus he was very hungry, of course, and wanted to get home, cook, and eat as soon as possible—we drove to his house and he sat me down at his kitchen table, "to have a front seat to watch my amazing cooking!" as he so proudly declared, not that there were any "back seats" I could have sat in.

Soon he had the kitchen filled with the smells of cheese, garlic, and various herbs, and was cooking with every bit of skill that he had boasted to have. I was very impressed by how many things he could handle at once as he his hands effortlessly flew from task to task. Since he had decided to make everything from scratch, it took quite a while for everything to finish cooking, but finally we were both seated at the table, a large bowl of steaming cheese-and-sausage tortellini in the middle of the table. Next to it sat a plate of bread sticks and sauces to dip them in next to it as well as a smaller bowl of salad.

I stared down at the table, feeling dazed at the amazing meal, which looked and smelled—and most likely tasted—just as good as any meal I'd had at an expensive restaurant. "Why in the world are you a secretary‽" I asked him in bewilderment when I managed to get over most of my surprise.

"You mean why am I not a chef?" he clarified, looking amused. I nodded as he began to dish out the food onto both our plates. "Ah, well, I actually wanted to go to a culinary school instead of that business school, but I had to plan things realistically. What was best for my little brothers was most important. There aren't any culinary schools around here, so I would have had to move—uprooting my brothers and all, and I didn't want to do that…Plus I would think that it's easier and faster to get a position at an office than getting a position at a restaurant. If I was an only child I definitely would have done it, but since I'm not…here I am, a secretary whose only chance to show off his awesome cooking skills is when he's making meals here in this kitchen," he ended with a small laugh.

I stabbed my fork into one of the round pieces of pasta and frowned as I held it up to my eyes for closer inspection. "I can't imagine you would have much difficulty finding a well-paid chef's position when you've got talent like this."

"Maybe," he allowed, starting on his own food. "But it's a really competitive field. And I doubt any high-class restaurants would hire me. I've worked a lot of food-related jobs, but the more serious places would probably want to see some sort of school degree on my resume, even if I do have a lot of experience already. If I applied for a position and managed to get an interview, I'm sure a bunch of well-trained culinary school graduates would be interviewed as well, meaning I'd definitely get passed over."

Making a grumbly noise, I popped the tortellini into my mouth and gnawed on it. As I had suspected, it was perfect; tender pasta shell, mildly spiced sausage innards, thick creamy and herbal cheese sauce. While Heng was probably completely right about who the restaurants would choose to hire, it seemed ridiculously unfair to people, like Heng, who had the talent and skills to succeed, but not the opportunity to attend a culinary school.

Then again, when was life fair?

"This is delicious, and I'm not saying that just to be polite," I told him after I had finished chewing.

Heng laughed and took a sip out of his glass of water. "Wow. Coming from the guy who hates eating, that means more than any comment I could get from a well-seasoned food critic."

I smiled at him and playfully warned, "My opinion had better mean more than a food critic's," as I scooped up more of the pasta onto my fork.

"It definitely does," he quietly assured, matching my grin with a warm one of his own.

The rest of the meal was spent eating and talking about stuff going on in Heng's world; how his little brothers were doing in school, how his job was going and what his coworkers were like, silly things the kids had done while he was in the daycare's playroom, interesting things he had watched on television—"You really need to buy a TV, Al," he'd scolded after I'd admitted that I had no idea what he was talking about—and other things, big and small. Given that all I did everyday was, well, _nothing_, I had very little to contribute to the conversation, but it was nice to simply listen to him speak. It relaxed me.

When it was nearing eleven at night, the food had finally all been eaten—I was feeling extremely fat with as much as I'd put away—since I'd paid for half the ingredients, I had been determined to eat half of the food, not that I had succeeded, but I'd still eaten far more than I should have. I helped Heng wash the dishes, then shuffled uncomfortably to the front door, stifling a yawn as I sat down to put on my shoes. I stopped Heng when he started to do the same. "Don't."

He gave me a confused glance, hands freezing in the process of removing his house slippers. "I have to get my car. It's still at the Lin house."

"I know, but I'll have it sent over, so stay here. It's a good opportunity for you to get some rest."

"I wanna go, too!" he whined.

"Stay here. Give me your key," I ordered, holding out my hand.

He frowned grumpily at me, but obediently removed his keys from his pants' pocket, took his car key off the cluttered keyring, handed it over, then put his slippers back on. "Jerk."

Smiling, I pocketed his key and finished putting on my shoes, then stood up and stepped toward the front door. "Thank you for dinner. Goodbye."

"Al, wait!"

Looking back, I paused, one hand on the door knob.

"Um…" He crossed his arms and looked embarrassed. "Next weekend…Saturday, to be more specific…I was wondering if you were doing anything."

"Next weekend?" I thought for a moment, but it didn't take long to realize what he was going to ask; next Saturday was his twenty-fifth birthday, and the Lin siblings and I had planned a party for him, but he didn't know about any of it, of course. I put on a falsely apologetic expression, hiding all of the smiles. "Yes, I have something planned on Saturday."

Predictably, his face fell into extreme gloominess. "Oh…I see. I know you have work in the morning, but you can't come over in the afternoon or evening or anything?"

"No, I have plans after work. All afternoon and all evening." I had to fight quite a bit to keep my face blank. Teasing him was so much fun.

"Oh," he repeated, looking far more depressed than before. "Are they really important?"

"Extremely. I definitely won't cancel them."

"Oh…What're you doing, then?"

My lips twisted when my smiles threatened to leak out. I turned toward the door to hide them. "It's not anything you need to know about."

"Geeze, fine. I was just…Wait a minute!" he suddenly exclaimed. I had to cover my mouth when he turned me around. "You! You sneaky…!" he sputtered, all sadness gone and replaced with excitement. "YOU'RE PLANNING SOMETHING, AREN'T YOU‽"

I quirked an eyebrow. "What sort of a question is that? I told you I have plans, so of course I'm _planning_ something." Oh, drat. Mei Rong was definitely going to be mad at me that he had suspected something was going on. But really, given that he had interrogated me, it wasn't like I could have avoided it…Although I probably should have come up with a false story to use as an excuse.

Well, it was too late now.

"Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" He started to shake me back and forth. When I kept my mouth firmly shut, he deeply inhaled and commanded, "TELL ME-E-E! WHAT IS IT‽ TELL ME NOW!"

"No," I denied flatly. "Let go and stop shaking me around."

His face turned sour when he frowned. "Fine, you jerk. Don't tell me! I still have over a week to force it out of you guys, anyway!"

"Is it really so terrible to just wait and see?" I mused.

"No. But annoying you guys is so much fun," he explained, cheekily grinning. Sighing, I raised a hand to roughly muss up his thick hair, and then turned away again. When I had my hand on the door knob, I was stopped a second time. "Wait!"

"What‽" I demanded, glancing at him over my shoulder. "I'm _not_ going to tell you, so give it up!"

He turned me around again and pulled me into a tight hug. I felt like all of the food I had eaten was going to be squished back out of me, but I tried my hardest to keep it all in my stomach, where it was supposed to be. "Thanks for having dinner with me," he softly said.

Laughing faintly, I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a squeeze. "You're welcome. And thank you for cooking for me."

"Any time."

He slowly removed himself from around me, and for the third time I turned toward the door. This time, he allowed me to open it. I briskly strode down the steps, into the darkness outside, then turned to wave. "Be sure to get into a fighting mood tonight in _Second Life_. We've got a battle to win against Yu Lian."

"What fight?" he curiously asked.

"Oh, just a request I'm sure she won't like," I vaguely explained, hurrying to the car port attached to the side of his house. "Bye!"

"See you later."

I got into my car, pulled away from his house, waved one more time—he was still in the doorway, watching—and drove off down the narrow street, smiling as I ran my mind over the evening. Initially I hadn't wanted Heng there, since Delun had only told him to keep an eye on me, but it had turned out nicely anyway. It had been very fun to be able to spend time with him alone and out of the house.

My smile faded a bit. Too fun, maybe, I thought when Victor's question from earlier popped into my head. _"Did I interrupt your _date_?"_

I pulled my car to a stop at a red light and sighed, resting my head on my hand, feeling guilt roil up over my actions. Should I have turned Heng down when he'd asked me if I wanted to have dinner? I'd invited him first…That was definitely a mistake, I knew upon hindsight. I was engaged—if I was going to have a dinner like that with anyone, it should have been with Jiao—and also I barely knew the man, yet I had an unexplainable fondness for him. But fondness or not, I should have known better than to do something like that.

Biting my lip when the traffic light turned green, I quickly drove forward and tried to put my guilt out of mind with the feeble excuse that it was just a friendly meal and nothing more, instead fixing my thoughts on the argument that I was going to start with Yu Lian as soon as possible.

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><p><em>Victor Larson, a very lewd Swede, and one of the few people Zian actually hates. He'll be back to torment Zian some more in future chapters. Heehee.<br>_

_Over the past few months, I've been writing a story with his best friend as the main character xP It won't be uploaded, probably (in my opinion there are too many "rich people" ½ Prince stories these days,) but I felt like putting him in Clockwork as well._


	43. Departing from Infinite City

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>"Permission to leave the city?" Yu Lian repeated, a faint frown creasing her forehead. "Teams are always allowed to go out and train when they have the time; you don't have to ask us for permission. And anyway, when have you six ever asked for permission to leave? You seem to just up and disappear whenever you want."<p>

The agitated frown I wanted to throw at her was quickly stifled for the sake of keeping these negotiations harmonious. We had only "up and disappeared" once, and for a very good reason…But apparently she still saw it as us slacking off and was always going to be suspicious of what we were doing while she wasn't looking.

"We aren't asking for permission to go train," Wei Bo corrected, "we're asking for permission to _leave_. As in leave Infinite City indefinitely, not just for a few days."

I swallowed when Yu Lian's frown went from confused to irritated. "Leave indefinitely? And what about your duties? You can't just quit."

"The four of us–" Wei Bo gestured to everyone but Jiū and I, "–will of course come back as soon as possible if you have some battle going on. However, since we're reserve troops and there's no battles going on, we currently don't have any duties, so I would assume that we're allowed to go wherever we want."

"I'm also not needed," Jiū added, "since I'm in city defenses, and as my brother has pointed out, there is no battle going on. It's not necessary for me to defend the city at the moment. But if a battle here at the city happens to crop up, I'll also come back immediately. I'm sure the local magicians will be able to hold out until I return and give my support."

The magician sighed, obviously not wanting to admit that they were technically not needed, although I'm sure she could have found work for them in a heartbeat. She turned to me. "Well, what about you? You're required to work on a regular schedule, so how do you expect to be able to deliver the supplies when you're not here?"

"NPC courier services," I explained. "We want to go to Star City to finally register our team, and Jiū mentioned that she has seen a place there—and also in Moon City, apparently, so I suppose they're in every city—where players can pay to have items delivered to wherever they want—their in-game houses, other players, et cetera. And before you start lecturing me on the fact that it will cost money," I quickly added when she looked like she was going to interrupt, "I won't be asking you to fund the deliveries; I'll pay for them myself. I have a lot saved up, so hiring a courier won't do anything to our team expenses."

I shifted my weight in a hope to find a more comfortable position. It was difficult to find comfort in this stuffy office of Yu Lian's. Taking a deep breath, I continued. "Since you have hired more people into the archery supplies department, I'm sure your citizens won't suffer if my portion of the load is lagging a bit."

"We haven't hired them yet," Yu Lian admitted. "We don't have the funds, and won't until after the concerts. The people we've found are still just prospects."

"Prospects or not, my production levels will still lag if we leave. And for other reasons, they will also drop in amount, regardless of whether or not you let us leave," I told her quietly. "After all, you can't realistically expect me and only me to supply an entire city with the items they need. And I told Gui Wen that I don't mind if you take away my wages and give them to someone else, so you have no excuse for not hiring at least one other person."

She glared at me, but nodded. "Yes, he did mention that, now that you remind me. I'll pick out a new employee to help you, in that case. But…are you sure you don't want your pay?" she slowly inquired, sounding as though she didn't quite believe me. "I don't want to hear any complaints about this later."

"I don't need it. As I said, I have a lot saved up."

Yu Lian appeared to be a bit less cranky at my refusal for money. "I see. Well, I'm sure those wings of yours do come in handy for traveling for free, at least," she remarked.

"They do," I agreed. "And also…" I paused to take another deep breath, preparing myself. "About the potions you've been having me make. I'm not going to make them anymore."

"And why not?" she demanded, eyes narrowing in the anger I'd been expecting.

"If you want potions, get yourself an apothecary," I ordered huffily. "I'm in the _archery supplies _production department, not the _potion_ production department. Bows, arrows, bolts, bow strings, armor, quivers, and whatever else—I'm fine with making all of that, since that's my duty. But not potions. You've been depleting my team's personal supplies for your city to have potions, when you should have been gathering the ingredients yourselves."

Although frightened of standing up to her, I was very tired of her wringing me for all I was worth. She may have been my superior, but I wasn't going to do whatever she said, without question. The only person who could order me around like that was my father. And even then, I was tired of blindly, mindlessly doing whatever he asked of me.

Yu Lian rubbed a hand on her forehead and stared down at the papers littering the top of her desk. For nearly a minute, she was silent. "Okay. You're right. I suppose I shouldn't have asked you to make potions when it's not your responsibility…" Sighing again, she leaned back in her chair, looking to Wei Bo. "I assume you're not planning on coming back unless you have to. Why can't you just register and return, using the training spots near Infinite City? You've even got lodgings here."

"We've told you several times now that we never wanted the lodgings," Wei Bo replied flatly. "We're grateful for them, of course, but we don't really have any use for them. My family and I have always spent all of our time outside of the cities, only going back for supplies when we ran out. Dib mentioned that he and Aeolus did that as well.

"And also, we won't be leaving permanently. Just for a month or so."

"When we come back, we're hoping that you'll let us continue to live outside of the city, since our positions here are much less important than you leaders'," Jiū added. "This city will be our 'base' again, but we prefer not to have to come back every night. The time we would use to travel back and forth would just cut into our training."

"Yes, that's acceptable," Yu Lian agreed. She gave us a long look, then made a small note on one of her papers. "So, with all of the time you've spent here in the city, why didn't you tell me a long time ago that you don't like the accommodations?"

"Well, things have changed between then and now," I slowly began. "Earlier this evening I got a message from my father, calling me back to work now that I've healed almost completely. Since I wasn't working this past month and a half, I didn't mind spending so much time playing _Second Life_. But now that I'll be working again, it'll be less stressful for me if I'm not here in the city. I just can't…well, I don't have the confidence that I'll be able to juggle two full-time jobs, is all, and if I have to choose between giving more attention to my job in real life or more to my job in a game, I will always choose real life. I hope that's understandable enough."

Her stern expression gave way to a more empathetic one, relieving me as it seemed she was actually seeing our side of things, not just the drop in her worker's production levels. "Speaking as a person who has a rather stressful job in real life, yes, that's understandable." Clearing her throat, she sat up straight and stared unblinkingly at me. "Once a week, I will expect your deliveries. Perhaps the first one I'll allow to be a bit late, given that it'll take your team several days to reach Star City." She paused to bend forward and scribble something on a small piece of paper. Once she was done, she held it out to me. "Your first task list. I'll message you the next list once I receive your first delivery."

I took the paper and quickly read through the neatly inked lines of script.

_"1) 200 feathered arrow shafts  
>2) 20 strung longbows<br>3) 20 strung shortbows  
>4) 20 sets of crossbow limbs<br>5) 20 crossbow strings"_

"The arrowheads and the rest of the crossbows will be made here in the city by one of our smiths," Yu Lian added while I read, "so don't bother with those parts."

Quickly folding up the piece of paper, I tucked it away into my pouch and nodded at her. These things on the list would be easy to make and deliver within a week's time.

"Well, I don't really want to agree, but fine. See you in a month, or whenever it is you'll be getting back." She waved at us. Giving waves of our own, we then turned away from her desk and hastily left the quiet office before she could change her mind. We headed outside and came to a stop on the bustling cobblestone road.

Xiu Chen exhaled a lungful of air. "That went smoother than expected."

"Would have gone smoother if the Twig hadn't gotten snippy with her," Wei Bo mumbled. I didn't make any response but to irritably press my lips together and look away to watch players pass us by. It was difficult not to get "snippy" when I spoke to Yu Lian.

"System, map." Wei Bo's eyes went unfocused as he stared into space. "Ah…eastern side of the city is where Nan Gong Zui's got his group settled. It's big enough that it should be easy to find."

Once he'd closed his system window, we headed off in the correct direction. Wei Bo and the three women all took out their money pouches and started picking through them, talking amongst themselves.

"Do you think we have enough?" Jiū asked, giving slightly concerned glances at her own coins, then to the other threes'.

"We've got plenty," Xiu Chen assured.

"We don't know how much they'll want, though," Wei Bo reminded.

Avila let out a snorty laugh. "If we need more money, we can just buy some off the website."

"You cheater," Jiū scolded. "You know I don't like it when we buy money instead of earning it."

"Hey, if buying money was cheating, the _Second Life_ website wouldn't offer it to players! They sell rare weapons and armor and stuff, too! There's no rule against it, and lots of people do it!"

"That doesn't mean we have to be lazy and join in!"

I sighed and tried to block out the rising argument over whether or not buying game money with real money counted as cheating. Given that they all had high-level equipment, they probably bought stuff off the website quite often. I knew Avila did, anyway. She usually used a small portion of her weekly pocket money for it.

Well, at least I wouldn't have to worry about paying for those deliveries…

Several minutes later, we had arrived at the cluster of buildings that housed the members of Nan Gong Zui's alliance. Quickly threading our way through the houses, we easily found our destination—the large stable containing the NPC horses owned by the alliance. For faster travel, we had decided to see if we could buy, or at least rent, horses off the players, so Wei Bo, Xiu Chen, and their sisters could ride while Dib and I flew.

The stable master was very agreeable to our request and quickly led us inside to see the selection of horses. Apparently the horses had been mating—sometimes a ninety-nine percent realism level was quite helpful—so there were mounts to spare for any player who wanted to buy one permanently or only rent one temporarily.

While the four went to choose horses for themselves out of the selection that were up for sale—"I WANT A PINK ONE!" Avila had cheered, but was immediately disappointed by a stable hand when he told her they didn't come in pink and that she should go find herself a unicorn instead—Dib and I wandered over to the nearest horse—a tiny white one that looked like it had just been born recently—and began patting it.

Dib was extremely excited about it all until he tried to give the mother horse a handful of oats he'd taken from a nearby feed bag, and the mare accidentally bit him. After that, he ran out of the stables, crying and screaming that the horse was trying to eat him. I rolled my eyes and followed after him, leaving the rest of our team to pick horses, get their tack, and haggle with the stable master over the prices.

As soon as I'd gotten Dib calmed down, speeding up the process by giving him a few almond cookies I'd bought a box of at the bakery for times just like this when I had to bribe him for some reason or another, the other four filed out of the wide stable entrance, each leading a horse. Wei Bo had gotten himself a rich brown-colored, enormous warhorse, Xiu Chen a smaller, cream-colored horse, and Avila and Jiū had both gotten white horses of the same size as Xiu Chen's, all four animals looking quite fit and good at running, which was great; I could fly as fast as I wanted and not be afraid they wouldn't be able to keep up.

Since pink horses weren't available, Avila had taken a bright pink ribbon and had braided it into her horse's mane, along with a small, round bell of the same golden color as her armor. Although I thought the clear tinkling noise of the bell was nice, Wei Bo was complaining it would "immediately get on my nerves, so take it out!" to which she replied with "No!" and gave him a smack when he tried to remove the bell himself.

Once they had finally stopped arguing—Avila won—we said our goodbyes to the stable workers and made our way back through the city and toward the market to get supplies. After we'd stocked up on food—Dib was beside himself with glee when all three of the women offered, against Wei Bo's will, to hold extra food for him in their saddlebags—and potions and arrows and everything else, we made a short stop at the armory to patch up all our armor, then went to the southern gate.

I watched the other four swing themselves into their saddles, then extended my wings and prepared to take off. However, I was tackled from behind and fell down before I could get more than a few centimeters off the ground. Dib, squashed between my back and whoever the other person was, let out a squeal of surprise and pain.

"ZIA-A-AN!" the voice of my brother wailed from on top of Dib and I both.

Forcefully shoving Gui off of us, I sat up and glared at him. "Why'd you jump on us‽"

"Why didn't you tell me that you're leaving‽" he countered, standing up and sternly crossing his arms. "I bet you would have been long-gone before I'd noticed, if Yu Lian hadn't told me!"

"I didn't want to interrupt your band practice," I huffed, brushing the dirt and grass off myself as I also got to my feet.

"Right. I would be so-o-o inconvenienced if you sent me a short message saying goodbye," he sarcastically exclaimed, rolling his eyes. He then looked extremely worried, grabbed my shoulders, and began roughly shaking me back and forth. "Why're you leaving, anyway‽ Did I do something‽ Are you leaving for forever‽ I know I've been busy, but I can't help it!"

"W-would you ju-just calm—calm down! Stop shaking me!" Yanking his hands off my arms, took a step back. "You don't have anything to do with it! We're just taking a sort of vacation trip…thing. We'll be back in time to see your big concert after the tour next month. We've already reserved tickets and everything."

Gui's fretting slipped into awe. "Yu Lian is letting you guys take a vacation? That's amazing." He then looked somewhat eager all of the sudden. "Speaking of the tour, the band's first stop will be in Star City, in a little over a week once we've practiced enough and have traveled there and all. Do you want to come to the concerts? We'll be having several spread out in different locations, and they're all free to attend!" he added, as if he thought that would give more incentive.

"Yes!" Avila immediately answered for me.

I gave a small nod, not that I had a choice anymore. Although I wanted to support Gui and his friends, I wasn't particularly keen on going to a concert; I knew, without a doubt, there would be fangirls there. After my last run-in with a group of fangirls, I wanted to steer clear of any places they might gather. But perhaps we would be able to watch from the safety of a rooftop or something, and thus keep out of any dangerous situations the scary women might create, like had happened right after the war.

Apparently convinced that I wasn't disappearing somewhere, Gui gave me a quick hug, then stepped back to allow me room to take off. "Alright, see you all soon, then!" He smiled and waved a hand.

"Bye," we all told him. I quickly began to beat my wings, feet leaving the ground as I raised Dib and I up into the air while the other four started riding down the grassy side of the dirt road, around all of the walking pedestrians leaving and entering the city. I waved at the shrinking purple figure that was Gui, then turned myself about and shot off toward the south, flying directly over my mounted teammates as I rose higher, catching a gust of warm wind under my wings as we headed into the wilderness.

We spent that night, Friday night, and the weekend traveling south in short bursts, spending quite a bit of time training on whatever monsters happened to be be nearby, frequently telling Dib not to ask about his birthday—he never listened and continued to nag us so much that we all temporarily blocked his messages, which caused him to throw a fit until we finally gave in and unblocked him—and, whenever we went past a forest, gathering wood and killing birds for my fletching, which I found I could do while flying and thus saved myself a lot of time. That was a bit of information, I immediately decided upon discovering it, that I would _not_ tell Yu Lian about, for fear that she would add to my load again if she found out I was completing the tasks so easily.

Early Monday morning, we settled down to camp for the night—or, well, _day_ in real life—next to a small, sheltered pond filled with the sounds of peeping frogs and chirping crickets, and the smells of algae and grass. Given that we'd been training a lot and barely traveling at all over the past four nights, I thought that the fact that we had already covered about two-thirds of the distance was quite impressive.

Sitting down next to the fire Wei Bo had built, I carefully tied together twenty-five feathered arrow shafts and stored them in my pouch with the other seventy-five that I had already made, one bundle a night. Afterward, I stared vacantly into the crackling flames as they twisted and leapt off the stack of criss-crossing logs, mind drifting to the office for what was probably the millionth time since I had received the message from my father.

"D'you think today'll be okay?" Dib quietly asked me as he got out his enormous frying pan and set it over the fire, dropping in a piece of butter to grease it up. "Stuff at the office, I mean."

Dib's thoughts had synchronized with mine.

Smiling faintly at the familiar question, one I had just been asking myself, I shrugged. "I hope so. Then again, it was never really what I would call 'okay.'"

"Yeah, me either." He sighed. "I kinda wish I still worked there, so I could give you some backup. Those women in our department were always picking on you…And we were always working on really weird things. Did you ever notice? I remember a lot of times I got random documents sent to my desk that were from Sales, or Human Resources, or wherever else…Mostly stuff that didn't have anything to do with Accounting. Our workloads were huge compared to other departments'."

I nodded in agreement. "It was a mess. Might still be, for all I know. I don't know how competent my replacement is. However good he or she is, though, I'm sure the ladies won't be happy to see me again, given how much they loath me. Or maybe they will be happy; I seem to be a large source for the stupid gossip they like so much."

"That seems to apply to all the people at your work," Wei Bo remarked from the other side of the fire. "I visited you once right after we met. I was running an errand at your building, and we went to the cafeteria. The moment we stepped through the doors, everyone scrambled to get out of our way like we were carrying some sort of horrible disease."

"Mm…I'm not very popular there. At all. I don't know what I did to earn such wide-spread dislike, but whatever…And as for the documents," I added softly, glancing at Dib as he began to crack eggs into his frying pan, "that's definitely not going to continue, if it hasn't stopped already. Even if I am only a manager, I still have the authority as the company heir, and can use it in quite advantageous ways."

"What're you gonna do?" he asked, an amused smile quirking at his mouth as he plopped in another egg. It sizzled upon contact with the searing hot skillet. "Storm the other departments and threaten them until they agree to stop?"

My eyes widened slightly as I watched the eggs cook. Xiu Chen dropped in a few sausages beside the whitening yokes. "That's a good idea."

Dib looked alarmed. "I was joking!"

"It _is_ a good idea," Jiū agreed. "As long as you don't actually, you know, kill anyone. You have every right to complain to the managers of the other departments if they're sending you all of their work. Lazy people." She huffed slightly, shaking her head before going back to what she had been doing—braiding Avila's long, pink hair.

"Exactly." I fell silent while the food continued to cook, and I wondered if I would be able to scrape together enough courage to actually go and approach another manager. I had been able to, from time to time, put on my mask of sternness and deal with coworkers who were irritating me, but mostly I had simply let them do whatever they wanted, even if it gave me trouble.

Being so submissive for so long was, in hindsight, extremely stupid. Hopefully the anger I was feeling now toward all of those people would be able to pull me through the battle of straightening up my department. Perhaps if I corrected the problem regarding all of the misplaced documents, the pair of gossiping women in Accounting would maybe see me as a bit of a better person than before, and would, if only a little, not slander me as much.

One could dream, anyway.

"Well, I'll think of something," I said after a while, accepting from Dib a piece of toasted bread with an egg on top.

"It's good that you wanna clean things up, just don't get yourself into trouble while you're doing it," Dib ordered.

"Yes. I already seem to do that plenty without purposefully barreling head-first into a fight." I smiled humorlessly as I bit into my toast. "I will do my best to fix things as cleanly and safely as possible."

"Hmph." Dib flopped down beside me, gnawing noisily on his own toast-and-egg. "Who d'you shposh 'ook my job?"

Carefully chewing my mouthful, I waited until I had swallowed to answer Dib's muffled, food-filled question. "I don't know. I didn't receive any information on the matter. If it's someone who transferred or got a promotion or something, well…I don't know many people outside my own department, aside from the higher-ups my father associates with often. And if it's someone new, I know even less about the person."

"Whoever they are, I hope they're nice," he murmured, looking worried.

Laughing softly, I put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair around. "Well, nice or not, I don't suppose the new hire can be worse than the pair of gossipers…Or maybe they can. Who knows?"

His eyes narrowed as he grumpily stared up at me. "Gee, that makes me feel a whole lot better."

* * *

><p><em><em><em>As a player of <em>Runescape_, the thought of buying game money—an offense bad enough to lose your account over—makes me cringe. And yet, as an ex-player of _MapleStory_, in which you can legally buy items and experience and stuff like that for real money, I was a bit torn in adding in the real-money-for-game-stuff. However, I assume that in _Second Life_ you're allowed. Fairsky did it, right? When she bought those in-game weapons for her teammates, back in the tournament arc. o_o Anyway, a handy thing to do, but I can't help but think "Cheater!" whenever I see something like that happening, lol.___


	44. Return to Drudgery

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** The honorifics used are as follows: Jingli (Manager, Zian's title) and Zongcai (President, his father's title)_

* * *

><p>My office was stinky. <em>My<em> office. The office I had painstakingly kept pristinely clean and tidy all throughout the two-going-on-three years I'd worked there, aside from the wild and endless mountain ranges of paper stacks that always had—and still did—cover the top of my desk.

The whole office reeked of tobacco.

A reeking office was unacceptable.

Tossing my bag onto the seat of my wooden office chair, which for once I was glad didn't have cushions the smell could sink into, I opened both of the windows to get some ventilation, then I hurried out of the room, through the empty rows of desks, and into the hallway, walking briskly in the direction of this floor's janitor's closet, where all of the cleaning supplies were kept.

Thank goodness I'd chosen to come into work early. It gave me time to clean.

I arrived at the janitor closet to find the four middle-aged janitors just now unlocking the door. "Excuse me," I called. They all paused and turned in my direction, then suddenly looked extremely terrified as if I was running at them with a chainsaw in my hands and screaming like a maniac.

Open-mouthed horror—what a refreshing greeting to have first thing in the morning.

Coming to a halt beside them, I gave a small smile, which I hoped looked calming. "May I step inside there for a moment?" I asked, pointing at the closet. "I need a few things. I will return them later."

"S-sir," one said, voice quavering and eyes dropping to the carpeted floor, "if you need something cleaned, we can do it for you…Not—not that we're…um…" His voice trailed off and he looked at a loss for words, as if he couldn't figure out how to turn down my request without seeming rude. Really, why the hell was everyone terrified of me?

"No, no." I slowly shook my head, trying my hardest not to look and sound threatening. "I am sure you have more important matters to attend to, so I will be fine on my own. But thank you for your concern."

They looked confused for a moment, but the one closest to the door eventually swung it open to allow me entrance.

Stepping inside, I gave a quick look about the cramped room to see what there was, then quickly scooped up an aerosol can of air sanitizer, another of furniture cleaner, several wiping rags, a pair of rubber cleaning gloves, a face mask, and a garbage bag. Piling all of the things into the bag, I wrapped the top around my hand and stepped back out into the hallway, giving nods to the men. "Thank you. I will return everything to its proper place by the end of the day. And also, it would be wonderful if someone could shampoo my office's carpet sometime this week, whenever is convenient."

"Oh, um, we can have someone do that tonight. After hours."

"Thank you very much." I gave them another polite nod before turning and walking away back to my department.

As I turned the last corner, I was halted by a firm command of "The person with the garbage, stop!" coming from the other end of the adjoining hall I'd just entered. I gave a confused look over my shoulder, being the only person around who happened to be carrying a garbage bag. A tall and thin man in a light gray suit and glasses was striding toward me, a briefcase clutched in one hand and his suit jacket in the other. I couldn't remember seeing him before, but, given that I barely knew anyone, that wasn't strange.

"Where do you think you're taking that? The garbage drop-off is in the other direction. By the janitor closet!" He paused a moment to inspect me. "Are you a new intern?"

"No," I quietly replied.

"Oh. A temp?"

"No."

"New hire?"

"No."

"…From a different floor?"

"No."

He frowned. "I've never seen you around before. You just get transferred, then?"

"No. Now if you will excuse me, I am in a hurry." I only had about half an hour longer before the main crowds of people began to arrive. Who knew why this man was already here, given that it wasn't working hours yet.

Before he could interrogate me any longer, I turned and continued on down the hallway. Apparently not all that interested in knowing who I was, I heard him go off in another direction. Once I arrived back in my office, I took off my coat and jacket, put them and my bag on the coat rack new the door, rolled up my white dress shirt's sleeves, and put on the gloves and mask. Once I had on my germ-be-gone armor, I quickly moved the stacks of papers off my desk, put them all in the corner, and sprayed the whole room with the air sanitizer. Afterward, I grabbed one of the wash rags, doused it in furniture cleaner, and began wiping off my desk and chair.

Fifteen minutes later, I decided I had scrubbed everything enough and took off the gloves and mask, tossing them back into the bag along with that rag. Crouching down by my desk—it now smelled strongly of lemons—I pulled open the top drawer to check and see if anything horrible had been done to my belongings.

Removing a long, thin box, I put it on top of the desk and lifted the lid. Inside was my very nice set of fountain pens carved out of wood.

Correction; my used-to-be-very-nice set of fountain pens carved out of wood.

The bottle of my favorite blue ink was missing, the bottle of red was half gone, and little drops of black—that bottle was almost empty—were carelessly splashed all over the inside, staining the wood.

Picking up one of the pens, I glared at what was left of the metal tip, the rest of which had been obviously snapped clean off somehow. Seeing the extent of the damage, I swore loudly. I was definitely going to ask my father who he had given my position while I'd been gone, and yell at that person. I had spent a lot of time looking for just the right set of pens directly after I'd been hired here, and I wasn't about to let someone mess it up. It was one thing for a person to use my pens, that I didn't mind at all, but quite another for a person to vandalize them and steal my ink. My favorite ink, at that.

At my raging curse, someone suddenly stomped into my office. It was that man from the hallway. "You again, you intern with the garbage…What do you think you're doing in here‽" I stared blankly at him as he strode forward, a scandalized expression on his face. "Rifling through the manager's desk and ruining his pen? I'll report you for this!"

Report me for what…?

"Excuse me," I exasperatedly interrupted when he inhaled to continue his scolding, "but you are mistaken. I did not break it. And furthermore, I am not an intern, as I just told you earlier. Nor am I a temp, or a new employee, or whatever else you labeled me with."

"Who are you, then?" he demanded.

Setting down the ruined pen, I walked out from behind the desk and went to the coat rack. I pulled my company identification card out of my jacket's inner pocket and held it out to him. "Min Zian," I explained, watching as his face blanked when he read through the information on the card, "the manager of this department, who has worked here for close to three years. If anything, I think I should be the one asking who _you_ are, storming into my office like this while I am trying to clean."

He appeared to be somewhat surprised at first, then slowly handed back my ID and coughed in an embarrassed sort of way behind one hand, his face going pink. "Oh, I see. I apologize for misunderstanding."

Well, that was a new—not too mention completely unexpected—reaction. Why couldn't everyone react like that? Or, well, in a way that didn't make them appear terrified, like this man? He didn't look scared in the slightest. It was wonderful.

I took the card, put on my jacket, then clipped the card to my breast pocket. "Yes, well, I have been absent from work since late October, therefore it is not odd that you did not recognize me. Are you the one who took Shi Heng's desk?"

"Yes. I'm Wang Fu Han. It's a pleasure to meet you." Fu Han dipped into a respectful bow, not the usual terrified ninety-degree incline most people gave me at times like these.

It was getting difficult not to explode into gleeful remarks about how much I was loving his weirdly normal behavior. "I see." I gave him a polite nod. "I offer my belated welcome into the company. I would have offered it sooner, but I fell down a flight of stairs and was badly injured, so…well, I was a bit incapable of working."

His serious-looking face was suddenly skeptical. "You weren't on a cruise?"

"A cr…a cruise…" I faintly repeated, coming very close to laughing, but I managed to force it down. "Of course I was not on a cruise." If I went on a cruise, especially in the winter, I'd freeze to death. All of those cold ocean winds blowing all over the place…it sounded horrible.

His brown eyes narrowed. "You really weren't? Because that's what Wu Li Qin said; you took a vacation from work, so you could go on a cruise."

Wu Li Qin. She was one of the two major sources of Zian Gossip.

Sighing, I stepped around Fu Han and went back to my desk, dumping the cleaning supplies into the garbage bag. "I was not on a cruise," I repeated. "If you do not believe me, ask my father. Or if you would rather ask someone else—I really cannot blame you if you would prefer someone else—there are quite a few eye-witnesses you may ask; my fiancée, Lin Jiao, and her entire family, with whom I have been staying, their house staff, my house staff…" I would have added Heng to the list, but I didn't want word to spread in the office of all places that I was still seeing him behind my father's back. He would definitely find out about it if I carelessly said anything.

Closing the box of ruined pens, I shifted it to one side on my desk, leaving it out to remind myself to get it replaced or repaired, if possible, on the way home. When I sat down in my fresh-smelling chair, I stared up at Fu Han. He looked thoughtful. "Did you get Shi Heng fired?" he finally asked, crossing his arms, not unkindly, as he stepped closer.

I shook my head. "No. Were you not given the reason?"

"Not an official reason." He paused, glanced out the door, then turned back to me. "Li Qin said Heng made you mad and you got him fired for it."

Once again, I had to force my face to stay blank when I wanted to laugh. Heng made me angry on purpose nearly every time I saw him…What a ridiculous thing to assume.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I shook my head again. "To protect Shi Heng, I will not tell you the whole story, but that is definitely not what happened. It was entirely my father's decision, and I had no say in the matter at all. I would never have fired him, especially for not such a small thing as making me angry. Why, if I fired every single person who irritated me, this company would have no one left in it. Myself included."

Fu Han finally smiled. "I thought it was strange," he remarked. I silently waited for an explanation rather than asking. It came after a brief pause. "With as long as you've been working with the other people in the department, I assume you already knew the sorts of things they said about you, so hearing about a nice guy like that—the way they described Heng, he sounded nice anyway—getting fired, I thought that if you were going to fire someone for a reason like getting angry, it would be the people who were always gossiping. Not someone decent like Heng. It just all seemed a bit backward."

My eyes widened as I stared up at him while he adjusted his black-rimmed glasses. This man actually used his head for something other than spreading stupidity and lies. I had been so anxious, wondering what he was going to be like, and…I was floored by his casualness and common sense, which seemed not to be very common anymore. I was so relieved that I didn't have to deal with another brainless moron.

"Thank you for believing me," I murmured, giving him a grateful smile. "That happens rarely, if ever, around here."

He gave a faint shrug. "Supposedly there's a bit of truth in every rumor, but the ones flying out of Li Qin's mouth are always outrageous. I don't know why so many people listen to her." He sighed, then leaned forward and stared sternly at me. "Well, all of that aside, there's something I've been wanting to tell you ever since I was hired."

"And that is?"

"You're a lousy manager," he declared. Utter shock at his audaciousness stopped me from replying, so I simply gazed up at him, barely keeping my mouth from dropping open. "Three years of working here and look at the state of this place!" He pointed at the stacks of paper in the corner, then gestured to the outer office area outside the open door. "It's a _mess_! Look at all this stuff that doesn't belong here! Even if you did only get this job out of nepotism, you should still put some effort into it! You, as the manager, are supposed to be _managing_! Not sitting in here doing nothing! It's awful!" He fell silent, chest heaving and slightly red-faced, but looking satisfied that he'd finally let all of that out. Nearly a minute later, as if re-thinking his words, he tacked a useless "Not to be rude," onto the end of his rant.

It took me a while to be able to reply. Nodding slowly, I smiled in self-depreciation. "I was discussing this same topic with my fiancée and her family just this morning…and I agree entirely with you; I have not been doing my job properly. However, I am going to do my best to change all of that."

A glance past Fu Han told me that my other nine employees were starting to turn up, so I stood and walked through the door, coming to a halt a few steps outside. Everyone froze and stopped whatever they were doing—talking to one another, taking off their coats, putting down their briefcases, pulling out their desk chairs, pouring themselves water from the water cooler.

Fu Han, disinterestedly ignoring everyone's horror at my appearance, brushed past me and strode to his desk. I walked over to his first, since he intimidated me a bit less than everyone else. Slowly, now that my attention wasn't on them, the others went back to what they had been doing. "What documents do you have that do not belong here?" I asked, picking up the one on top of the nearest stack; it was a progress report about jet engines—as if we accountants would know anything about that—from Research and Development, who I decided would be my first target on my mission to tidy up the office.

While Fu Han shuffled through his papers, I turned and waved the report at everyone. They froze again. It probably would have been comical if I hadn't found it to be extremely irritating. "Does anyone else have documents from Research and Development?"

Nearly everyone replied, "I do, Jingli."

Sighing deeply, I held the report face-up in both hands. "Give it all to me, please. I will return everything to them."

It took several minutes for everyone to find it all, but soon I was holding quite a sizable stack of papers, folders, and portfolios. Staring grimly down at the misplaced work, I looked back up at my ten employees as they sat down again. "Everyone, go through what you have left. Everything you have that does not belong in Accounting, please place all of it on my desk. After you have done that, just do what you are supposed to be doing."

Eyes widened. Someone made a surprised noise. "Yes, Jingli!" The reply was, for the first time, extremely enthusiastic and everyone immediately began sifting through the remaining stacks of papers on their overly-crowded desks.

I turned around to face Fu Han again. "Would you mind accompanying me to R and D?" I would feel quite a bit better going to "storm" the other department if I had backup with me. I had always assumed it was my father who was sending all of these things to me—things that had nothing at all to do with my own department—but I wanted to investigate the reason. Perhaps it wasn't him at all, but my moronic coworkers who enjoyed tormenting me every chance they got.

This company was eventually going to be mine, and I was completely determined to have things the way they were supposed to be. Lazy and unprofessional employees were not going to be tolerated.

At my request, Fu Han immediately stood and gave me a small bow. "Yes, I'll come with you, Jingli."

He courteously took half of the papers I was carrying, then I stepped away from his desk. Stopping prematurely, I gave a look down at the pudgy man seated behind another desk, one that was horrendously messy. I pointed a finger at a crumpled-up, colorful candy bar wrapper, eyes locked with the man's. "Have this desk tidied and organized by tomorrow, please."

Without a word, he carefully nodded. Satisfied at his agreement, I finally strode out of the office, marched down the hallway, and stopped beside a large, plastic wall map of the building. The maps were for guests, but I had no idea where the office for R and D was, having never visited it before.

After finding its location, Fu Han and I stepped into an empty elevator and I jabbed my finger at the button for the third floor, watching the usual flicker of the floor numbers go from nineteen to eighteen as we began to descend.

The only conversation that took place was a simple prediction from Fu Han. "I bet they'll deny everything." He seemed content with my nod of agreement, and let the topic drop. I was too busy trying to scrape together my courage, so I was glad he didn't seem to be very talkative.

By the time the elevator doors opened again, I still didn't feel anywhere near ready to lecture whoever it was I was about to lecture, but knew that I would probably never be _really_ ready, so out I stepped and made my way through the hallways, Fu Han at my side as we searched for the correct doorway to go through.

We found it in under five minutes. I inhaled and exhaled slowly several times, then went inside, mentally steeling myself against what was about to happen. I fixed my face into a mask of sternness and strode past the cubicles until I reached the secretary's desk placed in front of the manager's office door. "Is your manager in?" I flatly inquired, staring her down with all of the fierceness I could muster.

She paused in the very important task of filing her painted nails. "H-he…um, he's not in," she answered, voice trembling as she stood up, hand reaching for her telephone, probably to tell the manager that an unwanted person had come to visit.

"I see. Well, that is not a problem." I took a step past the edge of her desk, but she scrambled to block my way.

"You can't go in!" she hastily denied.

"'Can't'?" I repeated coldly. "On whose authority do you say that I am not allowed access to an office in my family's building? Not once has my father denied me the right to go into any room of this place, and if he had changed that, he would have informed me immediately. Now then, if you will excuse me, I have some documents to deliver."

Side-stepping the woman and ignoring her faint sputterings of anxiousness, I opened the office door and went inside, then gave an icy glower to the overweight, middle-aged man seated behind the desk and eating a very large breakfast. He slowly got to his feet, round face turning slightly red at getting caught. "It is amazing," I remarked with blatant sarcasm, "that a person _is_ _not_ in and yet _is_ in at the same time."

"What do you want?" he hotly demanded while I stepped forward.

"I want," I began, sliding the documents I'd been carrying onto his desk, "you to stop sending these to Accounting. After all, it is the responsibility of Research and Development to go through these."

"I didn't send those. I don't know how they got there," he denied, shaking his head very hard. Fu Han gave me a subtly amused glance.

My glower turning several degrees colder, I gestured for Fu Han to set down his load as well. "In that case, I suggest that you find out who the culprit is, because _someone_ is sending them to us. And if these do not stop showing up on my employee's desks, then I will gladly further investigate the matter myself and deal with the guilty person accordingly."

Face flushing even further, he glared at me. The angry effect was somewhat lost as I eyed the bit of fried egg that was stuck to his pudgy cheek. "Y-you brat!" he exclaimed, waving a finger at me. "You dare to threaten me? Your senior in this company? I'll report you!"

First Fu Han was going to report me for being in my own office, now this guy was going to report me for telling him to do his job properly…I inwardly rolled my eyes.

"My, my," I softly mused, "threaten _you_? Whatever do you mean? I thought you said you were not the one who sent these, and if that is the truth, you have nothing at all to worry about." This was turning out to be easier than I'd thought it would have been, although I wasn't really sure if that was a good thing.

"I'M NOT!" he yelled, starting to appear somewhat panicky. "IT—IT WAS ONE OF MY EMPLOYEES! TAN HE-PING! HE DID IT!"

While he huffed and puffed, looking like he was about to have a heart attack, I smiled faintly. "Send him in, please. I would like to speak to him."

A very brief look of triumph flashed across the manager's face, as if he thought he had convinced me, then he heavily sat down and picked up his telephone, calling his secretary.

What a pointless call. Five or six steps and he would be right beside her.

A moment later, a rather mousy-looking, short man shakily stepped into the room. "You called for me, Jingli?" he meekly asked his manager.

"Actually, _I_ did," I corrected, turning to face him. "Your manager tells me that you have been sending your department's work up to mine. Have you?"

His face fell into fear and despair as he looked past me, and then back. He gulped, appearing very unwilling to answer. I assumed it was because we were around his boss. I couldn't blame him for being so scared, since he probably only saw two options; one, say he did and get fired by me; or two, say he didn't and get fired by his own manager for not following orders.

"OUT WITH IT!" the fat man behind me barked. "YOU SENT THEM! TELL HIM!"

"Excuse me," I said coldly, giving an irritated glance over my shoulder, "but I think I shall talk to him alone." I turned back around, strode forward and put a hand on the small man's trembling shoulder. Leading him out of the room, I took him back to his desk and had him sit. He looked like he was about to pass out. I stared down at him, my face softening considerably. "Honestly now, did you or did you not? If you did, was it—Wang Fu Han, please shut that door," I requested when I noticed the manager's stomach was peeking around the edge of the door frame, completely giving away the fact that he was "secretly" listening in.

Fu Han sighed and went back to the door, murmuring a "Pardon me, Jingli," when he slammed it shut, then stole the receiver to the secretary's telephone. Several other employees in the room looked rather amused at what was happening.

Faintly shaking my head, I looked back to He-ping. His face was taking on a sickly green color as his eyes darted around. "Do not worry," I murmured. "If he tries to punish you for telling me what you want to say, I will stop him. I simply want the truth as to who is bogging down my department."

"It…" he whispered, then stopped, taking heaving breaths. The poor man looked like he was about to burst into tears. "It wasn't me. I mean, it was, but Jingli…"

"He is using you as a scapegoat?" I ended for him. He nodded once, then buried his face in his hands, probably assuming he was about to lose his job. "Thank you for the help. And as I said, I will stop him from doing anything to you. And, if you need me…" I quickly searched around in my pockets until I found one of my business cards, then I placed it on his desk, just in case. "Use that to contact me."

Although he didn't seem to be comforted very much by my promise, I gave him another smile before I stormed back into the manager's office and went to his desk. He jumped when I glared at him. "G-got it all sorted?" He gave a nervous laugh. "Probably just…just a practical joke of his! I swear it won't happen again! He'll be fired, so there's no problem!"

"That is not necessary," I snarled. "If anyone should be fired, it should be the manager who cannot run his own department." Not that I was one to talk, I supposed. If I hadn't been my father's son, I probably would have been fired a long time ago for managing in such a lax way. Oh, the benefits of nepotism…

All of his transparent, faked amiability was washed away, leaving a furious man in its wake. A man who, over the years, had apparently gotten comfortable in his little office, twiddling his thumbs and doing as he pleased. I was at a loss when I wondered just what it was my father saw in this man. He must have had some sort of use, or he wouldn't have still been here.

"Y-you dare to…I SWEAR I'LL TELL ZONGCAI ABOUT THIS! GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" He scrambled awkwardly to his feet.

Really, why was he getting so worked up over this?

Slamming my hand down on top of the paper stack that I'd brought, I sent him into a strangled silence and attempted to ignore the stinging pain shooting through my palm. "Please, stop yelling," I snapped, "or else I will become genuinely angry." Taking a deep breath, I watched as he sat down again, eyes very wide. "I will not leave until I am finished with what I have to say to you. This building—of course, this office included—is the property of the Min family. As a member of the Min family and as the company successor, I have every right to be here. And also, I do not care in the slightest if you tell my father about this little encounter. If he calls on me to discuss this, I will tell him, in detail, about the incompetence of this department's management. He will not take your side over mine when he hears what I have to say."

Well, I _hoped_ he would take my side.

"T-this is…completely preposterous," he breathed, shaking his head in a bewildered way. "I've worked here for…for twenty years, you brat…You have no right to lecture me, I…I–"

"I could not care less about seniority," I interrupted. "What I care about is if my employees are doing the jobs they were hired to do. If there are useless, burdensome employees, such as this person who is lazily shirking his duties, then I will weed them out for the sake of the future of this company." Leaning forward, I rested my weight on both hands as I stared into his beady eyes, gathering together all of my anger into one last threat. "There are thousands of men and women in this city who would be more than willing to take the place of that useless, burdensome employee, and I know they will do a far better job than he currently is."

Putting on a friendly smile, I straightened up and patted a hand on the stack of documents. "Please do your job properly. That is all I want from you. It is not such a terrible request, in my opinion. Although I must say that, if you were actually capable of filling this managerial position, I should not have to even request it of you. You would already be doing it. Therefore, I ask; from this moment onward, will you do your duties in the correct manner, as you are required?"

The manager was silent for a long moment, staring at me with a cornered expression, but he finally nodded once and whispered, "Yes, I will."

"Excellent," I murmured, my smile brightening, although I highly doubted that this really would be the end of his antics. "I apologize that I so rudely interrupted your breakfast. Next time I will be sure to make an appointment with you, if I need to see you for some reason in the future. Please excuse me now. I hope you have a wonderful day."

Striding out of his office, I gently shut the door behind myself. Fu Han finally put down the phone he'd taken, and followed me out into the hallway.

Once we were back in the elevator, I let out a whoosh of breath and leaned against the wall, covering my eyes with one hand. I was glad I'd sort of handled the matter, but it scared me how easily I could play the tyrant. Years of observing and, apparently, absorbing my father's behavior had finally come in handy. Then again, it wasn't very satisfying getting results by making scary faces and waving my father's power around as if it were my own, although that wasn't very avoidable; I really had no power here other than my father's. If I weren't his son but was still in this same position, I doubted anyone would take me seriously.

But, unsatisfying or not, if it worked, then that was that.

Fu Han smiled grimly at me. "I see now why everyone thinks you're terrifying. Can't blame you for yelling at him, but it was still kind of…more than was needed."

Lowering my hand, I stared agitatedly at him. "You 'see now'? That was the first time I have ever done something like that to anyone." Not including that one time I was instructing people on archery before the war on Infinite City, I mentally added, feeling a bit ashamed of myself. "I suppose I was a bit overbearing, but I highly doubt nice words and soft-spoken requests would work on a person like that."

"No, I guess not. But I still think you should have taken a calmer approach first. That was really the first time?"

"Yes." Breathing slowly, I watched the elevator numbers go from eleven to twelve, then looked back to Fu Han. "You seem to know a lot about the products of Wu Li Qin's rumor mill. Do you know why everyone is so afraid of me? I have thought about it quite a lot, but I cannot come up with anything that I have done that would give me such a dark reputation. All I have done in the past is sit in my office and read reports, after all, and that behavior, in my opinion, sounds less than threatening."

He looked somewhat surprised. "You haven't heard?" he asked, and I shook my head, feeling my stomach sink; there really was something. He scratched at his cheek. "Well…it's not really anything you did here at the office. It was before you were hired. Apparently, no one knew your father even had a second son before you suddenly appeared six or seven years ago and were announced to be his heir. They did know he had one son, but he vanished one day and was never seen again. Or so people say."

"Yes," I murmured, "that is true. My older brother ran away from home nearly twelve years ago. My father could not find him, and from then on forced me to take his place."

"Hm, that's not what I heard," Fu Han replied. "As the rumor goes, you killed your brother out of jealousy and spent quite a lot of time in a juvenile correctional facility for it. After a few years, you got out on good behavior and your father's bribes and went on to attend university, taking your brother's place as the heir here at the company after you graduated."

Feeling absolutely horrified, I stared at Fu Han, my face reddening with anger. "_THAT_ IS ABSOLUTELY A COMPLETE AND TOTAL _LIE_!" I yelled, inwardly seething with rage at whoever the hell started that rumor. "For your information, Gui Wen is alive and well, and I have never once wanted to _kill_ him! Or anyone else!" I thrust my hand into my jacket pocket, yanked out my cellphone, and flipped it open. Hoping Gui Wen wasn't busy, I dialed his number to start a video call and stared at the screen, waiting to see if he would pick up.

A few rings later, his face appeared on the screen. "_Hey, Zian. Why're you calling so early? I was just getting ready for my first class._"

"Gui Wen!" I snapped, holding up the phone to Fu Han. "Tell this person you are not dead!"

There was a long pause. "_I'm not dead, obviously,_" he finally agreed. "_What the hell is going on?_"

Fu Han looked mildly amused when I looked back at the phone. "People have been spreading rumors that I killed you, and that is why you disappeared, leaving me to be the successor," I huffed angrily.

Gui Wen paused again, his eyes going wide. Then he started laughing very hard. "_O-of all peo-people to accuse of murder, they picked _you_, a total pacifist,_" he guffawed. "_That's hilarious. And completely stupid. Murdered me…I can't say I envy you, working with people like that._" He laughed again.

"This is not funny!" I snarled, shaking the phone around, as if I would be able to shake him as well.

"_Yeah, yeah,_" he mumbled, still shaking with chuckles. "_Not that this conversation is boring, but I have to go. Was that all or was I supposed to say something else to that guy?_"

I frowned and shook my head at the screen. "No, that was all."

"_You definitely get the award for most random phone call ever,_" he announced, then smiled. "_Bye._"

"Keep the award. Bye," I threw back and sighed when he ended the call. "Killed my brother," I grumbled under my breath as I put my phone back in my pocket. "Absolutely ridiculous." Crossing my arms, I sternly looked at Fu Han. "My brother never wanted to inherit the company. He wanted to be a professor, a job for which he ran away from home to study. And as for why no one ever knew about my existence, I will keep that to myself, because it is personal, but I assure you it has nothing at all to do with a juvenile correctional facility. I am the heir and have my job here only because my father forced it all on me. Just like Shi Heng's dismissal, it was not my decision at all. He never discusses anything with me before going through with whatever plans he puts into motion."

Fu Han smiled and sighed when the elevator doors finally opened. "Well, it's good to know that I'm not working under a maniac. Hey, wait, wait, wait." When I moved to step out of the elevator he grabbed my arm and dragged me back. Turning me around, he suddenly smacked his hands on both sides of my face. "Fix your expression," he ordered. "You really do look like you're going to kill someone."

Tiredly nodding, I took a few seconds to inwardly calm myself down and relax the glare on my face. He lightly smacked me again once I'd managed the task. "Much better."

Smiling faintly, I sighed again and turned to reopen the doors so we could step out into the busy hallway. The remainder of the day was spent inside my office, sorting all of the rest of the stuff I had to return to their senders. There was more than I had thought, now that it was all put in one place. The taller stacks of those placed on my desk were nearly up to my neck. However, even though the task was extremely daunting, I dove into the papers, determined to get rid of them all.

When it was nearing eight o'clock in the evening—everyone else in my department had left hours ago, but I stayed in a want to get as much done in one day as I possibly could—a soft knock came from the door. Looking up from the papers I had clutched in each hand, I found my father's secretary standing in the door. She bowed neatly at me. "Jingli, Zongcai wishes to see you in his office."

My breath caught in my throat at the order, but I managed a nod, taking a moment to set down the things I was holding before I reluctantly left my office to go up to my father's. He stared expressionlessly at me when I got to his office and stopped in front of his desk, bowing. Although it had only been a month and a half since I'd seen him last, it felt much, much longer. Spending so much time away from him both helped me be calmer than usual and yet made me more nervous than was really necessary.

"Do you know what I spent forty-seven of my precious minutes doing this afternoon?" he irritably asked when I straightened.

I slowly inhaled. "I would guess that it has something to do with the manager of Research and Development."

"No! Not _something_! It has _everything_ to to with that idiot!" he snapped, slamming his hand down on the desk. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried my hardest not to flinch at the loud noise. Surprisingly, however, he suddenly put his hand in his lap and leaned back in his chair while he stared upward. "I do not mind if you go about scolding people for their stupid actions, after all, the idiot deserved it," he quietly told the ceiling, "but do not do it in a way that inconveniences me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Father. I apologize." Well, I took responsibility for a third, anyway. Another third I blamed on him. After all, he also was letting the other manager misbehave for whatever reason. Of course, the last third of the blame went to the manager himself.

My father gave me a sour frown. "After three years of allowing the man to do as he pleased, why have you suddenly corrected him? He was getting quite conceited, thinking he was so impressive for taking advantage of you for so long. Not that taking advantage of you is a difficult task. It is quite easy, really."

"Well," I murmured and tried to ignore that last addition, "I…grew tired of taking everything as it was. I am tired of being a mindless drone sitting in one place, doing whatever I am told and letting others control me," I replied, managing a tiny smile. "I cannot imagine that you want a mindless drone as your heir, so I thought perhaps it would be best to stand up for myself at last. For both our sakes."

"No, a 'mindless drone' is indeed not what I want, although that always seemed to be what you were content with being." A small humming noise made its way out of his throat as he continued to stare at me, his expression bewilderingly fading into a much calmer look, one I had rarely seen him wear. "You have changed." His tone, which usually sounded like he wanted to strangle me, sounded oddly tired.

"No," I denied after a moment of thought, causing him to lower his graying eyebrows. "I have become more open, perhaps, but everything else…I have always been this way. I simply never showed you," I whispered, a sad smile stretching at my mouth. "You d–You…you do not know me at all." All he had ever seen was the vacant spot that Gui Wen was supposed to be in, the spot he kept trying so hard to force me into, the spot I couldn't fit into and thus gave him more failures to shove in my face.

He saw only what he wanted to see—the person he wanted me to be, not who I already was.

I found myself chuckling inside my head, although this wasn't funny at all. I had been alive for over twenty-four years, yet he and I were still complete strangers. I knew that he was a workaholic, who often yelled and complained and had a ridiculously short temper, but everything under the surface was completely unknown to me. I had been friends with Heng for a few short months—weeks, if I only counted the time I could remember—yet I already knew him far better than my own father.

"No," my father finally agreed, staring down at his desk. "I suppose not. But there was never a point in getting to know you. After all, it does not matter if I _know_ one of my employees."

At that last word, I suddenly felt like I'd been frozen, though my eyes began to burn, disappointment and rage flooding through me. _Employee_. That word crashed over me, leaving me crushed underneath. That was all I would ever be to him. Just another damned disposable employee. The flippant way he'd said it was, in a way, even worse than if he had said out of anger.

Lips parting, I took a shuddering breath and thickly asked, "Is that all, Father?" After I had said it, I wasn't sure exactly what it was that I was asking; was that all he saw me as, or was that all he had called me here for?

"Yes. Leave." Either he hadn't noticed the divide in my question, or his answer was "yes" to both. He didn't look at me as I turned and nearly ran out of his office. Not wanting to stay at work any longer, I gathered up my things and left, only stopping long enough to move all of the papers, to allow the janitors room to clean the carpet of its stale cigarette-smell.

I arrived back at the Lin house later than I would have liked, stepping as quietly as I could past the sitting room, where the Delun and the other three, plus Shuang, were noisily decorating a fat Christmas tree near one of the windows. Not wanting to join them, I hurried upstairs and into the guest room before they could notice I'd come back.

However, rather than finding solitude in the guest room, I found Heng inside, loudly singing along with the bouncy Christmas song he had blasting out of my laptop—I had no idea how he'd figured out my password—and was standing on top of my wheeled desk chair, using a broom to propel himself across the floor. Feeling very tired, and yet relieved that he was here, I watched in silence while he rolled swiftly forward, then crashed into the wall, an exclamation of "OUCH!" briefly interrupting his horrible, tone-deaf singing.

That weirdo. The bizarre things he did while I wasn't looking…

As he pushed himself off the wall and began rolling back in my direction, he twirled the chair around so he could see where he was going, then screamed in shock when he finally noticed that I was there. Nearly falling off the chair, he jumped to the floor. "GEEZE! YOU COULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING! Popping up out of nowhere! Geeze!" he snapped, clutching that broom to his chest as he poked the mute button on my laptop, filling the room with silence.

"Sorry for scaring you," I mumbled, then threw my bag on the bed and went into the bathroom to get a bandaid; I'd gotten a bad paper cut earlier on one of those stupid documents.

"How was work?" Heng asked brightly, leaning forward through the door and smiling.

"Fine."

"Did you go storming a lot of offices?"

"One."

"O-o-o, really? Did you get in trouble?"

"No."

Heng's face fell a bit at my string of one-word answers. "…Did…um, did you eat dinner yet?"

"No."

"Lunch?"

"No."

"Breakfast‽"

"Maybe."

He sighed and straightened when I left the bathroom, having securely wrapped up my sliced finger. "What happened to your hand?"

"Paper cut."

"Hey!" He grabbed my shoulders and turned me around. "What's wrong? Did someone bully you again?"

I shook my head.

"Your father, then‽" he asked sharply. I wanted to burst into tears when the fresh memories stabbed into the forefront of my thoughts, but stubbornly held back all of my misery. However, Heng easily noticed. I flinched when he made an abrupt lunging motion—knowing him, it was probably to hug me—but instead simply patted my head, making me feel a bit disappointed. "What'd he say this time?"

"Nothing I didn't know already," I muttered, looking away from him. "I'm stupid for getting all worked up about it in the first place, since I should have expected it."

"Just because you can see a car about to run you over doesn't mean it'll hurt less when it happens," Heng huffily pointed out, tousling my hair so roughly that my head was being shoved back and forth.

Feeling surprised at that analogy, I inadvertently laughed. "No…I suppose not." Giving a small sniff, I finally smiled up at him. It felt nice to come back to find someone waiting for me. Always before this, I had simply locked myself away in my room and wallowed in my depression all alone. But now…I had Heng—a source for endless encouragement that always made me happier within moments. I probably liked it all quite a bit more than I should have, but pretended not to notice.

"It really wasn't anything big, just one of his thoughtless little remarks. He was pretty calm today. It was kind of weird."

"That is weird," Heng agreed. "I'm glad he wasn't being violent again, though." Giving a nod, I sighed, rubbing tiredly at my face. "I know you probably just wanna take a shower and go to bed," he began again, grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the door, "but since you said you haven't eaten dinner _or_ lunch—stupid Al, stop skipping meals!—let's go to the dining room and you can tell me everything that happened today, 'cause 'fine' isn't descriptive at all, you know!"

I smiled again and let him energetically yank me down the hall, very happy that he was here.


	45. Fangirls and Socks

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>The next few days were packed with work. I went first thing in the morning every morning—always with Fu Han as my trusty backup—to go negotiate with the other managers. First we went to Sales and returned all of their paperwork, in a much nicer manner than how I had dealt with Research and Development, just because Fu Han lectured me beforehand and told me not to scare people on purpose and ruin my reputation any more than it was already ruined.<p>

Surprisingly, the manager from Sales was much different than the one from R and D, and seemed to see it all as a big joke, smirking at me as he agreed at once to stop harassing me in what was, as he called it, the "Manager Conspiracy," which I supposed meant they had all been taking advantage of me for more reasons than just because I was easy to take advantage of. But whatever their reasons were, I didn't ask. He was too busy making snide remarks at me to give an explanation, anyway.

As with Sales, I didn't have much trouble with the departments that followed in the days after that. The managers' swift concessions might have been because they had received warning beforehand from the R and D manager, but I was simply relieved that I seemed to be making progress on my mission of cleaning up the office, although here and there I still caught purposefully misplaced documents slipping onto my employees' desks. However, soon I managed to finish sorting the rest of the papers, and finally got back into my own department's work, struggling to catch up on what I had missed.

Between negotiating with the other managers, doing my own job, and also squeezing in a little talk with my employee, Wu Li Qin—in actuality I was the only one doing the talking; she didn't say anything and stared down at her feet all the while I was asking her not to wildly gossip about me anymore—quite a bit of stress loomed over me, but every night when I got back, Heng was always there waiting to dissipate the strained atmosphere that kept surrounding me.

I discovered at once that I was extremely happy I'd decided to stay at the Lin house. If I'd gone home, the stress would have been exponentially worse. As it was, with the drastic change in home environment, I found it much easier to deal with work than I had in the past.

Although the majority of people at the office still quickly left the area whenever they spotted me—even if I had seemingly convinced Fu Han that I wasn't a cold-blooded murderer, everyone else still thought I was—my days were actually quite nice and passed by quickly.

To go with my work-filled days, my nights in _Second Life_ were nearly just as busy. As we had been already, my team and I spent as much time as possible training—I was amazed at how many levels I had gained in such a short time, having swiftly gone from the mid fifties to low sixties—then spent the last hour we had together every night traveling ever onward to Star City, only stopping to make camp every morning before we had to wake up.

And thus, five days and nights after leaving Infinite City, we finally arrived at our destination early Friday morning, around two hours before our alarms were set to go off. Once we entered the area of the game where the sky began to darken and fill with stars, I quickly tucked my wings against my back and started spiraling downward, listening in amusement to Dib's excited squeals of "Whee-e-e-e!" as we rapidly approached the ground. Yanking us out of our descent right before we crashed, I agilely landed on my feet, glancing behind myself as the other four trotted along on their horses.

"I get nauseous just watching you two do that," Wei Bo remarked with a squeamish frown once they had caught up.

Dib began to hyperactively yell about how much fun it was to wildly spin and twirl like that. I quickly jogged forward, holding out my hand to take a roll of paper from Jiū's outstretched fingers as she slowly rode past, her white mare swishing her tail back and forth.

"We'll go and rent a few stalls in the city's stable for the the horses while you two go to the market and buy all of this, then we'll meet outside the Adventurers' Guild, alright?" she called down to me. I nodded and launched Dib and I back into the air, doing another tight spin to amuse Dib as we shot upward into the sparkling nighttime sky.

Leveling out once we were a good distance above the ground, I steadily beat my wings, taking Dib and I over and across the empty land surrounding the northern section of Star City's wall. The further we went, the more dark figures we could spot walking about the ground far below us, going to and from the brightly lit city gate. Lowering Dib and I a little, I swooped over the wall and, following the directions Jiū had given me the week before, began searching for the NPC courier building, to send off my work to Infinite City.

It took a few minutes, given the size of the city, but I soon spotted it—a large post office-looking building. Slowing, I gently flapped downward, only pulling in my wings once I was close to the ground and saw no one was below me. Before I went inside, I stood at the roadside and flipped open my pouch to get out the bows and arrows I had made.

Sticking in my hand, I closed my fingers around something that was bewilderingly in the spot I had put the longbows. I pulled out an empty potion bottle and stared at it a moment, wondering how it had gotten there. Quickly putting it back, I rummaged around a moment more, looking for the bows. Rather than my bows, I found a compass, a length of rope, a canteen full of water, and several other unrelated objects.

"Dib," I growled, tilting my head back to give him an annoyed frown.

His eyes widened innocently and he immediately looked elsewhere, blinking rapidly. "Ye-e-es?" he answered, a little too cutely, which told me at once that he was guilty. Although I was certain Dib had never told me about it, I suspected that he had a thief-like special skill that allowed him to go through my belongings without my noticing; several times over the past week, I had opened my pouch to retrieve something and had found the contents to be completely jumbled and disorganized.

"I've told you over and over to stop going through my pouch." I pinched his ankle, ignoring his exaggerated yell of "OUCH!" then returned to my search for the archery supplies. A moment later, I pulled out the reason for Dib's nosiness—the empty, crumpled-up box that used to contain the almond cookies I had bought at the bakery in Infinite City.

I threw the box at Dib. It hit his face, if his scream of "MY EYE!" was any indication. Satisfied now that I had gotten my revenge, I went back to searching for the supplies while he yanked on my hair and angrily snapped, "You jerk!" several times.

Completely ignoring all of his antics, I finally managed to bring all of my bows and bundles of arrows to the inventory slots at the top of my pouch, and then went into the NPC-operated post office. The inside looked like any other shop—players lined up in the front, a long counter, and NPCs in the back, only this time the goods being sold were packaging supplies and pick-up and delivery services, rather than the usual displays of food, potions, or weapons that I usually saw. I got in line for the part of the counter labeled with a hanging sign displaying the word "OUTGOING" in black and white over the top of the pair of NPCs' heads.

Dib got bored long before we reached the front of the line. Only a few minutes after we joined the queue, he started guessing, in a voice far louder than I was comfortable with, what might be inside the packages being picked up by the people in line at the other end of the shop. Given that his guesses were completely ridiculous and, at times, offensive, he earned himself quite a few looks of annoyance. However, he soon tired of that and instead started braiding my hair, excitedly chattering about what he thought my plans for his birthday were. I kept my silence, determined not to let anything slip; Avila had already scolded me quite a bit for giving Dib even a tiny bit of suspicion that we were having a party.

Since it was crowded, it took us a while to get to the NPCs, but eventually we made it. I quickly began passing all of my packages to the NPC teller. She piled everything onto a scale, and I read through the list of shipping rates hung on the back wall, which had prices ranging from one copper coin all the way to several hundred crystal coins, depending on how much the parcel weighed, how fast it was supposed to arrive—the speeds varied all the way from "Now" to "Someday," Dib was very amused to see—and where it was supposed to go.

I told the NPC to have my parcels arrive tomorrow at Infinite City, and quickly began counting out the payment, which totaled nearly two hundred gold coins. As I stepped away from the front of the line, I frowned and put away my money pouch, deciding to get my work done earlier to be able to choose a slower delivery rate; if my deliveries always went so fast, my funds were going to dwindle just as quickly. However, mind drifting to Avila's suggestion of buying more money through the _Second Life_ website, I didn't think I had anything to worry about; I still had at my disposal nearly all of that real money sent by my father every month. That felt like a complete waste of money, but whatever. It wasn't like I had any other ideas for what to spend it on.

Opening the door to go back outside, I paused for a second in faint surprise, then moved myself out of the way to allow a trio of women to enter. It took them longer than I thought it would to step over the threshold; they were walking slowly and giving me weird looks. Used to getting a large amount of attention from random people, I ignored them and hurried out of the shop, enjoying the cool breeze blowing through the street. It felt nice after being in that hot, crowded room for so long.

Several minutes later, Dib and I were entering the market, reading through the list of supplies we had to buy before going to the Adventurers' Guild.

"I'm hu-u-u-ungry," Dib whined.

"We'll be stopping at the tavern before we leave the city." I started toward the potions shop, since it was closest to us, but Dib yanked on my ears.

"I'm hungry _now_!" he added, as if that would make me change course. "Let's buy some goodies, like…like a bag of candied pineapple!" Continuing to the potions shop, I removed his tiny hands from my sore ears. "Come on, Al!" he pleaded, seeming to be very determined to buy sweets. How would something like that make him less hungry, anyway? It seemed like all candied pineapple would do was make him even more hyper than usual.

"I'm not gonna help you haggle unless we buy candy!" he threatened when I still didn't stop, but I ignored his attempt, knowing he would help anyway after some coaxing. He grabbed my head and gave it a squeeze. "I'll buy you some mints if you let me get some pineapple!"

Sighing, I unwrapped him from around my head and set him on the ground. "I don't want mints, and I never said you weren't allowed to get candy. It's your money, so spend it however you want. However, I want to get the things on our list first."

His desolate face brightened immediately and he let out a "Woo!" before yanking me into the herb-scented potions shop. With Dib's Cute Attack, we got our team's potion stock at a ridiculously low price—apparently the promise of candy was making him try harder to be irresistibly adorable—and we made several more stops after that.

While we shopped, an odd, nervous feeling was starting to grow in my mind. I gave a searching glance around when we left the book and scroll shop, having bought some identification scrolls for unidentified items dropped by monsters. **"Did you finally notice?"** Dib messaged, his voice sounding humorous yet annoyed.

**"Yes. What is it that I've noticed?"**

**"There's three women following us,"** he explained when I started nonchalantly walking around the fountain at the center of the market. **"It's the women you almost ran into in the post office doorway. They've been tailing us this whole time."**

My mind raced as I tried to think of who they might be. We had only just arrived in this city and had only visited some shops, so it wasn't possible that I could have somehow offended some of the citizens already. My team and I had rarely seen other players while we were traveling through the wilderness between Infinite City and Star City, and when we did see other people, we avoided them in a want not to compete for training grounds. Therefore, since the most time I had spent around others was in Infinite City, they must have been from there.

And, if that deduction was correct, then this situation was going to get messy if Dib and I, or any of my other teammates, I supposed, made contact with the women. After all, to my knowledge, the only women who bore a grudge against me were those from Prince's ridiculous fanclub.

Striding into the last stop on our list, a butcher shop, I slowly set Dib on the neatly swept wood floor, then placed myself by the wall, pretending to watch Dib haggle over the price of three chickens—dead but with their feathers still on, for the sake of my fletching supplies—while I was actually looking out the large windows stretching across the shop front, giving me an unobstructed view of the outdoors.

The three women—a warrior of sorts and two magicians, if I judged their gear correctly—were easy to spot. They stood a distance away, presumably to hide themselves amongst the market-goers, but given that they were the only ones standing still and were staring intently at the butcher's door, their intentions were clear as glass.

Dib strode up to me a moment later, cheerily squishing all three chickens into his pouch, then lifted his arms for me to carry him. I scooped him up in my left arm, my right hand entering my money pouch. I pulled out a crystal coin and handed it to the butcher, to pay for any trouble that was about to take place. Ignoring his questioning look, I then leapt over the counter and darted through the door leading into the back of the shop. The room was filled with the slightly repulsive sight of countless animal corpses, many being sliced up into more manageable pieces, but through the hanging bodies and the blood-spattered butchers, I quickly spotted the back entrance. A NPC was opening the door, hauling in a large raw piece of meat.

Blurting an apology for the intrusion, I slipped past the surprised butcher, adrenaline pumping through my body when I heard the crash and the yells of frustration coming from behind me, alerting me to the three women's pursuit. Running as fast as I could down the dark, curved alley behind the shops circling the market, regretfully too narrow to pull out my wings, I regulated my breathing and searched for an escape from the maniacs chasing us.

"Stop right there, you perverted pedophile, Aeolus!" came an echoing female voice. I jumped over a crate, almost unseen with how little light I had to run by, and didn't obey the order, of course. While I ran, Dib struggled in my arms to lift himself high enough that he could see over my shoulder, hopefully enabling him to be able to warn me if either of those mages let loose an attack.

Before that last thought could even leave my head, Dib gasped and hastily told me, "Dodge to your left!" and I threw myself against the stone wall beside us, narrowly avoiding getting clobbered by that crate I'd jumped over. With a crash and a flurry of splintered wood, the crate broke into countless pieces and scattered all over the cobblestone ground.

"Uh oh, they look really mad now," Dib commented.

Not pausing to give any glances back, I took off down the alley again, the trio of women still shouting rude things and telling me to stop. Like hell I'd stop after they tried to flatten me with a huge crate.

Several more women piled into the alley ahead of me, cutting off my retreat. My eyes widened and again I dove to the left, grabbing at the handle to another shop's rear entrance. I threw open the door, slammed it shut behind myself, and dashed through the brightly lit room clouded heavily with the medicinal smells of the herbs arranged in bundles on tables and hanging from the ceiling. Bursting into the front room revealed we had come back to the potion shop.

I ungracefully scrambled over the counter and jumped to the floor. Both NPC and player eyes went wide in horror at the same moment that Dib screamed, "AL, RUN FASTER!" and once again, I didn't pause to look back. There was a loud boom, like a firework had just gone off, and I gave a burst of speed as I ran out the door, scattering people as I went, a blast of heat from behind pushing me along.

"Move!" I bellowed at the people nearest to me, and I extended my wings now that I had room to take off, doing my best not to hit anyone as I frantically raised Dib and I up into the air. However, before I could get far, there was a sharp, metallic sound from the ground, and pain exploded through my back, centered in my right wing joint. My right wing wouldn't move anymore, so I continued to flap my left and lifted Dib over my head. "Pull it out, whatever the hell they shot me with!" I snarled.

He climbed over me and slipped down onto my back. There was another moment of horrible pain when the offending object was removed, but then the discomfort ebbed away slightly. "Crossbow bolt!" Dib explained over the sound of the wind, the vicious roar of fire, and the innumerable shouts from below us. I was able to use my right wing again, if only a little—I would have gotten out a health potion, but I had no idea which inventory slot those were in now that Dib had "rearranged" things, and I was not going to waste time searching—and I did my best to keep us aloft as I carried us away from the market.

Only when we had left the circle of shops did I look back, eyes going wide when I saw that the potion shop was completely engulfed in flames, and the fire was steadily spreading. Whatever spell the women had used, they certainly hadn't held back.

Focusing my attention on our escape again, I carried us over the rooftops, leaving the bright orange glow behind. The cover of darkness we gained didn't seem to be helping much, however, and Dib noted not a minute later that they were still following, winding through the streets and jumping from roof to roof below us, and also their numbers had grown considerably.

Damn it all, didn't these people have anything better to do than chase me around?

Starting to panic, I whipped my head around, searching for somewhere to hide. My right wing was already starting to give out, and I could hear the triumphant cackles from below when I began to lose altitude.

"Al!" Dib anxiously called, reaching his arms around my neck, a bottle in his hands. "Here!"

I was about to take it, but something wrapped around my ankle and abruptly yanked me downward. Dib yelled in surprise, grabbed me so he wouldn't fall, and lost his grip on the bottle. It spun out of sight, dark red liquid flying out of the uncorked top as it spiraled away from us.

After a brief fall, I hit a roof hard, and my breath was knocked out of me. Bouncing once, I fell off the edge and landed on my back, on a dirt pathway wending between a cluster of player-owned houses. Dib, having let go of me after we'd hit the house, landed on his feet beside me, and unsheathed both his short swords, standing over me protectively as I did my best to breathe again.

Seconds later, we were completely surrounded by what looked to be twenty or thirty women. "We've finally got you cornered, you pervert!" one chortled, looking extremely pleased with herself. "Message Starlight-dàren!" she commanded a second woman. "She'll need to know we've captured the evil Prince-hater."

"He's here to assassinate Prince!" another declared angrily, sweeping her pale green hair over one shoulder. "I bet he came here a few days early to set up deadly booby traps."

The first woman nodded in agreement. "Yes. It's a good thing you three spotted him when you did. Well done."

All three of the women who'd been tailing us at first blushed at the praise. I inwardly rolled my eyes.

"Who knows what sort of horrible things he would have done to our beloved Prince if we hadn't stopped him."

"You're awful, plotting against Prince!"

"And do you see? He's even brought that poor, innocent boy along with him!"

"First you unleash your pervertedness on him, then you use him for slave labor at the city gate, now you're forcing him to help you in your evil plans to kill Prince‽ You despicable man!"

"Come here," one cooed at Dib. "We'll help you! You don't have to be raped anymore!"

He glared at her furiously. "Shut up, you creep!"

**"Dib,"**I messaged weakly while they continued to rant and rave at me. My chest ached as I struggled to get air into my lungs. **"Sheath your swords and come here."**

**"But they're gonna attack!"** he snapped, his voice frightened. **"T-they might hug me and pinch my cheeks again!"**

**"Just do it."**

Trembling, he gave me a tiny, confused glance, then did as I asked. Once I had him in my arms again, I slowly sat up. Weapons were drawn and pointed at me from all around the circular wall of females. Before anyone could actually attack me, I drew all of my mana points into the gold ring on my right hand. It began to glow brightly. **"Cover your ears and close your eyes,"** I warned Dib, and he immediately obeyed.

Lifting my hand, I unleashed the ring's special attack, Wrath of Zeus. Enormous bolts of lightning branched away from the ring and hit many of the women, and deafening thunder cracked and sizzled around us, charging the air with electricity. Most of the women had fallen over, and I took the opportunity to launch Dib and I off the ground, leaving the temporarily stunned and blinded women where they were, shocked—literally—by the spontaneous thunderstorm.

Hoping I could get away in the thirty seconds the attack lasted, I wearily flapped my wings, escaping none too soon. A tiny group of women quickly approached from between the houses. One, much to my agitation, was wearing familiar blue robes, her disappointed face peeking out from under her hood.

Dib and I had only just barely managed to avoid that insane magician, Starlight.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, I accepted a health potion from Dib, and shot off toward the Adventurers' Guild, hoping we would be able to register and leave before they found us.

A few minutes later, I dropped to the entrance to the guild, put Dib down, grabbed Wei Bo and Jiū, and dragged them inside, terrified of lingering in the city any longer than we had to. Avila and Xiu Chen hurried after us, asking what was wrong.

"Dib and I were just attacked by almost thirty members of Prince's fanclub," I explained, following Dib as he hurried toward a table set in one corner of the enormous hall.

"What‽" Wei Bo yelled. "One reason we left Infinite City was so we wouldn't run into those maniacs!"

"Was that what that explosion was?" Avila inquired, pink eyes wide. "We could see the fire all the way from the stables!"

"Yes," I reluctantly admitted and let go of Wei Bo and Jiū, coming to a stop beside Dib, "that was the handiwork of one of the fangirls." The fire had become bigger than I'd thought, to have grown enough to be seen from so far away. I hoped that crystal coin I gave the butcher would help with the repairs.

"They're here for the concerts, apparently." Sighing deeply, I gave an apologetic look to Avila. "I know you're looking forward to attending the performances here, but I'm afraid we'll have to be…sneaky about it. Sit on roofs, wear cloaks, whatever."

"Well." She shrugged, looking unconcerned. "As long as we get to see the concerts."

Wei Bo mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Stupid concerts." Heaving a sigh, he glanced warily toward the entrance. "Looks like we'll have to skip going to the tavern…Let's hurry up and register, then leave."

"What should we call ourselves?" Dib asked, looking extremely excited all of the sudden.

I quirked an eyebrow. Given how much he'd been looking forward to registering our team, I'd assumed he had some names in mind already, but apparently he had come here completely unprepared. Somehow, this situation felt familiar.

I glanced around myself, frowning at the stifling, noisy crowds, and quickly walked to the other side of my team, to a spot where I would have room to breathe beside the wall of pillars. The others chattered to one another energetically as I watched in silence.

"Any ideas?" Xiu Chen asked me, green eyes shining with anticipation.

I shook my head at her. "I don't particularly care what we're called." Nor had I ever given it a shred of thought.

Wei Bo made a huffing noise and crossed his arms. "So, you wouldn't care if we name ourselves the Fluffy Pixies or something‽"

Staring at him in amusement, I shrugged noncommittally. "If that's _really_ what you want us to be called, go right ahead. But don't regret it later and start whining about how ridiculous it sounds."

He looked extremely annoyed and his scowl deepened. "That was just an example!" he snapped, his face flushing slightly at my breezy response, which he apparently hadn't been expecting. He was always trying to start fights with me over bizarre things. Rather than feeling angry at him for it, his attempts were quite entertaining.

"We need something cool!" Dib exclaimed with a very determined expression.

"And tough!" Avila added, looking equally determined.

"What sorts of things are cool and tough?" Jiū mused, staring off into space.

"Ice cubes," I vaguely answered, wishing they would hurry up so we could leave. Not that I was particularly helping the process go any faster.

"Not _that_ kind of cool!" Dib fumed, giving my leg an angry punch.

"Anyway, ice cubes are more along the lines of crunchy, rather than tough," Xiu Chen corrected in a serious tone, and she frowned thoughtfully.

"Well, maybe not little cubes. But if it's a big slab, I would think one could call it 'tough,'" I continued, more out of boredom than actually wanting to explain myself. "Like a layer of ice, which could hold a person's weight, covering a pond."

Xiu Chen's eyebrows flew upward and she nodded at my words. "Oh, I see. Yes, I suppose that could be a kind of toughness."

"Quit going off-topic!" Avila and Dib yelled in unison, sounding annoyed at our lack of enthusiasm over name-picking.

"The Furious Warriors!" Wei Bo suggested.

"I'm not a warrior," Xiu Chen pointed out.

"That sounds stupid, anyway. The Faction of Royalty!"

"No! The Blades of Darkness!"

"Annihilators of Evil!"

"Muscular–!"

"Please, stop trying to make up names that are 'cool' for the sake of being 'cool,'" I requested, feeling somewhat irritated at the weird suggestions being taken into consideration. "Just pick something simple and stop arguing."

"If you're so smart, think up something, then!" Dib challenged.

"The Syndicate of Controversy," I muttered off the top of my head, "because we never agree. S.o.C. for short, since the full name is a mouthful. See? Simple and easy, and uses big words so it sounds impressive as well."

"You want to call us the Socks‽" Wei Bo stormed, looking thoroughly outraged at such a name.

"It's better than being called by your brilliant idea, the Fluffy Pixies," I countered huffily. "And I didn't say 'Socks'! I said 'S-o-C'! There's a big difference!"

"I like socks," Avila informed.

Dib suddenly ran off toward the team registration table. "NO-O-O!" Wei Bo screamed, chasing after him. "I wasn't finished discussing! I don't want to name us the Syndicate of Contro…Whatever! That makes us sound like suit-wearing snobs, who always argue!"

"You just described yourself," Avila mused, not that he heard her.

**"TEAM REGISTRATION COMPLETE!"** the game blared, cutting across Wei Bo's continued frenzy while he yanked Dib away from the registration NPC, slightly too late.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU IMPULSIVE MORON‽" Wei Bo roared while he attempted to strangle the laughing boy. Dib shook his head and he laughed harder, his face becoming increasingly flushed from both the laughter and the choking. Not wanting to get injured yet again, I impatiently watched from a safe distance while they began to fight one another.

Was my suggestion really so terrible? Though we really could have thought about it more. It wasn't like he had actually named us the…Wait a minute. He hadn't, had he?

Jiū stared at the fight for a moment, and then hurriedly said "System!" in a somewhat panicky tone. Her gaze went unfocused. "Oh, goodness," she slowly muttered, gray eyes wide, face looking a bit pale.

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit worried at her expression.

"He really named us the Socks."

* * *

><p><em>Ahh, they finally registered. xD The Socks have returned!<em>

___A special thanks goes to Chicaalterego for letting me use her character, Starlight, again, and for helping me work on the fangirl-infested part of this chapter. :D *gives her a hug* I know many of you are already following her story, _Lukewarm Ice_, but if you aren't, go check it out! It's awesome!___


	46. His Discontentment

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>"Is marriage difficult?"<p>

Fu Han gave me a faintly confused glance before looking down at the gold wedding band on his left ring finger. Sighing, he shrugged and looked at the papers scattered across my desk. "It's a daily battle. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that my wife and I are on the same side…or at least we're supposed to be. Getting married soon?"

"Maybe," I mumbled, running my eyes down the numbers on the budget chart I was supposed to be reading. "My father is the one deciding the date, but he has not told me anything yet."

"Arranged marriage?"

"Yes."

"Why am I not surprised…? Sounds like Zongcai decides _everything_ for you. You're going to be terrible at making decisions later in life…But you don't hear about too many arranged marriages nowadays. I guess you rich people have to keep up the all-important bloodline somehow." He took a long moment to stare at some paper he had picked up for whatever reason, his eyes going out of focus instead of reading. We were both apparently feeling rather lazy. I mentally assured myself that I was allowed a bit of laziness after having come into work absurdly early that morning—as well as leaving absurdly late the night before—to get as much done as I could, to be able to go to Heng's birthday party later. I had to leave soon, and my will to work was steadily draining away.

Who knew why Fu Han was here on a Saturday afternoon. People sometimes did come in to complete some task or another that had been left, but this company allowed most of its employees—the ones like Fu Han and I who worked in offices—to have their weekends off. I only came in on weekends, if only for half-days, because my father always did.

But over the past week I had gotten used to seeing Fu Han come in earlier and leave later than everyone else, besides me. He was extremely serious about his job, I was very pleased to have found out.

"Well," he finally sighed, "my wife is pretty argumentative and domineering, so I guess my marriage might or might not be more conflicting than yours." He muttered something under his breath, and I managed to catch "don't need a stupid heater" and "just wear a damn coat." A small suspicion popped into my head that that was why he was here so early and late; he was avoiding his wife.

"My fiancée and I never fight." I tried to keep the remark from sounding like I was bragging.

Fu Han looked up, eyes narrowing. "What's your secret? Do you barely see her or something?"

"No, we see one another everyday," I corrected. "We are on quite friendly terms." My eyes widened when I spotted a typo on the report to which I was giving so little attention. Picking up my pen, I put a neat circle of red ink around the mistake.

He gave an airy laugh. "Friendly. Wait until you actually get married and you're not 'friends' anymore. Sparks will fly eventually, probably sooner than you'd like. '_No_, Fu Han!'" His voice was suddenly much more high-pitched. "'The mirror should be hung _here_, not _there_! You're horrible at interior design! Give me that ruler! I'll do it!' I swear, she never stops. I try to help and she yells at me for messing stuff up, but when I tell her 'Yes, dear,' and let her have her way she yells at me that I 'just don't care!' It's torture."

Trying not to laugh at his plight—admittedly, it sounded funny to me, but it was obvious that it wasn't funny at all to him—I hummed in agreement, although I couldn't really picture such a thing happening to me; Jiao was so nice, the thought of her arguing with me sounded somewhat absurd. She did pick on me from time to time, but it was simply playful banter, and something she did to everyone. Now if one wanted to talk about someone I had _real_ arguments with frequently, Heng on the other hand was the king of conflict. He and I always seemed to be fighting about something, usually something stupid…

I frowned and tried to push him out of my mind. It was exhausting enough, having to deal with him all night in _Second Life_ and all evening when he visited me at the Lin house, plus all afternoon later today. I didn't want the annoying man intruding on my work time as well. It wasn't like I didn't like spending time with him, because I did. A lot. A lot more than I should have, I reminded myself yet again. But still, he tired me out so quickly. His outgoing energy was incredibly draining, since over the years I had gotten very used to spending the majority of my time by myself. Every time I saw him, long before he was ready to leave me alone, I had had already become extremely annoyed with his presence, but either he never cared or never noticed. He–

Glowering and biting my upper lip, I mentally berated myself when I realized I was still thinking about him, and began silently reading the report again. With as determinedly focused as I had become, I almost didn't notice it was time to leave.

Standing abruptly, I stuck my pen in the cup of writing utensils—regrettably, I still hadn't replaced my set of fountain pens, so I was temporarily using a ballpoint pen that Heng had given me after I told him about my vandalized belongings—and began stacking up my papers. "I have to leave. Thank you for the help with these."

Fu Han gave a short nod and stood up as well. He slapped my arm with a thin planner as I walked past him to get my coat. "Don't forget the lunch tomorrow."

I whirled around and smiled as I slipped into my coat and buttoned it up. "Ah, yes. Thank you for the reminder." Last Tuesday, in a want to be more heir-like, I had scraped up enough courage to ask my father to put me in charge of more than just the accounting department. His answer was prompt and to the point—apparently he'd been waiting for me to voice my displeasure over being so useless—and he put me in charge of a new construction project, working with Delun of all people.

Oh, business partnerships. Very annoying partnerships. Well, it was better than working with total strangers, I supposed.

Fu Han had somehow found out about it all and had, without getting my consent or even telling me about it, decided to appoint himself as my personal secretary. He explained afterward that it would "look nice" on his résumé. I doubted it would have been difficult to manage everything on my own, but didn't make a fuss. I would have hired one eventually anyway, so I decided I might as well take the willing volunteer instead of spending a long time searching for someone who suited me.

I waved my bag at him and stepped out the door. "Have a nice day."

"You too, Jingli," he called after me as I left. I hurried as quickly as I could out of the building and to the employee parking garage, got some casual clothes out of my car's trunk and went back inside to change in a bathroom. Afterward, I hastily returned to my car and left, relieved that the clock was telling me I still had twenty minutes.

Pulling out onto the road, I winced when the sun hit me. After having spent all morning indoors staring at papers, with the blinds closed, the light hurt. At the first stop light, I took my sunglasses out of my glove compartment and put them on, sighing with relief when my tired eyes stopped aching. Stifling a yawn, I watched as the traffic light turned green, allowing me to drive forward again.

Slightly over ten minutes later, I was pulling into the public lot near one of the train stations. After paying for my car to stay there until evening, I drove forward and easily spotted the group of people standing in an empty space next to Heng's red car. Smiling in amusement, I carefully parked after they all had moved out of the way. Picking up my bag, I got out and locked my car, inspecting the crowd as I stepped forward. Heng was there, of course, as well as our four teammates, and Shuang, Heng's younger brothers, a teenage boy—Mei Rong's boyfriend—I had seen around the Lin house once or twice when Mei Rong had invited him over, and three people I didn't know, two men and a woman.

"Hey, Al!" Heng immediately cheered, stepping around the edge of my car to yank me into one of his bone-crushing hugs, completely disregarding the fact that everyone was watching.

"Hello, and happy birthday," I wheezed.

"Thanks, and you're late!" he snapped, frowning down at me.

"We still have nearly ten minutes before our train leaves, don't we?" I pushed him away and walked over to Delun. "Did you get my ticket?"

"Yeah." He shuffled through the tickets in his hands, then handed one over.

"Thank you." I was about to read the printed stuff on the ticket, but something was suddenly pulled down over my eyes. In surprise, I lifted a hand to grope at whatever it was. Black and stretchy fabric easily lifted upward when I yanked whatever it was off my head. It was a winter hat.

Without warning, Heng took my sunglasses off and put them on himself. "O-o-o, these are nice." When I frowned at him, he pointed at the hat. "So your head doesn't get cold. Wei Bo told me we were going near the ocean, and I know you don't have a hat."

"Oh. Thank you." I put it back on just to humor him, not because I actually wanted it, although I had to admit that it was warm. After yawning again behind one gloved hand, I smiled faintly at the three who I didn't know. "Hello."

"Hey, Princess." A wide grin came from the man on the left. My smile immediately disappeared when I heard the old nickname from college, the nickname widely used amongst the members of the crowd who had relentlessly tormented me. Jiao just barely stifled a laugh, looking away in an innocent manner when I glanced irritably at her.

"So you and Heng really are friends now. I was kinda skeptical," the man added.

I made a vague noise at his remark. Heng roughly shoved his friend. "I told you over and over we are!"

"Well, geeze! You stalked him for two years back in university, but he never paid any attention to you!"

"Stalked?" Delun echoed, staring bewilderingly at Heng, who looked embarrassed and simply shrugged.

"Let's just go," I grumbled, putting a hand on Jiao's shoulder to squeeze it hard in revenge for how she'd laughed, and I directed her toward the train station entrance. She gave my side a punch in return. I yanked on her earlobe. She stomped on my foot. I gave up, my eyes watering in pain. While I had, of course, not used anywhere near all of my strength, it felt like she hadn't held back at all. Or maybe I was just really wimpy.

She gave me a triumphant look when she noticed my attacks had ceased. I wanted to pinch her or something, but resisted the urge and instead began looking for where we were supposed to go. Having never ridden on a train or even gone into a train station before—the only reason being that my father saw public transportation as inferior—I was lost. Heng, seeming to be very proud of himself for knowing more than me, led the way to the correct platform, where our train was waiting for us.

"A luxury train?" that name-calling man growled, his eyebrows lowering in irritation, although I wasn't sure what it was he was irritated about. "No wonder the fuck—oh, sorry, kids. No wonder the ticket cost so much."

"We paid for the tickets, so shut up and stop whining about it," Delun snarled in return, taking his hands away from Shuang's innocent little ears.

The man, who I supposed had already been arguing with my brother-in-law before I had arrived, smirked at him. "Right. I'm so-o-o grateful for your generous charity. We peasants are–"

"Quit it," Heng reprimanded, shoving him again. "They bought them to be nice."

"Still feels like they're just snobbishly waving their money around."

"Shut up!" Glaring down at his friend, he pushed him toward the train door and they all began filing inside. I silently followed after, sticking close to Jiao and feeling uncomfortable around so many people.

We had a whole car to ourselves. Heng's three friends took one set of the elegant-looking dark wood booths, Delun and his family—except Mei Rong and her boyfriend, who sat by themselves, much to Delun's huffy annoyance—spread out in another, Heng's brothers took over another set of booths, and Heng dragged me to the one across the aisle from his friends, although I had initially been planning to sit with Jiao.

I sat down on the comfortable blue-and-white striped cushions and placed my bag on the seat beside mine, forcing Heng to sit across from me. "Al, where are we going?" Heng asked for what had to have been the millionth time that week.

"The tickets have our destination printed on it, so look at yours," I suggested, turning away from him to take a lunch menu from one of the neatly-dressed on-board waitresses.

"I know that part," he impatiently whined, "but it just says the city. Where are we going after _that_‽"

"You'll see soon enough," I replied, opening my menu to the drinks section while the waitress gave Heng a menu, then pulled down a table that was built into the wall. It clicked into place between Heng and my booths, and was promptly covered in a white tablecloth and a tiny, triangular glass vase of pale blue flowers.

"Tell me!" he ordered, glaring at me from across the table. I shook my head. "A-A-A-Al!"

I kicked him.

"OUCH! You jerk!"

"Hurry up and order," I snapped. "This ride is only half an hour long, so you have little time to have your lunch before we arrive."

"Okay, okay, fine." He let out a heavy sigh and sulkily flipped open his menu. I asked the waitress for a dish of fried rice with chicken, and a pot of green tea. Heng immediately followed with an order of fried rice with pork and mushrooms, and offered to share my tea. Once the menus were gone, I yawned again and leaned back against the booth, staring out the curtained window to watch people scurry past on the train platform.

Small talk passed between us and between Heng and his friends while the train slowly started forward at exactly half past twelve. I didn't pay much attention to the flow of the conversation once our food arrived. I only vaguely knew they were talking about things that had happened at college, but my ears perked up when the name-calling man, whose name I probably should have asked for earlier, called in amusement over to Heng, "Hey, remember that time in the hallway when you knocked him over?"

Slowly raising my gaze from the piece of chicken clutched in my chopsticks, I glared at Heng. He looked back at me, obviously horrified that his friend had brought up that particular topic. "That was _you_‽" I demanded.

"You remember that?" he meekly asked, his face going very pale.

"Of course I remember that!" I put my chopsticks on the side of my bowl and leaned back, staring hard at him. During my first year at university, I had innocently been walking down the hallway, heading toward the library to study during the free time I had between two of my lectures. As I had rounded the last corner, someone had pushed me over and I had fallen to the floor. I'd long-since forgotten who had pushed me, but I could clearly remember that the person's friends, huddled behind the miscreant, had laughed and laughed at me, as had everyone else who had happened to be nearby. It was one of many public humiliations that had taken place.

"It was an accident!" Heng blurted, sounding somewhat frightened. "I swear! I didn't mean to knock you over! I mean, it was during one of my attempts to talk to you and…and…well, I knew you were going to the library, 'cause you always did at the same exact time every day, so we were hiding around the corner and—It was all his idea!" Heng pointed a finger at his friend. "He said I should just go around the corner and casually bump into you!"

"Dib! That is so cliché!" Mei Rong's voice floated over to us from wherever it was she was sitting, and I could hear Chen and Jiao laughing. Apparently everyone was listening to the story. My face burned with embarrassment and I busied myself with my food again.

"I know it's cliché! But he and a couple of my other friends pushed me really hard when you got close!" Heng frantically babbled on. "I told them I didn't wanna do it, but they shoved me around the corner and I accidentally ran into you, and well, you were so small it really wasn't hard to knock you over anyway, but…I'm sorry!" He inhaled deeply and wailed, "Al, you've gotta believe me-e-e-e! I tried to apologize to you so many times back then, but you kept ignoring me!"

"Of course I ignored you," I quietly cut in. "I thought you weren't being sincere. Your friends were laughing at me the whole time I was gathering up everything I'd dropped, and I could still hear them laughing even after I was all the way down the hallway! I thought you had done it as a joke at my expense!" After frowning at him again, I looked back down at my food. "But I am happy to know you didn't do it on purpose. I forgive you."

Naturally, I was still extremely pissed off about it—still angry six years later, was that petty?—especially since I wouldn't have pegged Heng for being the sort of person to hang out with bullies, but I hoped they were the playful sort, like Heng himself, and not the malicious sort, and tried to calm myself with the assurance that it was just a little accident. However, I sulkily refused to talk very much the whole rest of the train ride. Not that I talked very much in the first place.

Slightly over thirty minutes after we had left from the first train station, we arrived at our destination—K City. Once we exited the station, we boarded a bus and took a very short ride to a spot near the beaches, which looked to be crowded with visiting tourists—mostly foreigners, or so they appeared—enjoying Taiwan's mild winter temperatures. When the bus drove away, Heng was immediately distracted by the rolling blue expanse covering the horizon and he excitedly yelled, "OH MY GOSH, THE SOUTH CHINA SEA!" as if he hadn't lived half an hour away from the ocean for his entire life. But then he looked a bit worried. "Are we going swimming?" he hesitantly asked me. "I didn't bring my or my brothers' swimming trunks."

Tiredly sighing at him, I took him by the arm and turned him around to face the place to which we had really come, although I had no idea how he could have missed it. His eyes went very wide and he let out another loud exclamation of "OH MY GOSH, AN AMUSEMENT PARK!" as he took in the sight. He looked too excited to be allowed. Being a person who hated large crowds—and medium-sized crowds, and small crowds, and, well, people in general—I wasn't anywhere near as hyped-up as he was, but was determined to bear with it all for his sake.

"Yes, Heng. An amusement park." When we had been discussing it behind Heng's back, the Lin siblings and I had immediately agreed that a nearby amusement park would be one of the best places to take Heng for his birthday. Plus Shuang and Heng's brothers would also enjoy themselves, and although it was a small park, there were enough "big" rides here to entertain adults as well, so it was an all-around easy decision.

I reached into my bag and pulled out my wallet, opening it up to retrieve the stack of admission tickets I'd been carrying, having bought them ahead of time to avoid waiting in line at the entrance. Heng unblinkingly stared down at his ticket when I handed it to him. "Oh, wo-o-ow, I haven't been to an amusement park in forever! Not since my parents took me a million years ago!"

Smiling, I handed three tickets over to the triplets and they began shoving Heng toward the entrance, urging him forward with excited orders of "Come on, Dàgē! Quit dragging your feet!"

After all of the tickets had been passed out and we had entered the park, our first stop was, under the triplets' orders, the park's biggest roller coaster out of the three that were there. "I'm sitting this one out," Delun immediately announced, hastily pushing away Shuang's stroller. Chen quickly followed him, calling over to us that they were going to go find something Shuang could ride, but everyone else stayed.

"Scared, Al?" Heng asked, his eyes challenging.

I shook my head. "You and I do roller coaster-type things in _Second_ _Life_ all the time, and with nothing at all to catch us if we fall out of the sky. Of course I'm not afraid of something like this."

"Says the person who is afraid of swing sets," Jiao taunted.

I blushed in embarrassment when several people began to stare at me, looking extremely amused. "I'm not…I'm not afraid of swing sets!" I denied at once, frowning stubbornly.

"Yeah, you are," Heng countered, chuckling as we walked forward to join the queue line.

"You refused to play on the swings that time you, Dàsăo, and I went to the playground with Shuang-mèi," Jiao reminded.

"I wasn't afraid, I was just _cautious_!" I hastily explained to her. "My arm was still in a cast! I didn't like the idea of only holding on with one hand! I could have fallen off and hit my head really hard on the ground! Swings don't have seat belts and lap bars and those over-the-shoulder things! Anyway, roller coasters are maintained on a regular basis, I'm sure! Swings are way more dangerous!"

No one looked convinced, much to my annoyance.

"It's okay," the second male friend of Heng's softly assured, smiling up at me in an amiable way. "I'm kind of scared, too."

"Yeah, so am I, Gēge!" Mei Rong piped in, roughly slapping me on the back as she did so often. "Being terrified is the best part, anyway!"

Although I wanted to say again that I was most certainly _not_ scared of swing sets _or_ the roller coaster, I kept my mouth shut before I could embarrass myself any further and simply listened to the bursts of conversation breaking out in our group, the noisiest of which was Heng and the triplets' competitive argument over who would be able to scream the loudest and longest on the ride.

We waited in line for what felt like hours before we were finally up on the loading platform for the sleek-shaped and bright-painted roller coaster trains. Heng and his brothers hogged the front car. I sat with Jiao, in a car around the middle. Everyone else piled in cars in other places, as well as strangers who happened to be standing in line with us, then we were rolling away from the platform and up the first hill. I quickly found myself becoming bored; I could have flown that same distance—and even higher—in a lot less time that it took the train to get to the top of the metal track. And although the swooping feeling in my stomach when we dropped did catch me off guard a little, I admit, I defiantly kept myself from screaming, as everyone else had either out of fear, or excitement, or both.

But I still smiled.

It was over quickly after a few more hills, a lot of twists, a tunnel, and one upside-down loop. It went much more quickly than I would have liked, given how long we had waited to ride. But, seeing that no one else was complaining about the shortness, that was obviously how long it was supposed to last. So, adjusting the borrowed hat, I quietly followed everyone out of the exit gate and listened while they began to argue over what we should go ride next.

By evening, we had ridden nearly every ride in the park at least ten times each, not including all of the tame "kiddie rides," which Delun, Chen, and Shuang had been stuck to since our arrival.

We had also made frequent stops throughout the day to buy snacks—mostly for Heng—and play the little carnival games, in which one and only one prize was won, and was, of course, given to Heng; it was a rather large, round, red-colored, fuzzy, one-eyed creature of some sort. Heng's quieter and much more polite male friend had managed to snag it for him in a throwing game.

Just because Heng had asked, I had tried once and failed miserably, regardless of my accuracy-based profession in _Second Life_. I was simply not blessed with the marvelous aiming skills my game avatar flaunted every night. But Heng seemed happy with his stuffed red monster thing…whatever it was. Rather than trying to figure out what it was, I was too busy marveling over how much money had been spent to win the thing, when we probably could have bought him a weird-looking stuffed toy at a store, for a fraction of the price.

Oh, money-grubbing amusement parks.

When we were getting ready to leave, Mei Rong began to pull her boyfriend down the paved road, waving at all of the rest of us to follow. "We can't leave yet! We haven't gone on the most important ride!"

"Now who's being cliché?" Heng loudly asked over the noise of the crowd when Mei Rong's destination became apparent. Her boyfriend looked somewhat embarrassed. She was heading for the enormous spinning ferris wheel. It was already lit up in all of its electric magnificence, although the sky was still somewhat light. The colors rapidly changed and the pattern they formed shifted and moved.

The teen lobbed a "Shut up, Dib!" back at him and yanked her boyfriend into the line for our final ride of the day. Delun, under the excuse that Shuang was asleep, said he wasn't going to ride—she was, but by that time we all knew it was simply because he was terrified of heights—then wheeled his snoozing daughter over to the nearest bench and sat down with Chen. Jiao soon followed them, and I, feeling a bit awkward, moved to join her, but Heng latched onto my arm and refused to let go.

Mei Rong and her boyfriend took one car, the somewhat-groggy triplets another, Heng's friends the third, which left the reluctant me and Heng to take the fourth. I really, _really_ didn't want to do it, but climbed in and sat down on one of the hard benches, determinedly staring out the windows that stretched all the way around the car, instead of looking at the other occupant of the tiny compartment.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Heng arranging his Stuffed Red Monster Thing on the seat beside his, then he settled down himself and stared at me. The car swayed and shuddered a bit when the ferris wheel began to move, then soon stopped to empty and fill the next car.

It wasn't until several more cars' passengers had been refreshed that Heng finally said something. "Al?"

I still didn't look at him, but answered with a quiet "What?"

"Have you tried to remember anything? All that stuff from before." At his question, the various memories of my painful attempts quickly came back. I nodded once. "And?" he added afterward, obviously wanting a more detailed answer than a nod.

"And nothing," I replied. "I haven't remembered anything. I haven't…I admit that I haven't tried many times. I get headaches every time, so I stop almost immediately."

"Oh. Well, your doctor said you wouldn't _want_ to remember. Maybe your headaches are like a warning signal or something."

"Perhaps."

There was silence again, and the ferris wheel stopped and started a few more times before it began to rotate without interruption. The sun, having already dipped below the horizon, was still coloring the sky with an orange glow, spreading its warm color onto the ever-changing surface of the ocean to the west of the island.

"Do you want to remember?" Heng asked.

Slowly exhaling out my nose, I finally looked at him. "I don't see the point," I answered honestly, and immediately felt a bit guilty for my bluntness when he looked hurt. "I mean that I…I'm doing okay now. Things are definitely much better than they were before, and from my perspective it seems I really have no need for those memories. Unless there is something important I'm missing?"

"Of course there's something important," he quietly told me, anger sharpening his words. "And you used to think it's important, too."

Frowning slightly, I looked away again and stared at the ocean. "Well, it was selfish of me to ever think such a thing. And it's selfish of you, too, to want me to remember anything of that sort." It was stiflingly quiet for several heartbeats, then I pleadingly turned back to him. "Am I not good enough for you as I am now? Is a platonic relationship with me really so undesirable?"

"That's not what I mean, Al," he irritably corrected. "And I know it's selfish to ask you to remember, but…Dammit, I don't know…Everything's so jumbled up and confusing anymore. Before, it wasn't so bad, the…how we're just friends…but after you told me you…After you said what you did, I guess it's not enough. I can live with it, but I can't help but want more from you. And I don't think it's fair that you're brushing all this away without any thought at all."

"Without any thought?" I repeated, almost humorously. "Heng, something like this doesn't take a lot of thought! I'm _engaged_! Whether I want to be or not! I have no intentions of breaking off my commitment to Jiao, nor could I if I tried."

"Are you saying that this is about your integrity?" he snapped. "Because I feel like you're using your damned arranged marriage as an easy excuse to turn me down. So, if you weren't engaged to Jiao, you might give–"

"If I wasn't engaged to Jiao," I interrupted, "I would be engaged to someone else my father saw fit."

With a sigh of exasperation, Heng leaned back and pressed a hand to his eyes. "As always, we're back to how you constantly act in a way that you think your father would approve. Why can't you just…if even for a second…forget about your father, and forget about Jiao and your engagement. Stop trying so hard to make everything okay for everyone. Just…just think about us…about me." He took a deep breath and seemed to calm down slightly while he steadily met my gaze. "Will you give me a chance?"

The control I had on my temper was slipping further and further away from me the more he continued to press. He'd been insistent on many things in the past, but never so determined as he was at this moment. However, I was equally determined to get him to drop it.

"I have no chances to give you," I softly told him, trying my hardest to keep my anger in check. "Things aren't as black and white as you are making them out to be; I can't simply look at us and come to a realistic decision, because in reality there are so many other factors in play that you keep pushing aside. I refuse to do as you are doing and disregard my father, Jiao, my responsibilities…They are all far too important to me to just ignore them."

Heng furiously bit his bottom lip so hard I was afraid he was going to start bleeding. Surprisingly, he didn't, but his teeth did leave obvious marks. "Sometimes I hate how responsible you are," he growled, joining in on staring out the window. "Why can't you be selfish for once?…Just 'cause you don't _need_ the memories doesn't mean you're not allowed to _want_ them…"

Although it all made sense in my head, I didn't try to explain it to him, because I knew he wouldn't understand. If I didn't need something, I saw no point in wanting it; if I didn't need something, it was useless to me. I didn't need the memories, therefore there was no reason to want them. I was _curious_ about it all, of course, but curiosity wasn't enough. Anyway, with what I assumed those memories contained, they would only be a hindrance.

"Just so you know, I'm not trying to twist your arm until you agree," Heng amended, never looking away from the darkening scenery. "I don't want to force you into anything. I just really hate…being the only one who remembers this stuff. Makes me really lonely. I feel like you suddenly went somewhere far away and left me behind." He let out a very long sigh, briefly fogging the window with his breath.

I flinched when he suddenly leaned closer to the window, his forehead smashing into it with a loud thud. Hoping yet again that he was okay, I tried very hard to think of something relieving to say, but my mind was drawing a blank, so the uncomfortable silence went on as Heng looked increasingly depressed. I had a brief urge to tell him to just go find someone else to be with, but I figured that would only hurt him even more, so I kept it to myself. The selfish part of me didn't really want to say something like that to him anyway. Although I didn't want to admit it, I was attracted to him; the thought of Heng finding someone else filled me with white-hot anger and jealousy, even though I couldn't remember when it was these feelings for him had developed.

I didn't want him to stay, yet I didn't want him to leave.

What a predicament.

Our miserable ferris wheel ride ended much later than I would have liked. I was extremely relieved when the ride operator finally opened the car door and let us out. Everyone was already waiting for us. Heng hugged that Stuffed Red Monster Thing to himself and put on his best I-am-happy face as he hurried forward, already starting up his almost-ceaseless chatter, this time about how nice the view of the sea was from the top of the wheel. I settled into my usual self—expressionless and silent, just listening and watching as the others animatedly talked amongst themselves as we walked to the park's exit, to go back home.

We had a birthday dinner for him at the Lin house. He played the Excited Birthday Boy very nicely, ooo-ing and aah-ing and thank-you-ing appropriately over each and every gift his friends, brothers, and I had gotten for him. There was a lot of food, of course, and a giant blueberry pie—his favorite dish in the whole entire world, as he had so often told anyone and everyone who would listen—and lots of ice cream, but long before the party was over, I was thoroughly exhausted in both body and mind.

I knew it was rude of me not to stay for the whole thing, but I eventually decided I couldn't stand it anymore and once the opportunity arose I gave a polite goodnight to everyone in the room before going upstairs, using "I have work tomorrow," as my excuse to leave.

I had barely shut the guest room door and had started to quickly undress when the door abruptly reopened and closed again behind me. Alarmed, I turned around, only to find Heng standing there, looking a bit embarrassed to have found me taking my shirt off. I quickly put it back on. "What is it?"

He extended his hand. I glanced down, inwardly sighing when I spotted my sunglasses encased in his fingers. "Oh, thank you," I murmured, taking them and setting them on my desk. I gave him back his hat in exchange.

Things were quiet for a long moment, then he anxiously blurted all in one breath, "That was just an excuse, and I actually wanted to apologize for being mean in the ferris wheel, because I know I shouldn't be so selfish, though I am anyway, but I just…" He paused to inhale again before he continued in a helpless way. "Well, my point is that I just don't want things to get…even more awkward between us. I don't want to push you if you're just gonna stress out about it and all, so…um, friends…is okay."

I was coming very close to just spilling out all of the things I was keeping from him, but forced them all to stay in my mind, where he couldn't hear them. "Thank you. That's relieving…in some ways," I added softly, then frowned. "I'm really not trying to be cruel to you. You know that, right? I honestly just don't see any other choice. Not right now."

"Yeah, I know," he murmured, giving a half-hearted attempt at a smile as his hands twisted around the hat he held. Exhaling briefly, he looked away from me. "Do you really have work tomorrow?"

"Yes. I have to go to the office for a bit as usual, then I have to attend a luncheon with Delun, his father, my father, and some higher-ups from an auto company my father bought recently…We're rebuilding the company's old factory, or so my father told me when he put me in charge of the project."

He looked a bit disappointed. "When will you be back?"

"Early evening, probably. I would guess sooner but Delun and I will probably be taken to see the construction site."

"Hrm," he grumbled, then his eyes widened, as if he had remembered something. "Do you have plans for Christmas?"

I slowly shook my head.

Looking a bit skeptical, Heng frowned a tiny bit. "What about that guy's party? Victor…or whoever. The blond guy who owns hotels. He invited you to his house."

"Like hell I'd go to a party he's hosting," I hotly denied, grimacing at the thought. "I hate that man…enough to put his and my future business partnership at risk by ignoring him. Delun mentioned he received an invitation as well, but he told me he had quickly made plans with Chen-mèi to visit her parents' house over Christmas and the New Year. The rest of his family will be going, too, but I don't really want to join. Parties don't particularly agree with me."

"You could spend it with me at my house." After he said that, he quickly added, "As friends. And my brothers will be there. No funny stuff, I promise." He was limiting himself, but taking all he could get at the same time. That was something I couldn't quite grasp the concept of; everything was always either all or nothing with me, no in-between area at all. I didn't really feel confident in my self-control to be able to get so close to something and yet not allow myself to reach out and grab that something that I wasn't supposed to be grabbing.

Heng had a lot more self-control than I did.

I eventually nodded, ending the mental tug-o-war and giving in to what was probably the "wrong side." Well, it would labeled as such if my father had anything to say about it, which I hoped he didn't.

"Thank you. I would love to come." For more reasons than I would have cared to disclose. I hoped quite a bit that I was concealing everything as well as I thought I was.

Either I really was doing a good job at hiding it, or Heng was simply disappointed that I wasn't letting on, or he was still, understandably, upset about earlier, because he wasn't as eager about my agreement as I would have predicted. "Alright." With a somewhat forced smile and a nod, he took a step back, hands firmly twisted in that hat. "See you later, then."

"Bye." Giving him a fake smile in return, I dolefully watched as he turned and left the room.

* * *

><p><em>Chapter theme sooong: Nothing in My Way by Keane! One of my all-time favorite songs :D<em>

_A turning tide. Lovers at a great divide.  
>Why d'you laugh, when I know you hurt inside?<br>A tell-tale sign. You don't know where to draw the line.  
>And why'd you say "It's just another day, nothing in my way.<br>I don't wanna go, I don't wanna stay," so there's nothing left to say?  
>And why d'you lie?<br>When you wanna die, when you hurt inside.  
>Don't know what you lie for anyway.<br>Now there's nothing left to say._


	47. Secretive Laboratory

__**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo____

__**Note__ –__** As an explanation ahead of time: $5,000TWD is about $166USD. (If you're not American and want to know how much that is in your own currency, there are conversion calculators online.) And of course, because I don't feel like trying to figure it all out, these are present-day exchange rates, not 22nd century rates. :P  
><em>_

* * *

><p>The weeks that followed Heng's birthday party were relatively uneventful. I went to his house for Christmas, as promised, and we spent most of the holiday eating and playing video games, all of which I was utterly horrible at and lost over and over to Heng and his brothers. We also had a small gift exchange; Heng gave me my very own winter hat, "so you don't have to borrow mine all the time," as he explained jokingly, and I gave him a large set of kitchen knives that I had wracked my brain over when I was trying to choose something useful he would like. The boys received several presents from Heng, plus five thousand dollars apiece from me—I had no idea what sorts of things they liked, and figured money was better than nothing—which made them somewhat worried as they hadn't prepared anything for me. But I assured them it was okay and simply steered the conversation away from presents.<p>

In _Second Life_, my team and I spent our time training outside of Star City, especially once the Odd Squad arrived for their first set of concerts and the streets were too dangerous for me to roam anymore. I had already been quite cautious, going everywhere in a cloak after Dib and my run-in with Prince's fanclub earlier that month, but after the Odd Squad's first performance, I discovered that my obstacles had increased exponentially; not only did I have to evade Prince's fangirls, but I also had to evade Gui's. Apparently, he was quite popular—as were the rest of the band members—and as an unfortunate result, so was I. After almost getting raped several times by random groups of men and women who, thinking I was Gui in disguise, ambushed me in the dark streets of Star City, I gave up entirely on entering the city, and left all of the supply trips to my teammates.

On the thirty first of December, the Odd Squad had their final performance in Star City, set to take place near where New Years fireworks were going to go off over the center of the city. It was there that Prince's fangirls struck again. The performance had ended, and my team and I were standing by the Odd Squad, waiting for the fireworks to start, but it wasn't only fireworks that began; using the fireworks as a cover—I assumed they thought no one would notice what they were doing—those women that had set fire to the market showed up again and began shooting large fireballs at me—judging by what they were screaming, they were very angry with me for standing near their precious Prince—and the whole area went up in flames, causing all of the fireworks to go off at once.

Chaos ensued.

Quite a few people were killed in the confusion, their streaks of death adding to the horrific light show of fireworks and enormous flames raging through the sky, suffocating clouds of smoke blotting out the pretty stars and making it impossible to breathe. My team and I, however, managed to escape with minor injuries and went to the stables, got our horses, then left the city and decided to stay away until everything had calmed down, whenever that would be.

In real life, I spent most of my time working with Delun on the auto factory construction. Heng rarely came to visit. He gave me the excuse that he didn't want to get in the way of my work, but I had a feeling that it was simply because he didn't want to see me at the moment. But that was relieving, because I didn't much want to see him, either. I did miss him quite a bit—my room looked quite empty and dismal without his energetic and bright presence there—but I was still grateful for the time away from him, as it gave me time to think.

Indecisive silence hung over me as I sat at my desk, staring at the open cellphone I had placed directly in front of myself. An hour had passed since I had put the phone there and had opened it, and the screen had long-since turned black. My hand twitched, nearly flying forward to grab the phone and dial it, but I didn't. I simply couldn't decide if I should. This was something huge, and Heng would definitely want to know, but I was torn between telling him for his sake, and keeping it a secret for my own sake.

Unfortunately, Fu Han had been right when he had told me I'd be bad at making decisions. Part of me wished Heng would call me first—not that he would, since it was eight in the morning and he would be at work—and then I would have a reason to talk to him, but the rest of me was reluctant to say anything…Damn conflicts.

Nearly another hour went by before I finally picked up the phone, making my decision. Entering in the unfamiliar number written on a piece of paper that had been taped to the underside of my glass jar of capsules, I held the phone up to my ear. It took a while for my doctor to answer, but he eventually did, with a deafening exclamation of "_ZIAN! WHAT'S WRONG‽ WHY AREN'T YOU AT WORK‽ DID SOMETHING HAPPEN‽_"

Something that sounded like glass broke, and it was followed by a faint, angry shout from someone near him. "_You idiot, look what you made me do!_"

"_Oh, stop whining and just get another sample. This call is important!_"

"_It's spilling everywhere—Oh, shit! It's burning through the table!_"

"_CLEAN IT UP!_" my doctor bellowed, and there was a lot of stomping, the sound of a door opening and closing, then everything was much quieter. "_Now then. What's wrong?_"

"Nothing is wrong. I just wanted to know if you could help me with something."

"_Oh, I see. Good grief, you had me worried. What is it?_"

"If you are busy, I could call another day," I anxiously offered, wondering just what had spilled that could burn through a table. What was he doing, playing with acid?

"_No, I'm not busy with anything important._"

"Oh…" It hadn't sounded unimportant to me, but whatever. "I was wondering if…Well, you mentioned there were ways to remember things. Therapy sessions and such. I was wondering if you would have any suggestions."

"_Yes! Of course. I'm so glad you called me instead of going somewhere else, phew. That could have been messy…Yes, there are ways to regain repressed memories, as I said. As a matter of fact, several of my colleagues and I are working on a little something. It's still in the testing stages, and well…_" He paused, quietly mumbled, "_Never tested it before,_" and then loudly coughed. "_It might be worth a shot. It's sort of a mixture between chemicals and hypnotherapy. We've built a really impressive machine, I'm quite proud of it! I could come pick you up and bring you over right now, if you want!_"

"Yes," I said before I could hesitate. Going today was the reason I took a sick day in the first place.

"_Alrighty! I'll be there within the hour!_"

He ended the call before I had the chance to say goodbye. I closed my phone and put it in my pocket, standing up to get ready, hoping my father wasn't going to find out about this. It was bad enough that I'd taken a sick day when I wasn't sick, but if he knew I was trying to get back those lost months, I knew he'd be furious. But then, nearly everything I did made him furious, so I supposed this wasn't much different.

However, Heng was, in a way, more important to me than my father. Heng wanted me to remember, I also kind of wanted to remember, therefore I was going to try, even if my father opposed me. But I wasn't going to tell Heng. Not yet anyway, especially now that I knew the doctor's method wasn't tested. Perhaps I wouldn't remember anything at all. But if I did remember, I was going to keep it to myself for as long as possible.

Twenty minutes later, an unfamiliar black car pulled up the drive. I descended the front steps, where I'd been sitting in wait, and came to a stop as the car door opened and out stepped my doctor, his wispy, white hair as puffy and wild as it ever had been. "Hello, hello, hello!" he greeted excitedly, hurrying forward. "Take off your shirt!"

I paused in extreme confusion. "What?"

He waved his right hand around, holding some sort of rectangular electronic thing with a small screen and lots of buttons and switches—it looked like a remote control for a television, only much more complicated. "Take off your shirt!" he repeated. "I need to see your left shoulder."

Although I had no idea why I was supposed to do it, I quickly took off my coat, jacket, and unbuttoned my dress shirt enough that he would be able to pull it down to expose my shoulder. I shivered when the cold morning air whooshed into my clothes. He pressed one end of the remote control thingy to the side of my shoulder, pushed one of the thingy's many buttons, then nodded in a satisfied way. "Okay, all finished. You may dress again."

Questions swirling through my head, I did as he said, and curiously eyed the device as he tucked it into his jacket pocket. "What is that for?"

"I'm not authorized to say!" he rambled off, much like he had over and over during my last check up. "Do you have your cellphone on you?"

I nodded.

"Leave it here," he ordered, then turned and hopped into the car. Sighing, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, turned it off, and hurried into the house. After putting it in my room, I went back outside and got into the car, shutting the door behind myself. The tinted windows were all covered with thick curtains, not allowing me to see outside. The doctor flipped a switch near his head, which turned on a string of lights running across the ceiling, then he smiled eagerly. "Off we go!"

I simply gave a half-hearted attempt at a smile in return.

On the way to wherever it was we were going, he gave me a brief description of what we were going to do. It seemed like a simple procedure; he would give me an IV full of some sort of chemical solution—when I asked what was in it, he added another "I'm not authorized to say,"—and then I would be hooked up to the machine he was so proud of, and would apparently fall asleep, "sort of like how you play that game that Kuo Li was so mad about, but different," he vaguely explained.

The only thing I could think of to ask was "Is it dangerous?" given that it hadn't been tested, and I didn't like the idea of getting injected with some unknown mixture, but he assured me that he "didn't think" it was, which of course didn't assure me at all. However, he had always been extremely concerned about my health—although I had no idea why—so I knew he wouldn't do anything that would cause me any serious harm.

Or so I hoped.

Almost half an hour later, the car stopped and my doctor and I got out. Feeling surprised, I looked around, taking in the sight of what looked like the inside of a giant metal box. Almost noiselessly the wall to my left slid open, and I hesitantly walked toward the opening, following my doctor into a long hallway with white walls and a white tiled floor, bright lights built at regular intervals along the ceiling. The wall slid back into place behind us. We passed by quite a few doors—all painted white, marked only with numbers, and windowless, so I couldn't see what was inside—until we reached door number "2-09". My doctor pulled a red lanyard out of the inside of his jacket, waved the attached key card at the electronic lock's scanner, and the door slid open.

"Wait in here," he told me, pushing me inside. "I need to get some things, but I'll be back in a few minutes."

He was gone before I could nod. Taking a shallow breath of the cold air—it smelled unpleasantly like disinfectant—I curiously looked around the square room. Just as the hallway outside, the interior was entirely white. There were two chairs pushed up against one wall, a table with wheels and another table without, and a machine directly in front of me, which I assumed was the one I had been told about. It had a long, horizontal, and cushioned platform, probably for laying down on, and a circular contraption at the head.

I stepped toward the machine to get a closer look at the screen on the side and all of the confusing wires attached all over the place. I had always thought my doctor was a normal physician, but after seeing all of this, that assumption was replaced by the more fitting title of "mad scientist."

A soft mechanical whirring made me turn around, expecting to find my doctor coming inside. However, it was someone else. He had on a white lab coat and a surgical face mask, sharp black eyes peering intently at me from behind goggles. The new arrival was slightly taller than me, and much stockier, his short black hair messy and unkempt as if he hadn't the time or the will to fix it. Neither of us said anything for several seconds. I eventually smiled politely and said, "Hello."

"Hello," he returned at once, his soft voice sending faint threads of recognition shooting through me. Suddenly stepping forward, covering the distance across the room in three long strides, he grabbed my chin and I flinched as his fingers turned my head back and forth, inspecting me closely. Far more closely than I was comfortable with.

"A-h-h," he breathed after a moment, "wonderful, wonderful. Look at you, all grown up…Your doctor has shown me pictures of you over the years, but seeing you again in person after so long is much better. I am delighted to find you so healthy, especially after Kuo Li treated you so cruelly when you were sent to live with him. But then, he treats everyone like that, does he not?" The man gave a harsh, cold laugh that sent fear shivering through me.

I nodded, not knowing how else to respond.

Relieved when he let go of me, I took a step away from him almost unconsciously. His familiar eyes looked amused at my retreat. "I am the head of the research team your doctor is on," he belatedly explained, and it didn't go unnoticed that he didn't give me his name. But I didn't even know my own doctor's name, so perhaps it was simply how these people worked. Secrets were floating about all over this place, it seemed.

"The head who never authorizes him to say anything?" I inquired, a little humor seeping into my tone.

"Yes, that one." He chuckled. "Head of the research team now, but years ago he and I were also partners for a short while. We are the ones who made that medicine of yours. Quite handy, hmm?"

I nodded again. Of course it was "handy," since I would die without it. Ever since finding out that fact, I had found unexpected relief in how Gui Wen had left me behind when he'd run away from home. I doubted he knew about my medicine, and thus if he'd taken me with him, well…I wouldn't have had the opportunity to have met this weirdo of a doctor.

"And today you have come to reclaim your lost memories…Ah!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands together, and he threw himself onto one of the chairs. "What a wonderful opportunity to test out this machine. This is just a small side project we are working on, but I am quite excited to see how it all turns out. Plus, using you, there is a lot of beneficial data we can collect for our main project…At the moment I cannot tell you about that, however." His soft tone became mysterious at the end, and if he had meant to make me even more curious, he had succeeded. But I didn't ask, assuming he would reveal nothing.

The man's eyes narrowed as he turned his head to stare up at me. "You certainly are quiet."

I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say, so I closed it again. He was talking enough for the both of us, anyway.

His surgical mask puffed outward when he sighed. "Goodness. When you were a child I could never get you to shut up…Damned Kuo Li. What a mess he has made of you. The trade he and I made certainly had its benefits, but so many losses as well."

Silence took over and I uncomfortably stood as still as I could, wishing he would go away. Not only was he bringing up touchy subjects, but he also had a frightening similarity to my father, and I didn't like that at all. Plus it didn't help that he kept making me confused by mentioning things I couldn't remember or didn't even know about in the first place.

Thankfully, the door slid open again a few minutes later and in stepped my doctor, carrying a clipboard and rolling an IV stand along beside himself. He started when he noticed the man sitting on the chair, and obviously didn't look pleased that he was here, but unfortunately didn't ask him to leave. "Are you going to observe?"

"Yes," the man promptly answered, in a firm and unquestionable tone. He was obviously quite used to ordering people around.

"Very well."

Nervously I seated myself on the end of the squishy bed-like part of that machine, watching while my doctor pulled over the second chair and sat down. Out of the pockets of his lab coat, he removed an IV bag full of a clear fluid, a needle, a long tube, a small bottle of something, a bag of cotton swabs, and finally a pencil, arranging it all on the wheeled table.

"There was an announcement made while you were gone, by the way," that other man suddenly told my doctor. "Tomorrow at six AM sharp, we will be meeting in the usual room. The team shall be dissecting August Twenty-four Ten."

I glanced in confusion between the two scientists, wondering what that meant. There was a long pause, and my doctor went somewhat pale. "The one with spasms?" he quietly asked.

"Yes." The man looked to me, his surgical mask hiding what sort of expression he was making. "Lab rats," he briefly explained, seeing my bewilderment. "One has developed a little twitch, which seems to be permanent. Quite bothersome, but we must dispose of the poor thing."

"Oh," I murmured. "That is unfortunate." It took a whole team of scientists to dissect and dispose of one little rat?

"The average lab rat in our care usually only lives around four years anyway. Ten is, what, three years old?"

My doctor nodded. "The August series are all three and a half."

"Is four years their natural life span?" I curiously asked.

The other doctor picked a bit of lint off his lab coat, then looked back to me, flicking the lint to the once-spotless floor. "You could say that," he agreed, if that could be counted as an agreement. "We have ten of our females give birth to ten babies, one baby per female—we implant them with fertilized eggs, to make sure they do not carry more than that, you see. With each series we make an adjustment to our previous experiment. By the time one series gets to be four or so, we already have a superior series born and growing, so we gradually dispose of the older, inferior ones. They have no more use, after all, thus there is no point in letting them live."

Although that sounded thoroughly inhumane, I kept my mouth shut. That seemed like something my father would do—gather up resources, wring them for all they were worth, and then throw them away when something better came along. My doctor didn't seem to be too happy about the way the conversation was going, either.

"There is one specimen, however," the other man added in a mysterious tone, "we have been keeping him alive specially. April Fourteen Seven is his number. He is much older than the others."

I didn't really want to hear more about their lab rats, but humored him. "How old is he?"

He looked happy that I'd kept up the topic. "Seven is nearly twenty-five years old," he eagerly told me, and my eyes went wide in surprise. A rat that was as old as I was. How weird.

"That is amazing," I remarked.

"Yes, yes." He nodded in a proud way as if he had taken my words personally. "I am quite fond of Seven. The April series was my very first experiment. It was a messy and clumsy experiment…only four out of the ten babies survived until birth, unfortunately. Seven was the most stable out of them all. Not as intelligent and healthy as I would have preferred, but ah well. We have been keeping him alive simply for observation, really. We are planning to cut him off from his life support in a year, perhaps a bit more." That creepy eagerness in his tone went up a notch as he continued. "I hope to breed him before he dies. It would be quite interesting to see the result."

Wouldn't the result simply be more rats?

Suddenly clearing his throat, my doctor, looking oddly pale and unsettled, stared hard at the other man. "Would it be possible to get back to what we're supposed to be doing?" His voice sounded just as upset as the rest of him appeared to be. Obviously, he didn't like their lab rat experiments anywhere near as much as the other man did.

"Go ahead." Waving one hand, the man leaned back in his chair and casually crossed his arms.

"Thank you." With a huffy sigh, my doctor picked up the pencil and wrote something on the paper stuck on his clipboard. After mumbling today's date aloud, he leaned back and stared up at me. "As a very basic explanation, the IV and the machine will work together to stimulate your temporal lobe—that is, the portion of your brain which stores your memories. Like I said on the ride here, you will be asleep when it happens. But unlike that game I compared this to, you will be seeing memories instead of a game—if I even need to clarify that—and you will still be able to hear me speak. With a series of questions, we can lead your mind to the places you've been locked out of.

"However, we need to choose where we shall begin. We can work our way from July, or perhaps late June, all the way to October, going in chronological order. Or we can jump straight into specific things; perhaps your friends have mentioned an event or something of that sort that you are interested in remembering."

I thought for a moment. "Well, I would like to remember _all_ of it. So, chronologically."

"Alright." He made another note on his clipboard. "Since the machine is, erm, not quite…ready, I would like to have a little test run before we jump into the important stuff."

"Okay," I agreed, nodding.

"How far back can you remember? Your earliest memory. No help with the machine."

"Well, I…" I paused, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "I do not really know what my earliest memory is. You know, and I suppose he does as well–" I gestured toward the other man, who nodded in agreement, although I hadn't said what it was that he knew, "–that I was not allowed to leave the house until I was nineteen, so…asking me to remember a day from my childhood is like walking down a long hallway of almost-identical doors, then trying to remember what was different about one in particular. Every single day was almost exactly the same as the last. Nothing ever stood out, thus I cannot remember a great deal of it."

My doctor nodded in an understanding way, but said nothing, allowing me to continue to think. "When I was four or five I had a fight with Gui Wen about Father's abuse." I stared at the floor and pressed my lips together, trying my hardest to remember anything before that. I felt like there was something involving a pillow and the front stairs in the entryway, but, drawing a blank, I eventually gave up. "That is as far back as I can go, I think. Most everything else before and after that is just a blur of monotony."

"Well, four or five years old is a good distance back," my doctor remarked with a small smile. "It's completely normal not to remember large pieces of your childhood, really, but yes, Kuo Li's decision to keep you locked away certainly didn't help you create the usual amount of lasting memories."

Inhaling suddenly, I stared anxiously at him. "Do…do you know why he did it? Gui Wen was allowed to go on outings and everything, yet Father…Whenever he hosted dinners at home, I was always locked in my room before any of the guests could arrive. He never took me to the places he took Gui Wen. I was barely ever allowed to walk about the grounds, even, and that was always with an escort," I ended bitterly.

Silence met my pained words, and I began to think he didn't know. However, the other man then spoke up. "Kuo Li was afraid," he said softly. "Afraid people would discover you. And he still is, you know. Why do you think he is so against your friendship with that Shi Heng fellow? He is terrified of the thought that someone might get close to you. The only reason he let you leave the house is because you have more worth to him that way. He is willing to take the risk, because he thinks he can still control you even if you are not physically nearby."

In confusion, I glanced between the two doctors. "I thought he disagreed to my friendship with Heng because my father is…well, for lack of a more appropriate term, _snobby_."

The other two were quiet for a moment, then my doctor started laughing.

"Well, of course he is a snob," the man agreed in a bored monotone. "That is obvious."

"Ah, I thought I would never see the day when you would dare to insult him," my doctor chortled, his frail-looking body shaking with mirth for a long moment before he finally continued. "His snobbishness is definitely a part of why he doesn't like your friend." His face turned red as he rubbed a hand across his mouth, looking like he was trying his hardest to contain his chuckles.

"Not the main reason," the other continued. "But what that reason is, we cannot tell you. Not right now, at least."

With a cough and another amused giggle, my doctor stood and began preparing the IV. "Let's get back to business here. Take off your coat and jacket, so I can hook you up to the drip."

Feeling slightly foolish, although it hadn't been me he had been laughing at, I quickly began to remove my numerous tops, my face growing hot. My doctor laid me down on the cushioned platform, my coats draped over me as blankets, my head stuck inside the round part of the machine. There were a lot of things that looked sort of like solar panels attached to the inside, but I didn't ask what they were; I didn't feel like talking anymore.

A wet cotton swab was wiped on the inside of my right elbow, then there was a sharp prick when the IV was inserted, and I nervously stared up at the panel right above me, waiting for the chemicals to take effect. "Focus on that earliest memory," my doctor said. "Try to remember everything clearly—sights, smells, sounds, feelings, thoughts. The machine will do the rest…I hope."

Bright lights burst out all around my head, but my eyes closed by themselves before he even finished speaking, his voice suddenly becoming muffled and far off as my mind drifted away from the white room.

I blinked at the long, quiet, hallway in front of me. A crystal chandelier hung above me, countless bulbs already lit, although it was daytime. The tall wooden double doors, towering over my tiny self, of the library were to my right. Feeling confused for a moment, I glanced behind myself, looking down the ornate hall, watching a maid come into view and disappear almost immediately as she strode through an intersecting hallway.

Turning back the way I had been facing initially, I shot off across the dark wood floor covered in a thick red carpet that muffled the light steps of my stocking feet. I tightly clutched my box of colorful pencils that Gui Wen had given me, and a picture I had drawn that morning in the library. I wanted to show it to Father. He was always so grumpy, perhaps my drawing would cheer him up.

Trotting along, I hurried down the hall, turning corners at random and peeking into every unlocked room I came across, and I finally found him. He was in Grandfather's office. I scurried through the door, waving my drawing around over my head. "Father!" Coming to a stop beside his leg, I tilted my head back to smile up at him as I gulped down air, worn out after so much running.

He didn't seem to have heard me, so I lightly patted the drawing on his elbow, trying to get his attention. "Father, look. Fa-a-ather. Father, I drew a picture! Look! FATHER, LOOK AT WHAT I DREW!"

"Kuo Li, answer him," Grandfather tiredly ordered from the other side of the desk.

"I am busy," he snapped in return.

"Too busy to spend a second looking at the boy's damned picture?"

"Yes."

I frowned in disappointment, but then ran around the desk to show Grandfather instead. "Look!" I repeated, extending the paper, determined to show it to someone.

He gave it a glance and mumbled, "Yes, it is very nice," then looked back at whatever was on top of his desk, which I was absolutely sure was not anywhere near as interesting as my drawing.

"It's a flower!" I explained. "The ones that grow outside the library windows! Gui Wen told me they're called kersplantie-mims!"

"Chrysanthemums," he corrected.

"Right! Chrysmantie-mims! But, but, um, those are pink, and I made this one blue, but it's still that flower! See‽ I put on a caterpillar, too! But there wasn't a caterpillar! Just a bee! But I like caterpillars more than bees, so there's no bee!

"Gui Wen said bees are good for flowers, but I don't think so, because they'll sting you and it hurts! Last week, one flew into the dining room somehow during breakfast, and, and it was _thi-i-i-is_ big!" I spread my arms wide to show him how monstrously huge the bee had been.

Grandfather gave me another glance and mumbled, "How dreadful."

"It started chasing me, but I got up and ran away around and around the table, and then Gui Wen, he took off his slipper and was trying to squish it and save me, but it kept following me anyway, and it stung my arm, and then my arm hurt all day long!" I inhaled deeply, feeling somewhat light-headed after I finished recounting the amazing tale of Gui Wen's heroics at the breakfast table.

"So that was why you two kept screaming that morning…You were so loud, I could hear you all the way from in here." He began to shift things around on his desk. "Kuo Li, where is that progress report on the new branch?"

A paper was brusquely thrown at him.

"Oh. There it is."

"Wanna see where I got stung?"

"No." After his refusal, he quickly became absorbed in that boring stuff he was looking at.

Very annoyed that no one was paying attention to me, or complimenting my drawing, or sympathizing with my horrible bee sting, I ran back around the desk and lifted the paper to Father a second time, remembering that showing him my drawing was why I had come in here in the first place. "Look at what I drew!"

"Go away," he coldly commanded.

"But I want you to see!" I insisted. "Please?" He turned to me at last, but my happiness that he had finally looked and my hope that he would praise me was immediately replaced by fear as I saw his face was not filled with interest, but anger.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" he bellowed, snatching away my paper and crumpling it up.

Out of shock from suddenly getting yelled at and sadness that my drawing was ruined, hot tears started to spill down my face when I saw him throw it in the waste bin. "Y-you bro-broke my picture!" I was so upset that I barely noticed when he took away my pencils, too.

"Where did you get these‽" he furiously demanded.

"G-Gui…Gui Wen g-gave the-them to me," I sobbed. Why was he so angry? What did I do wrong? I just wanted him to see my picture.

"Liar," he snapped, abruptly throwing them at the wall. I gasped in surprise at the unexpected movement, and began to cry harder. The pencils all fell out of their box and dropped to the floor, clattering onto the bare wood as they rolled around. "I have told you time after time not to touch any of my son's things, you idiot!"

"Kuo Li, for goodness sake, calm down," Grandfather reprimanded, but didn't get up to intervene. "Gui Wen probably _did_ give them to him. You know he loves to dote on Zian."

Rather than replying, he roughly grabbed my arm and I squealed in pain when he began to drag me across the room. "GET OUT!" he yelled, throwing me out of the room so hard that I hit the door on the other side of the hall, my right eye narrowly missing the doorknob. My forehead hit it instead and began to bleed. The door to the office slammed shut, Father's angry shouts still filling the air. Grandfather soon yelled something as well, there was the sound of shattering glass, and then abrupt silence. I stayed there on the floor for several minutes, simply crying out of pain, fear, and utter shock; Father had never hurt me before. He had yelled a lot, but he'd never hit me or anything. In fact, I often noticed that he went out of his way to avoid touching me at all.

Finally, I managed to shakily get to my feet and slowly walked away, gradually gathering speed until I was running as fast as I could. Bursting into Gui Wen's rooms, I hurried to his bedroom door and threw it open, screaming his name at the top of my lungs and belatedly hoping he was actually inside.

Gui Wen sat up, alarmed, from the spot where he'd been laying on his bed, reading a book and eating crackers. Immediately jumping off the bed, he ran toward me. "What happened?" he worriedly asked. I latched onto my brother and wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could, hugging him as if my life depended on it.

In my hysterics I couldn't say anything coherent, so he half dragged, half carried me to his bathroom, and wet a washcloth, pressing it to the cut on my forehead and telling me I was going to be okay. With some difficulty, since I wouldn't let go of him, he managed to get a box of bandaids out of a drawer, and stuck a bright blue one on my cut.

Eventually, I managed to calm down, though I still gave a dry sob here and there.

"What happened?" he repeated. "Did you run into a closed door again?"

"No," I denied at once, shaking my head very hard, but stopped because it hurt a lot.

"Oh. Did you fall down the stairs again?"

"No!"

"Hit your head on a table? Again?"

"No-o-o!" I wailed in frustration. "Father threw me at a doorknob! I was trying to show him a picture I drew! But he made it crumply and put it in the garbage! And he took away the coloring pencils you gave me, too! Now they're all over the floor!"

Rather than the sympathy I was looking for, Gui Wen's face darkened with apparent disbelief. "Father wouldn't do that. Stop lying."

"He _did_!" I insisted furiously. "I'm not lying!"

"He did not!"

"HE DID!" I took Gui Wen's hand and pulled him out of the bathroom, dragging him to the hallway and back to Grandfather's office. "Ask him!" I challenged, glaring at Gui Wen.

He glared right back, then opened the door and confidently strode up to Father. Unlike when I had entered the room, Father immediately turned and looked down, smiling fondly. I bit my lip and somewhere inside me, a volcano of rage erupted, sending rivers of jealousy—levels my four-year-old mind could barely comprehend—coursing through my veins as I watched the pair from the doorway. I wanted to go inside, but didn't, knowing Father would be angrier if I disobeyed his order for me to stay out of the room.

"Gui Wen, what is it?" he quietly asked. "I am busy."

"Zian says you threw him," Gui Wen irritably said. "He's lying, right?"

A tiny glance was sent in my direction. The slight turn allowed me to see the thin cut—obviously fresh, but not bleeding anymore—stretching from his left cheek to his chin. One of the three pretty glass animal figurines that decorated Grandfather's desk was gone. "Of course I did not throw him," Father denied. "He probably fell down the stairs again. You know how clumsy he is, always bumping into things and tripping."

Not understanding at all why Father said he didn't, I watched in hopelessness when Gui Wen smiled in relief, taking him at his word. "Gui Wen, I'm not lying," I whispered, but he simply gave me another angry look. Becoming frantic, I gave a searching look around the floor for evidence of his actions. "The…the pencils…" The pencils and the box were all gone, as was probably my ruined drawing. I started to cry again and shouted, "HE REALLY DID!"

"Stop telling my son lies," Father ordered harshly, turning back to the desk. "Please leave, Gui Wen. I have quite a bit of work to do."

"Yes, Father." Gui Wen brushed past me and left the office, shutting the door behind himself. Another mumble of "Liar," came from his mouth as he stomped away.

"_Zian._"

I followed him a short distance down the hallway. "Gui Wen, I'm really not!" I pleaded, but he didn't stop. "…Why won't you believe me?" A coldness filled my stomach as I watched him disappear around the corner, refusing to accept that I was telling the truth, although he always had before.

"_Zian._"

Turning around, I slowly walked in the other direction, toward the guest wing where my own bedroom was, on the opposite side of the house from the rest of the family's. The hallway was blurred and barely visible through the miserable tears running down my face. Pausing a moment, I lifted a hand to my forehead and furiously tore off the blue bandage Gui Wen had given me. I threw it on the floor, then walked on again, feeling the angriest and loneliest I ever had.

"_Zian!_"

The hallway of my father's house faded away into blackness, and I felt someone shaking me. My eyes flying open, I stared up at the curious face of my doctor. "Hmm," he hummed, wiping a tissue over my wet face, "that must have been some memory. Did it work? Everything come out clear?"

"Clearer than I would have preferred," I gasped, gritting my teeth as the deep-seeded misery from twenty years ago pulled me downward. The doctor handed me another tissue, and I pressed my face into it. "A perfect replay," I explained, trying my hardest to stem the flow of tears. The first time my father had hurt me, the first time Gui Wen had treated me so coldly, but not the first time I had felt alienated by my own family. That event was something I could have happily gone without reliving.

"Ha-ha! It works. How long was it? You were only under for about a minute before I woke you up."

Taking a shuddering breath, I sat up and gave my face one more wipe. "It felt much longer…fifteen minutes at least."

I was handed another tissue. A frown gave my doctor's elderly face even more wrinkles than usual. "Do you want to stop for today?" he suggested, his gnarly fingers going to the tape holding my IV tube in place. "It looks like you've had quite enough."

"No," I hastily denied. "No…a moment to rest, but I would like to continue, if possible."

A second passed, then he nodded and sat down in the chair.

Leveling my breathing, I stared down at my trembling hands. Although the memory did nothing but hurt me, I couldn't help but be fascinated by how much information the machine had managed to bring out and replay. It was like I had traveled back in time two decades, back to when I was a cheerful—and extremely annoying, I was somewhat embarrassed to discover—little child, the one who had happily spent so much time laughing and playing with Gui Wen. Now that child was barely there anymore. My father had made sure of that.

Several minutes later, I had managed to stop shaking. With an assurance that I was ready to continue, I laid back down. Discussion passed between my doctor and I for a moment, and he started the IV drip again, this time with my focusing on what I could remember from the days just before those lost months.

We spent an hour extracting everything I could recall from those days—nothing at all interesting was replayed, just me working at the office and doing normal, routine things at home—then we moved into July. However, then the headaches started, and although I was determined to go on, it was difficult to concentrate when my head kept pounding. After several attempts, I managed to remember flashes of speaking to my father at the breakfast table, and the inside of an electronics store. The memory was fragmented and somewhat confusing, but it was easy to guess what it was I had bought that day.

Other than the sharp headaches, the only problem was the fact that I kept immediately forgetting what it was I had just remembered, and we had to repeat the process several times before I managed to keep my vague recollections.

Finally, when I decided I couldn't put up with the pounding in my head anymore, I asked to stop. The IV tube was removed and my doctor gathered everything up, then opened the door. "I'll be back in a moment. I need to fetch my schedule," he explained, then hurried out of sight.

Sighing and grimacing at the dull, thudding pain, I slipped off the machine and stood up.

That other doctor was abruptly beside me, and I barely managed to suppress my squeak of surprise at how fast and silently he had moved. He stuck a hand into one of his lab coat pockets, then pulled out an alarmingly large syringe filled with a bright red liquid. "May I inject you with this?" he inquired voraciously. I stared at him in bewilderment and fright, completely unable to answer. "It is not dangerous," he assured, sounding somewhat impatient, "nor is it addictive. I have tested it on myself several times already."

"Wh…what is it?" I quietly asked, wondering if I even wanted to know.

"Oh, a little of this and a little of that."

"That is hardly descriptive."

"It was not meant to be."

I frowned at him. "Well, what does it do?"

"You shall see if you let me inject it." His black eyes narrowed. "I made it with you in mind, you know. You will find it quite useful, I am sure. Also it will allow me to collect more data, which is quite beneficial to me."

"Hey!" my doctor cut in, and I jumped in surprise, not having noticed his approach. "What is that?"

"The euthermic injection I have been making in my spare time," the man airily replied, handing him the syringe for inspection.

"O-o-oh, this handy little mixture…" My doctor nodded in recognition and held the syringe up over his eyes, closely peering at it. "Did you dilute it?"

"Yes, although, for obvious reasons, not nearly as much as I did when I used it on myself."

He nodded again, then handed the needle back. "Mm-hm…It was a disturbing day the first time you used it, seeing you come into the lab, wearing nothing but your underpants."

"A slight miscalculation of the proper dose," the man added snappishly.

The dark tone immediately made my doctor back down, although he still mumbled, "Obviously," then he cleared his throat and told me, "It's not harmful, Zian. In fact, I think you'll like it quite a bit."

I glanced from one expectant stare to the other, curious but afraid of getting injected with some weird concoction made by a weird scientist. After a long pause, I nodded, trusting the judgment of my doctor who had taken care of me for so long. "Okay…go ahead."

The man's eyes widened gleefully behind those lab goggles he was wearing, then he uncapped the terrifyingly huge needle, grabbed my left arm, and jabbed me. I gritted my teeth to avoid letting out a hiss of pain when the spot where the needle had penetrated rapidly began to burn, the raging heat spreading all through my hand and arm, then into my shoulder.

Soon the syringe was empty. He yanked it out and cheerily declared, "Done!"

I wanted to punch him.

But I didn't, instead settling for an angry frown. He roughly patted my cheek. "Now, now, that was not so bad, was it?" Without waiting for an answer, he laughed and turned around, taking that surgical mask off as he disappeared around the door frame and continued to speak as he walked down the hallway. "I shall be expecting a full report from you no later than tomorrow evening, my little lab rat! How you felt, how long it lasted, if there were any negative side effects, et cetera!"

Several seconds ticked by after his voice faded out, then my doctor finally turned to me again. "Call me immediately if anything bad happens. It really isn't dangerous," he hastily added when I stared at him in horror, "but, well, the formula is far from perfect, and given that your body is different, there is a chance that it might not take well."

He could have said that sooner…

"However, I'm sure the doctor took your uniqueness into consideration. He _did_ say he diluted it."

Not feeling very convinced, I simply shook my head and began to put on my coats. Long before we had arrived at the Lin house, I had taken them off again, having become uncomfortably warm. Thus the benefits of the injection boldly presented themselves to me; I wasn't cold. On the contrary, it was rather stuffy in the car, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I stepped out onto the pavement of the circle drive in front of the house. For the first time, I was quite enjoying the cold January air. It felt sort of like I was in _Second Life_, where the weather seemed to always be warm or hot.

My doctor followed me to the door, pressed that remote control thingy to my left shoulder again, then frowned in concern. "Your face is pink. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, but it…it is warm," I marveled, giving a smile. "It feels wonderful, not shivering when I am not wearing my coat and jacket during winter."

He chuckled faintly. "Yeah, I suppose to you it does. I knew you'd like that stuff." Sighing, he stepped away from the door and waved a hand. "Remember, call me if anything happens!" With that, he hopped into the car and it pulled away, presumably not to be seen again until our next appointment, which we scheduled to be in a few days.

I watched the car disappear among the trees surrounding the driveway, then turned and entered the house. I fumbled out of my shoes, then slowly walked upstairs. I blinked several times during the ascension, my head feeling oddly light. The effects of that injection were getting stronger at an alarming rate. Of course it just _had_ to happen _after_ my doctor was gone…

Frowning in worry, I stumbled into my room and went to the closet to put away my coat and jacket. Although my arms were getting very tired simply holding the clothing, I finally managed to get them on their hangers, then went back into the room and sat down heavily on the bed, feeling extremely uncomfortable in the hot room. Breathing unevenly, I glanced at the closed window, but it looked too far away to reach. Even the pull-chain on the ceiling fan seemed too high up for me to be able to grab.

I unsteadily got to my feet and went to my desk, picking up my cellphone. Gasping when panic began to rise, I turned it on and dialed the first number that came to mind.

Eyelids feeling heavy, I stared blankly at the underside of my desk, slowly realizing that at some point I had fallen down. I couldn't move. A faint voice was coming from somewhere, but I couldn't understand what it was saying. Laying there on the wood floor, my awareness slipped away.


	48. By My Side

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Running the palm of my right hand down the thick glass pane of my bedroom window, I stared at the dark stretches of flat grass outside. The moon was blindingly bright in the blackish-blue sky and looked enormous, like if it came any closer it would bump into the roof and knock down the entire castle-like house. Light from the orb spilled into my bedroom and created elongated, twisted shadows that seemed to crawl like nightmarish creatures across the dark wood floor.<p>

Glancing down at my palm, I frowned at the dust and cobwebs that had come off and were clinging to my skin. It had been a long time since the window had been wiped down, a long time since a maid had set foot in here to do any cleaning, a long time since I had been let out of this room. The only time the door opened was when stacks of clean clothes or a tray of food was being delivered. A single hand putting down clothes, taking up the empty trays and replacing them with full ones was the only part of another human that I had seen in several months. My father had locked me in my room before, but never for this long. But never before had he been so angry with me, so I wasn't very surprised that my punishment was so harsh. What had happened was my fault, so I accepted the consequences.

However, the walls of my extravagant prison had long-since started to feel suffocating.

Miserably sighing, I turned from the barred window and walked soundlessly across the room, stepping carefully to avoid the countless pieces of paper I had scattered in a patternless mess all over. My drawings, one of the few things I had to occupy myself with in the monotony. Some were still life of random things laying around—furniture, bottles of things from the bathroom, the bronze chandelier, wood grains in the floor. Others were portraits. Few were of my limited view out the window. Most were surreal—frightening, at times—depictions of things I had seen while asleep, coupled with paragraphs or sentences of everything I could remember from the dream.

After one last jump over a rather crowded part of the floor, I walked out of my bedroom and into the empty outer room. A tray of food that had gone cold was still sitting there from dinner hours and hours ago; they wouldn't come to collect it until morning, never a word of concern or anger at the fact that I barely ever touched any of what had been brought. Common sense kept me from ignoring the meals completely, but I had a water source in the bathroom, and Gui Wen once told me a person could survive for over a month without food as long as they continued to drink plenty of water.

I sat down next to the tray of untouched dishes. While I picked up a bowl of some sort of soup, I stared at the orange-colored light shining under the base of the door, watching to see if any shadows passed by outside. I drank everything in the bowl, the chilled contents tasteless and mushy, then replaced the dish to the spot where it had been on the tray.

The horizontal strip of orange light at the base of my door got a bit brighter. Soon after that, tiny puffs of gray smoke began to slither through the crack. Crinkling my nose at the sudden smell of something burning, I stood and put my hand on the wood door. It felt hot to the touch.

Eyes widening in alarm, I grabbed and twisted the glass knob. The numerous locks—the key lock in the handle, the chain lock near the top of the door frame, and the double cylinder deadbolt slightly above my eye-level—were miraculously undone. The door silently swung open and I stepped out into the deserted hallway filled with clouds of dark smoke and lit by the harsh glare of a deep orange coming from the end of the hall to my left, where the guest rooms were.

I ran in that direction, passing all of the closed doors, then turned right at the first intersection, trying my hardest not to be horrified at the sight of the flames licking away at the wallpaper, causing it to blacken and curl away from the wall underneath. The smoke made it difficult to breathe, but I covered my face with my hands and continued to run through the hallways until I finally made it to my father's rooms.

One glance through the outer door told me his office was completely engulfed in the fire. However, I still went inside, calling and looking for him. It was soon apparent that he wasn't in there, so I left and ran down the hallways again, searching for him and anyone else. But no matter how many doors I opened, no matter how many places I went into, there was no one else in the burning building.

Soon groaning and crashing sounds of the once-beautiful house collapsing joined with the roar of the flames. Eyes stinging with the smoke, I went back to the guest wing, then stumbled down the marble staircase and into the entryway, flames roaring all around me. Dashing to the door, I yanked hard on the handle to go outside to safety. The door wouldn't budge, increasing my panic. Soon giving up on opening it the normal way, I ran over to one of the small tables, shoved the impossibly expensive vase off the top, then grabbed the table and went back to the door, smashing the table into the window.

The glass wouldn't break.

Crying and sobbing, I struck the window with the table over and over, desperate to get outside. The table crumbled and fell apart in my hands as if it had been made of clay. I let the pieces fall from my fingers as I stared out the impenetrable window. A single figure could be seen outside, standing halfway to the gate, bathed in the moonlight and watching the house go up in flames.

Although he was so far away, I could see him clearly. His satisfied smile never faltered.

"_FATHER!_" I screamed, pounding my fists on the window. "_FATHER, HELP ME!_"

His eyes met mine, but he didn't move.

"_LET ME OUT! PLEASE, FATHER!_"

I continued pleading and trying to escape my hellish prison, but nothing was getting me any closer to safety. I inhaled sharply when my father finally moved, but in the wrong direction. His smile stretching further, he turned and began to walk away, ignoring my screams for him not to leave me here.

He disappeared out the gate, and left me to burn.

My final scream was cut short when a huge wave of water came out of nowhere and blasted through the front door, knocking me off my feet and throwing me backward. I fell into the depths of the dark, icy-cold water. Flailing around, I tried to reach the surface, but couldn't. Every attempt at taking air into my lungs was met with failure. Unable to move, unable to breathe, I floated downward, eyes staring into the frozen blackness for what felt like years until the sinking abruptly sped up.

Shuddering from the feeling of falling, I woke to the darkness of nighttime—or perhaps early morning—the low hum of conversation, the heavy weight of my countless blankets, and the warm press of someone laying beside me on my large bed. Although my head was, for some reason, underneath a pillow, I could tell from the cologne that it was Heng. That thought comforted me quite a bit after my nightmare, and I sighed, using all that was left of my drained strength to scoot closer to him, hoping to be able to pass it off as moving around in my sleep.

The voices speaking elsewhere in the room didn't stop, but his face suddenly peeked underneath the edge of the pillow, completely ruining any chance of pretending I was still asleep. He smiled in relief. "Hey," he whispered.

I grunted sleepily in reply.

"Dib, is the troublesome Twig awake?" Delun demanded, loud footsteps stomping over to Heng's side of the bed. I hoped my wakefulness would remain hidden, but Heng unhelpfully told him that I was. "It's about time," he huffed. "Dig him out and get him changed, would you? I'll go get him some dinner."

"No-o-o…" I weakly denied the offer of food, wondering if he would even be able to hear me.

"Don't 'no-o-o' me!" he snapped. "You've been unconscious since yesterday afternoon. You've got to eat something!"

"No," I repeated as firmly as I could, clutching tightly at the pillow and the top blanket, just in case they were going to be taken away.

The edge of the pillow was lifted up and Heng stared sternly at me. "Come on, Al. Wei Bo's right; you've gotta eat. I bet the cook can make you some really thin soup, so it won't even be like you're eating! It'll be like drinking soup-flavored tea!"

Frowning sulkily at him, I closed my eyes and mumbled, "Fine."

"Why the hell are you the only one who can ever get him to eat‽" Delun stormed in his usual display of harsh, bad-tempered concern. Without waiting for an answer, he noisily left the room. The main reason was that Delun could be stopped by Jiao or Chen. If ever he started bothering me about something or another, I often told the women he was bullying me and they would come to my rescue. Heng, on the other hand, would bother me nonstop until I gave in.

Plus, well, it was _Heng_ telling me to do it.

The room got quiet for a while, then Heng leaned toward me. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore…tired." My eyes cracked open and I frowned again, this time with discontent. "Sticky." Wriggling around, I managed to get to the edge of the bed, then laboriously sat up with Heng's help. "Would you get me some fresh pajamas?" I asked, still feeling weirdly warm, though I wasn't under my blankets.

Heng quickly slipped off the bed and hurried to my dresser. "Wanna change your sheets, too?"

"That would be nice." I yawned and bent forward, resting my forehead on my hands, staring down at my bare stomach through the rumpled halves of my damp and unbuttoned top.

Only a few seconds later, Heng was back, a new set of clothes draped over his arm. "Looks like you aren't too soggy this time," he remarked when I slipped off my shirt and traded it for the clean one. "You were dripping sweat all over the place yesterday when they found you…it was awful. But your doctor gave you an injection. It lowered your temperature a lot, though you didn't wake up." He fell silent while I finished dressing, then he slipped a hand onto my forehead. "You're still warm."

"Mm…colder than earlier."

"Not as cold as usual." He gave a shaky, somewhat nervous breath, then started gathering up my blankets, tightly wrapping them all around me. When all that was left on the bed was the sheets, he gently picked me up and turned to put me somewhere out of the way. However, he stepped on a blanket that was dangling down and promptly tripped, throwing me to the floor.

"Heng!" I exclaimed in surprise.

"Sorry!" he wailed, crawling over to me to set me upright, since he had me wrapped up so tightly I couldn't move. He propped me up next to my closet door, against the protruding corner of the wall. "Didn't mean to drop you. You're a lot heavier than I expected, geeze…Are you okay?"

I nodded—the millions of blankets had cushioned my fall—and leaned back. I was going to watch him strip my bed of its sheets, but instead my eyes were drawn to the figure sitting quietly by my desk, drumming his fingers on top of a book that was set on one of his knees. He smiled faintly when he noticed that I'd noticed him. Blinking groggily, I looked back to Heng, who was unconcernedly rummaging around in the drawers built underneath my window seat, where extra bedding was kept.

"Is my fever causing hallucinations, or is my secretary sitting at my desk?" I asked in bewilderment. Why would Fu Han be here? I had called in sick yesterday—a lie that had unfortunately come true—so it wasn't like he would be wondering where I was. Whatever his reason, I didn't want him here. Heng was here, which was an obvious problem, and also I was very determined to keep my relationship with Fu Han strictly professional, except perhaps a few casual conversations here and there. Making house calls to your sick boss was not something I would put in the "strictly professional relationship" category.

I had already made a big mistake befriending one employee. I wasn't going to do it again.

Heng straightened, fresh sheets and pillow cases piled in his arms, and he glanced between me and the man. Worry slipped over his face as his eyes came to a rest on me. "…What are you talking about?"

Feeling somewhat panicky that I was apparently so sick that I was seeing things, I stared in horror at the very believable Fu Han hallucination. His eyebrows lowered in an annoyed way, and he turned to Heng. "Quit pretending I'm not here."

Heng didn't reply for a moment, then chuckled and went back to the bed. "No, Al, you're not hallucinating. Your fever isn't _that_ high anymore. I told you your doctor lowered it."

Glaring angrily at him while he began to put on the new sheets, I wriggled my feet around until I managed to get one of my socks off and loosened the cocoon of blankets enough to move one leg around. Using my toes, I threw the sock at him as hard as I could. It didn't land anywhere near him, but he still noticed, giving me an amused glance as he worked.

That damn brat.

Once the bed was neatly covered in the fresh sheets and the pillows had new cases, Heng gathered up the sweaty bedding, my discarded pajamas, and the sock. He reached down and stole my other sock, then hurried out of the room, saying he was going to "be a nice little maid and take everything to the laundry room."

Now that Fu Han and I were alone, I looked at him again and narrowed my eyes. "Why are you here?"

He sighed, leaned back in my office chair, and set the book he'd been holding on top of my desk, casually crossing his arms afterward. "Zongcai sent me. He was pretty annoyed that you took a sick day without his permission and thought perhaps you were pretending. It's obvious you weren't, though."

Breathing accelerating, I felt twinges of fear as he spoke. "You are in contact with my father?"

"Of course." Fu Han smiled again. "He's been asking me to keep tabs on you ever since he made me your secretary." Eyes sliding to the open door, he made a disapproving noise. "Zongcai definitely wouldn't be happy if he heard that you're still in contact with Shi Heng."

If I could have stood up and attacked him, I would have, but my legs—not to mention the rest of me—were far too weak, so I settled for giving Fu Han a murderous glower. "If you dare to do anything at all to Heng, I swear I…I will…Well, I do not know what I will do, but I will be very angry!" I felt a bit embarrassed that my feverish brain couldn't think of anything to threaten him with.

"Hey, wait," he cut in, frowning. "I didn't say I would actually tell him."

"Not directly, but you implied it!" I snarled furiously.

"I did not," he denied at once. "It was simply a remark about how much he dislikes Heng. He complained obsessively about the guy when he was speaking to me about my selection as your secretary, giving me threats right and left that I shouldn't do this or that or other things—I can't even remember everything he said, he was talking so much. Anyway, on the surface I am your employee and nothing else. But Zongcai ordered me to report any 'suspicious activity' or people around you that 'shouldn't be there.' So I guess I'm supposed to spy on you for him, too. However!" he loudly added when I opened my mouth. "The only thing I will tell him is that you're sick."

"You expect me to believe that‽"

"The most important thing to me in all of this mess is keeping my job," he quietly told me, patient but angry. "I'm not going to involve myself in the feud between you and Zongcai. Believe me or not, that's your choice, but I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize my own position, and that includes not wanting to put you and I at odds. Of course, that also means I don't want to get on the wrong side of Zongcai, but I'm not going to tell him anything that I think is unnecessary. Personally, I don't care what you do and who you hang out with; you and Heng can continue being gay lovers, as long as it doesn't effect your work."

It took all of my control not to let my face flush with embarrassment at what he had said. "It will be impossible to be on both my father's side and mine if he asks about Heng directly," I pointed out. "And for your information, Heng and I are simply best friends."

Fu Han looked slightly amused at my denial. "You don't have to hide it. I'm not prejudice. Just don't hit on me, okay? It would be a hassle to file a sexual harassment report."

"LIKE HELL I WOULD EVER DO THAT!"

"Good. Now then, if Zongcai asks about Heng directly, I'll tell him the truth—there were several people here when I came to look in on you, but didn't stay for long enough to ask for all of their names. You're the one who let it slip just now. Everyone else was calling him 'Dib.' Oh, and by the way, your fiancée was in here for a few minutes, too, and she didn't look mad at all when she saw you two were snuggling. As a piece of friendly advice, you might want to be concerned about that reaction."

"WE WERE NOT _SNUGGLING_!"

"Yeah, right."

"And I would not have said his name had I known you were here!"

"Well, that's your fault for being unobservant. It wasn't like I was hiding. But anyway, I'll leave that little bit about Heng out of my report and simply tell Zongcai there were 'several people.' If he asks for specifics, I'll tell him the only one I recognized was your brother-in-law, and that no one else seemed out of place. Satisfied?"

"Not at all, you traitor," I grumbled, struggling to stand up. "Although I admit I am relieved that it seems you are not completely awful."

"Oh, thanks." He gave me an unjustified dirty look, watching silently while I nearly fell over several times on my way to the bed. Rather than putting the blankets back on first, I simply flopped myself down and wriggled to the middle of the mattress, burying myself in the fluffy coverings and rolling onto my back, feeling tired from the movement.

Fu Han stood and walked to where my head was poking out of the blankets, and stared down at me while I pulled a pillow over to myself. "Why did he make you my secretary?" I asked, glowering up at his ever-serious face. "I thought you had done it all on your own."

Fu Han had only been hired in November, so it wasn't like he'd had much time to prove his work abilities, although as his manager the professional difference between him and my other nine employees was obvious to me almost from the start. But unless my father had been keeping close watch on Accounting, which I hadn't thought he had, he wouldn't have known about Fu Han's seriousness and hard work.

Plus my father had always seen all of the company's employees on the lower levels of the hierarchy as little more than insects that were barely even worth the space they were taking up, so it was even more unbelievable that he'd actually thought it was worth his time to speak face-to-face with Fu Han, and about something so important.

Well, it was important in my father's opinion.

"Of course I didn't do it all by myself," he blandly told me. "It was your father's choice, and as for his reasons, I didn't ask. Zongcai called me to his office one day and told me he made me your secretary. That's all."

Not feeling satisfied with that explanation, I sighed and rubbed at my face, wondering if I should bother to ask my father about it. He'd probably just tell me to shut up. As usual.

"Well, now that I've seen you're not playing hooky, I'll be going," Fu Han announced. "I left a folder of work papers on your desk. Go through them if you feel like it."

"Ah, wait," I called when he turned to leave. He paused and looked down again. "On the shelf in my closet there is a brown shoe box. Would you get it for me, please?"

With a nod, he strode out of my sight, and not two seconds later I heard my closet door open and the light click on. There was another click and the door shut again soon after, and he reappeared, the box in hand. "Is this it?"

"Yes, thank you." I took it from him and set it down beside me.

He gave me a short bow. "I hope you feel better soon, Jingli. Bye."

"Goodbye." I waited until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, then rolled over onto my left side and slid the top off of the box. Inserting a hand, I pulled out a wrinkly piece of paper and slowly unfolded it, staring at the green, blue, and yellow forest glade I had drawn during those dismal months I often dreamed about, when I'd been locked in my bedroom directly after Gui Wen ran away from home. I honestly couldn't blame my father for not wanting to see me so much that he would shut me away. It wasn't like I completely agreed with his extreme actions, but a part of me still felt like I deserved the punishment.

I had been shut in there for half a year before he had finally let me out. But then, I had become so accustomed to being in my room, I rarely left after that anyway. It wasn't like there was anywhere else in that prison of a house that was better. My cage had simply gotten a bit bigger when he'd started leaving the door unlocked. Even bigger when he'd finally let me leave the house for university. And bigger still when he sent me here to the Lin estate. But all the while, even now that I wasn't living with him anymore, I was still feeling the tug of the leash he had attached to me.

_"He thinks he can still control you even if you are not physically nearby."_ That weird doctor from yesterday had been absolutely correct. The knowledge that there was someone who knew him so well unsettled me.

"What's that?"

Jumping in surprise at the unexpected voice that came from right beside me, I frantically crumpled up the drawing and threw it back in the box, smacking the lid down on it, so Heng wouldn't see. "Nothing," I replied hastily, hoping he wasn't going to ask anything more. It wasn't like the forest glade picture in particular was personal and secret or anything, but there were a lot of things in the box that I didn't want anyone to look at.

"If it was nothing, I don't think you'd be so quick at hiding it…but whatever." The mattress dipped when Heng sat down, smiling as he lifted up a hand to pat my head. "Your hair is sticking up all over the place," he murmured, chuckling. "I brought your dinner. Everyone else was gonna come eat with you, but they don't wanna catch your germs, I guess, so they're all downstairs."

"I'm not contagious," I denied, carefully pushing the box along with myself when Heng started sliding me across the bed, so I could sit up against the headboard and eat. He gave me a confused look while I arranged my pillows. "I'm not sick."

"You look sick to me." He put a small wooden tray with legs over my lap. A steaming bowl of some sort of greenish soup was sitting on top. I briefly thought about complaining that it was full of cooked vegetables, which I hated, and it wasn't the "soup-flavored tea" he had promised, but decided to simply eat it.

"I'm not sick," I repeated, picking up the spoon.

"Your secretary said you called in sick."

"I did, but I wasn't sick, and I'm still not."

Heng's eyes went wide. "What were you doing yesterday, then? The house staff said you went somewhere with your doctor for a couple hours."

Evasively looking away from his curious expression, I leaned forward to eat a spoonful. "I don't want to say," I mumbled guardedly.

With a sigh, he shrugged a little and looked toward the door. "I don't like that guy…Wang Fu Han."

Swallowing the hot soup, I glanced between Heng and my bowl. "Why not? He's quite competent." A very nice secretary, if I ignored the fact that he was my father's spy.

"I know," Heng grumbled. "You've said so…I just don't really…like him for…a lot of reasons. Plus he kept giving me weird looks earlier while you were still asleep."

My hand paused, spoon hovering above the soup's surface as I replayed the things Fu Han had said. "Is it really so hard for you to guess what he found strange about your behavior? You were in bed with me."

Heng's face abruptly flushed a deep red. "I—I was just…I…! WEI BO DOES THAT, TOO! AND THE GIRLS! I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING WEIRD!"

"No, you weren't. We often all lay around on each other's beds. But Wang Fu Han doesn't know about that. It probably wouldn't have been odd to him if you had been simply sitting on the edge rather than laying down."

"Well, so-o-orry for getting comfy!" he huffed, looking very embarrassed. While he continued to grumble and complain under his breath, I laughed inwardly and returned my attention to my soup. Before I had even told Heng about Fu Han last month, I had a suspicion that he wasn't going to like him. And, confirming my suspicions, when I had mentioned him for the first time, Heng had looked a bit annoyed. Now, however, he obviously wasn't trying at all to hide his agitation after having met my secretary in person.

Heng's reaction was troublesome, but I was feeling happy that he was jealous.

Not that I would ever admit it verbally.

Lifting my bowl, I drank down the remainder of the hot soup and set the bowl back on the tray after, sticking the spoon inside and sighing, feeling quite a bit better now that my stomach was full. I had never really noticed in the past, but now that I was used to eating at regular intervals, the warning signs of hunger were much more apparent.

Heng produced a blue gel capsule out of somewhere. "Medicine," he explained.

"I told you I'm not sick," I reminded tiredly. "I don't need it."

"Al," he scolded, "you collapsed yesterday with a fever of a gazillion degrees. It was so bad that you even stopped _breathing_. You can't expect me to believe that you're really not sick, so quit being stubborn."

"I'm not sick!" I snapped, glaring at him as he put the pill down on my dinner tray. I was tempted to pick up the pill and throw it at him, but I quelled the urge by tightly crossing my arms. "I'm perfectly healthy! I simply got shoved into a little situation yesterday, which caused my fever!"

"What situation?" he asked skeptically.

"It was…" I paused, wondering if I was allowed to say. The other doctor hadn't told me I wasn't allowed to talk about the stuff he'd injected me with, but also he and my own doctor were very secretive about a lot of weird things, so I didn't know if the order to hold my silence had simply been implied. "I don't know if I should say," I admitted after a moment. "It might be a secret."

His eyes widened a little. "What, did your doctor do something weird to you that everyone isn't 'authorized' to talk about?"

"No, _he_ didn't," I evasively corrected.

"Someone else did?" Unfortunately, Heng caught on immediately.

"Yes, but my doctor told me it wasn't dangerous," I grumbled, mentally trying to figure out some way to change the subject. "He was wrong, obviously, but it's already wearing off. I'll be fine by tomorrow, I'm sure."

Heng used one finger to poke the gel capsule closer to me. "Well, I'd still feel better if you took this."

Sighing in defeat, I picked up the pill, grabbed the glass of water that was sitting on my beside table, and downed the medicine. It wasn't like I was going to overdose with one pill, plus this would probably help me sleep, and it would relieve a bit of Heng's worry, so whatever. I didn't have the energy to argue with him.

Pushing the dinner tray away from myself, I slipped out from under the blankets and got off the bed, wandering into the bathroom to use the toilet before I went back to sleep. By the time I went back into the bedroom, Heng had managed to do a halfway decent job of putting my blankets back the way they were supposed to be. However, my gratefulness was lost when I saw he was holding a piece of paper that had been in my now-open shoe box of drawings. He gave me a curious look. "This is nice. When did you draw it?"

Gasping in horror, I immediately hurried forward as fast as I could and snatched the drawing away from him, clutching it tightly to myself. "Don't look!"

He frowned in annoyance. "What's wrong with looking‽ It's just a piano…and an aloof little diary thingy saying how 'bothersome and tedious' you thought your piano lessons were." Interest regained its hold on his face as he removed an old sketch book from the box and flipped it open to the first page. Eyes going wide with terror, I moved to take it away from him, but he rolled away over the bed. "Too slow."

"Give that back!" I yelled, throwing the picture I was holding into the box, then stumbling around the edge of the bed. Heng simply scrambled over the top of my bed again, laughing the whole way and leaving my blankets in a rumpled mess. My head was starting to pound with a headache as I switched directions and resumed my pursuit, face burning with embarrassment. I didn't care that he now knew I hadn't enjoyed my piano lessons, but what if he read some of the more personal things I'd written? That idiot, why was he so annoying?

Shakily sliding to a halt, my feet slipping over the smooth floor, I grabbed at his hand, which he was holding aloft over his head. "GIVE THAT BACK! DON'T READ IT!"

Heng frowned down at me, lifting the sketch book out of my reach when I took a swing at it. "Geeze, why's it so bad if I just look at it a little‽"

"GIVE IT BACK TO ME RIGHT _NOW_!" I glared at Heng with all of the anger I could muster in my sleepy, foggy-minded state.

Rather than obeying, he stared at me for a moment as if he was surprised, and then suddenly burst into laughter again, holding the book even higher when I weakly attempted to snatch it from him. "I don't wanna give it back! I WANNA LOOK AT IT SOME MORE!" he loudly declared, swatting away my hand and running from me again.

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO LOOK!" I screamed, chasing after him.

"TOO BAD, 'CAUSE I ALREADY DID! HA-_HA_! WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO NOW, AL‽"

"SHUT UP AND GIVE ME THE BOOK!" I grabbed his arm, twisting him around. He lost his balance, tripped and fell on top of my bed, yanking me down with him. I landed beside him and finally managed to grab a corner of the thin book. Tugging it toward myself and ignoring the wooziness washing over me, I gave another glare to the still-laughing Heng. Instead of letting me have the book, he effortlessly pulled it out of my grasp and threw it onto the opposite side of the bed, where it fell off the edge and landed on the wooden floor with a soft thud.

"WHY ARE YOU SO IMPOSSIBLE‽" I yelled, punching Heng's shoulder.

"YOU'RE THE IMPOSSIBLE ONE, YOU JERK! I JUST WANTED TO LOOK AT IT!" He grabbed me around the middle and pulled me back onto the blankets when I attempted to slip off the bed to retrieve the book.

"Let go!" I ordered furiously, trying and failing to pry his hands off my waist. I had to hide the book somewhere, so he wouldn't read it.

"I'm not letting go until you agree to let me see what's in the book!"

"No!"

Heng pulled me backward again and pouted up at me. "Please? C'mon, Al! Let me see!"

"I said I don't…" Pausing, I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to blink away the little floaty dots swarming in front of my eyes. The light-headedness had caught up to me, making my vision swim. "Don't look at it."

"Are you okay‽" Heng hastily asked, all of the playfulness gone from his voice when I swayed to one side, catching myself with my right arm. He sat up and took hold of my shoulders, gently laying me down in his place.

"Of course I'm not okay," I huffed, waving my hand at him. Much to my satisfaction, I managed to slap his face. "You brat, making me play cat and mouse games when I'm at such a disadvantage."

"You coulda just let me look at it," he suggested.

Opening my eyes, I stared up at him, shaking my head before flipping onto my stomach to crawl to the head of the bed. "I don't want you to look."

"Did you draw some embarrassing nudes, or something?" His voice sounded annoyingly eager about that option.

"No!" I snapped, giving him a glare as I slipped under the blankets again. He crawled after me and flopped himself down by my side, comfortably rearranging himself. Closing my eyes again, I sighed and tried to relax. "It's just stuff I drew a long time ago…and it's the things I wrote, not the drawings, that I don't want you to see." Frowning in slight embarrassment, I burrowed deeper into the covers and turned on my side to face him, although I kept my eyes closed. "And it's not just you; I'm not comfortable showing them to anyone. So don't look," I firmly repeated yet again.

Sighing, he laughed. "Okay, fine. I understand." Slowly he lifted a hand and drew it over my forehead. It felt nice and cold against my too-warm skin. For some time we silently laid there, and he continued to run his fingers over my face and through my hair. I wanted him to keep touching me, but at the same time a little voice in my head was telling me to make him stop when his fingertips brushed over my lips. That little voice was washed away as I tried to imagine what it would feel like if it was his lips that had been on mine. I'd been kissed plenty of times before, but they had always been forced on me. Unwanted advances from unwanted people, and every time I'd had no reaction other than disgust. But if Heng kissed me, I wouldn't have minded at all. Even simply getting touched by his fingers, a certain body part of mine started to react in all the wrong ways.

There was a slight pause in his caresses, then he gently kissed my forehead, and I almost lost the feeble grip I had on my self-control. I was fairly certain the only thing that kept me from grabbing him and tearing all of his clothes off—it was completely the fever's fault, I immediately decided—was the fact that he spoke seconds later. "Al, did you fall asleep?" he whispered, gently prodding my cheek.

"No," I muttered, cracking my eyes open. As if I'd be able to fall asleep while he was petting and kissing me, I inwardly huffed.

"Oh. Well, I was wondering something." His face was serious, so I assumed he wasn't going to bug me about my sketches again, and silently listened. "Yesterday," he slowly began, his cheeks going a bit pink, "why did you…um, how come you called me?"

"Did I?" I mumbled in confusion, not remembering it. "When?"

"Right after your doctor dropped you off, I guess, judging by the timing," he answered. "You called my cell but didn't say anything, so I thought maybe you had done it on accident, and I hung up after a couple minutes. Wei Bo called me a while later and told me a maid had found you in here unconscious on the floor, holding your cell."

Feeling embarrassed to hear that I had called him instead of my doctor, I looked away and shrugged one shoulder. "Well, the negative side effects to the…stuff were coming on really fast. I guess I panicked. I can't remember what happened after I went into my room."

"Panicked and called me first?" He sounded extremely pleased to discover that that was what I had done. I didn't answer, except to stare at him, letting him assume whatever he wanted. He stared at me wordlessly in return, his hand going back to its earlier activities as it trailed through my hair. A hopeful feeling grew in my mind when I wondered if he was thinking the same things I was, and my eyes dropped to his kissable mouth.

Heng's hand suddenly began to tremble and he coughed, his face flushing as he gave my forehead a light pat. "Uhm, well, I'm gonna leave. Go ahead and sleep. You need it."

"Are you looking for another opening to peek into my sketch book?" I questioned half-jokingly, trying very hard to hide my extreme disappointment when he took his hand away and sat up.

He laughed deeply. "No, I'm not. I promise I won't look. I'll put the book back in the box, no peeks."

"Good," I mumbled, closing my eyes.

His hand ghosted across my cheek once more before he climbed off the bed, and I heard him obediently put the book back into the shoe box before picking up the dinner tray and hurrying across the room, turning off the light as he went. "See you later, Al."

I opened one eye and smiled faintly at him through the darkness. "Mm-hm."

Smiling back, he stepped into the hallway and shut the door behind himself, leaving a cold and empty spot next to me and making me feel lonely in the silence. Several minutes passed before I finally gathered together enough energy to crawl out of bed. I grabbed the musky-smelling pillow Heng had been leaning on, and I stood and went to the bathroom, not wanting to try to sleep until I'd taken care of my little problem.


	49. Bloody Meeting

__**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo____

* * *

><p>Dib picked up a large, round, purple grape, popped it into his mouth, and chirped, "One!" Picking up another, he did the same thing with it and added, "Two!" Looking away from him and what used to be my bowl of grapes—I had ordered it for myself, but the bowl had mysteriously inched across the tabletop and had <em>somehow<em> ended up in front of Dib instead—when I had asked about the bowl's relocation, Dib had shook his head and informed me in a completely unbelievable bewildered tone that he had no idea how the bowl had gotten there—I turned to pick up my cup of tea off the table and smiled a little. By the time I looked back at him, his pink cheeks were noticeably chubbier and he was on "Eight!"

I sipped at my tea and shifted myself into a more comfortable position, taking care not to let Dib fall from his perch on the bench he had made out of my legs by propping my feet up on his chair.

It was a graciously calm and slow evening in Infinite City's café. We had come back from Star City, as promised to Yu Lian, around a month after we left, give or take a few days.

Yesterday had been Infinite Band's first performance in their new concert hall. I had left the Lin siblings to mingle with the raucous crowds inside the circular building—Wei Bo had not been happy about that—and had taken Dib and sat way up high on top of the wall, where no one could attack us. The concert was surprisingly good. Better than the first they'd had here in the city's plaza, and better than their concerts in Star City. I'd heard from Gui many horror stories of their travels, but it seemed they'd still managed to improve around all of their problems.

Although, once I had seen the state of the concert crowd, I wondered if they had improved a little too much. There were few people who weren't holding, wearing, waving, whatever-ing some item on which had been printed rather lewd pictures of the band members. Posters, t-shirts, signs, flags, hats, and other such objects adorned a large portion of the audience. Apparently someone—obviously Prince's fangirls, since Gui's picture wasn't on any of the objects, much to my relief—had been creating band merchandise during the tour.

Thankfully, none of my teammates bought any of the merchandise. Then again, I don't know why anyone would have even wanted to. Avila did have a crush on Prince, we all knew, but she told us she was holding out to buy a real-life poster of Prince to hang in her bedroom.

I wondered what her boyfriend thought of that.

"Fifteen!" Dib announced with some difficulty, his grape-filled cheeks far bigger than normal. I had an urge to put my hands on either side of his face and squeeze, so the stolen fruit would all pop out, but I doubted he would be very happy if I interrupted his self-inflicted challenge of seeing how many grapes he could fit in his mouth.

"Wow…" Wei Bo marveled, staring hard at the halfling. "Are you part rodent‽"

Avila gasped. "Oh, it would be so awesome if he were playing as a hamster."

"Cute," Jiū agreed with a nod, "but very inconvenient. Think about how difficult it would be to play as a hamster. Monsters would kill him so easily. And traveling would be a nightmare, with such tiny legs."

"Just imagine if he was a hamster and tried to go to the market. He'd get smashed in seconds." Wei Bo laughed. Dib didn't look like he thought that was very funny. Xiu Chen smacked her husband on the arm and gave him a reproving look. "What?" he demanded huffily. "Even flesh-eating slimes in the newbie villages would be able to completely annihilate a hamster!"

"No way," Avila argued. "Hamsters have sharp little teeth. If Dib was a hamster, he could tear the slime apart with his mouth."

"He couldn't do that. How would Dib open his tiny hamster mouth wide enough to bite a slime? They don't have any corners! And anyway, they're probably poisonous. Who would ever put one in their mouth?"

Dib immediately raised his hand, and everyone looked at him with varying levels of curiosity and disgust.

"You ate a slime? That's so gross!" Xiu Chen exclaimed, crinkling up her nose.

"I ate jus' a lil' bit," Dib told her in muffled tones, holding up two fingers in a pinching gesture while he crammed a twentieth grape into his mouth.

"Even a little bit is revolting," I mumbled into my teacup.

"Et tashted grosh," he agreed, nodding.

"Drool." Jiū tapped a finger on her lower lip.

"Oh, thanksh." Dib wiped his mouth off on the red sleeve of his under-armor shirt.

Sighing deeply at Dib's weirdness, I downed the last of my tea and put the cup back on the table. The conversation about Dib the Hamster took off again, drifting to what sorts of races the others had seen in the character creation room, and which ones looked the most inconvenient to play as. I got my tea refilled and dragged my depleted bowl of grapes back toward myself after Dib stopped trying to fit more into his mouth—he had managed to get to twenty-seven before he choked.

It wasn't until we were almost ready to leave and go to the market that we got interrupted. **"Aeolus!"** Yu Lian's perpetually business-like voice called to me over a private message. **"Where are you?"**

**"The café,"** I reluctantly replied, sighing again and giving my teammates a warning glance when they began to gather up their things. "Yu Lian is messaging me," I grumbled. "Our training plans are most likely about to get ruined."

Wei Bo angrily leaned back in his chair and mumbled a "Dang it."

**"Perfect! I'm right down the street from there, so meet me outside. You don't have to bring your teammates."**

"She says you five aren't needed. Go without me, and I'll catch up later." I lifted Dib off my knees, slid my feet off his chair, and stood, setting him on the floor and feeling annoyed that Yu Lian was already targeting me. Of all the hundreds and hundreds of people in this city, why'd she have to pick on me so much?

"Do you need us to get you anything from the market?" Jiū asked.

"A new bowstring, and twenty health and stamina potions—ten of each," I replied. "I won't have time to make my own if she's going to keep me for a while."

Jiū paused to add those items to her shopping list before we headed downstairs and left the café. While the Lin siblings started off toward the market, Dib hung behind and wrapped himself around my leg. "I wanna stay here."

"It'll probably be boring," I warned.

"I don't care."

"You will later."

"I WANNA STAY!"

"Okay, fine," I snapped. "You don't have to yell."

He chuckled triumphantly and ordered me to pick him up. I quickly placed him on my shoulders and we waited for Yu Lian to arrive. It didn't even take a minute before the magician strode up to us and gave us a greeting, not wasting any time before she got to her point. "I have a favor to ask of you, Aeolus."

"And what is the favor?"

She took my arm and began to pull me down the road, toward the castle. "There's a girl, Windy, at the archery range. I want you to help her shoot a bullseye."

"A bullseye?" I repeated, eyebrows lowering in confusion. "Why are you asking _me_? That one guy, Legolas or whoever, is the one in charge of the archers. And I thought my position as an instructor had only been temporary during the war preparations."

"It was supposed to be temporary, and I did ask him first," Yu Lian admitted, then sighed, "…but he couldn't do it and eventually gave up. He also asked several of the more skilled archers of the city's military forces to help train her, but they all failed."

"If they are unable to help her, what makes you think that I am?"

A small smile found its way onto the magician's face as she turned us down another road, a large and heavily-populated one with the castle at the end. It wasn't one of her usual smiles that made one wonder if she was happily plotting a murder. No, it was a smile of admiration. In a way, it frightened me even more.

"Because!" she began, the bright smile stretching further and exposing her shiny teeth. "I think you would be very suited to this job. The way you taught those warriors before the battle was wonderful." She waved a hand as if she wanted to make her words even more dramatic.

That was _not_ a compliment, although I knew she had meant it as one, but I managed a tiny nod of gratitude, not that I was feeling grateful in the slightest for her praises.

"The cold glares, the commanding yells, the relentless drills…You really drove them to perform at their best. All of those warriors had told me that they'd never shot a bow before, but you managed to get them all to become reasonable archers within a few hours, though it did take extended practice to keep their skills from immediately rusting."

When a person thought their life was in danger, there was a lot they could accomplish. Plus it had helped that they all had focused their attack power on accuracy, not strength, like I assumed most warriors did.

Yu Lian gave me a hearty pat on the shoulder and jovially declared, "All in all, even if I was an archer, I doubt I could have done it better myself!"

I felt thoroughly ashamed of myself for having been so strict. Judging by Dib's gasping laughs, he thought it was extremely amusing. However, I highly doubted that he would have been laughing if he had been one of the people I'd taught.

Sighing deeply, I looked back to Yu Lian. "So, is this some sort of military training? Are you people planning another stupid war?"

"Oh, no, this isn't for military training," Yu Lian corrected, shaking her head. "I just need her to shoot a bullseye."

"…Why?" This was becoming more and more pointless.

Yu Lian hesitated, making me feel suspicious. "It will be…beneficial for the city."

Not feeling at all satisfied with that vague response, I continued to stare at her. Much like my father, I needed reasons for things. Justifiable reasons. If I didn't have them, I saw whatever it was as being unworthy of my time.

Sighing through her nose, Yu Lian shrugged in surrender. "Her teammate, Starlight, told White–"

"I refuse, please get someone else," I interrupted immediately upon hearing that name, and came to a stop. Dib's arms suddenly flew around my head and gave it a squeeze so strong it was painful, as if he was afraid someone was going to run up and tear him away from me. I had no idea what sort of person Windy was, but if she was a teammate of that maniac, I wanted nothing to do with her. And for all I knew, Windy was also a member of that support group, which made me want to associate with her even less.

A glare was the only sign that told me Yu Lian had heard my refusal. She cleared her throat, yanked on my arm, and began to drag me down the road again. "Starlight told White Bird and I that she will join Infinite City's ranks if Windy can shoot a bullseye. Starlight would be a wonderful addition to the city, so I want you to help Windy. And although Windy is a bit of a…a, um, _special_ archer, if there's a chance that she really can hit the middle of the target, I will use every resource I have at my disposal to gain that chance."

"I'm one of your resources?" I flatly asked, suspicion once again rising at the word "special." Just what sort of person couldn't shoot a bullseye when they were; one, an archer; and two, trained for an extended period of time by Legolas and his henchmen?

"Of course!" She waved a hand in the direction of the open door to the walled-in archery training grounds set next to the castle. "Now off you go!"

"I already said I would not," I replied at once.

"Do I have to remind you that I'm your boss?" she snappishly wondered.

"Do I have to remind you that I'm not in the military?" I threw her challenge right back. "I make archery supplies for you. I don't train people. My team and I were going to leave the city again after restocking our supplies, so I suggest that you go find Legolas, who is the one you _should_ be ordering about in this situation."

Yu Lian's hands curled into fists at my stubbornness. "Now see here, Mr. Insubordination! I don't know what sort of high-ranking job you have in real life, or how many people you have to answer to, but here in-game if I tell you to do something then you are obligated to do it, regardless of what your official job is! Now stop talking back to me and just follow orders!"

I gritted my teeth to keep in all of the fierce retorts I wanted to yell at her, but after a moment I realized that I was much more shocked than angry. No one—aside from my father and all of the cranky tutors I'd had during my childhood—had ever bossed me around like this. Naturally, I had gotten used to being able to do basically anything, not answering to anyone. It was extremely irritating, having my right to play _Second_ _Life_ however I wanted taken away by these people and their stupid requests.

However, she _was_ my superior, if only in this game.

_"Leaders give orders, subordinates follow them; it's the way of the world, so you had better get used to it."_ I myself had said that just last month, and I had meant every word. I didn't want to be a hypocritical and unreliable person who would say one thing and do another, so…

Taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I gave Yu Lian a mechanical smile. "Fine. I'll try."

"Good." Her tone was curt as she turned and led me into the training grounds. Nervously I stepped through the doorway after her, not knowing at all what to expect to find. After all, this _was_ a teammate of that insane magician, Starlight. Anyone who put up with her must have also been out of their mind.

The moment I entered the training grounds, I gave bewildered glances to other archers as they ran past me and out the door. One stopped to pat my shoulder and whisper, "Good luck," before he also made his escape. I watched as they all left in a very big hurry. It wasn't like Windy and I needed the whole field, so why were they so hasty to go?

"Whoa! Al, look!" Dib ordered, forcefully turning my head, so I could see whatever it was.

I wished he hadn't.

Further inside, the grassy floor of the training grounds was stained—no, completely _flooded_ with blood, and arrows were everywhere—buried in the grass, in the walls, in people who were too wounded to escape as fast as the others…What the hell kind of sadistic person was Windy that she would do something like this?

Starlight's teammate. A possible member of that support group. A homicidal maniac.

Obviously, she didn't need archery training; she needed to be locked up in the castle dungeons.

Disgust twisted at my face as I took a step back, eyes drifting from the red ground to the hooded and masked archer standing in the middle of all the carnage. I tensed my muscles, preparing to dodge any attacks she might shoot at me with the high-level bow in her hands. Yu Lian acted like nothing at all was wrong—rather, she was probably feeling right at home in such an environment—and hurried toward Windy.

"This is Aeolus," Yu Lian told her. "His teaching skills in archery are superb!"

Windy turned to look at me. "Aeolus? Isn't he Gui?" she asked after a pause, sounding confused.

…When were people going to stop with the damned mix-ups?

I had to take another deep breath, although it couldn't calm me completely. "I'm not Gui Wen," I irritably snapped at her, reluctantly taking one step forward.

"This is scary, Al," Dib whimpered, yanking on my earring before I could go any farther. "Don't teach her! Let's go!"

"I completely agree," I murmured under my breath. However, it seemed that Yu Lian had heard us. She turned and smiled coldly at me before I could follow the paths of the archers who had already run away from the horrifying peril that was Windy. Halting myself, I gave her a pleading look, which she ignored, so I looked at Windy instead, intently watching for any dangerous movement. She simply stared back at me, making me even more uncomfortable. Swallowing hard, I shakily said, "Hello," and waited for a response, but she didn't give me one and continued to keep her eyes on me.

What was she doing? Mentally planning my murder?

The silence went on as Windy and I kept up the inspection of one another. Yu Lian, probably getting tired of the fact that nothing was happening, eventually prodded Windy's arm. "Excuse me, Windy?" The archer made no sign that she'd heard Yu Lian, so she poked her again. "Windy? _Windy_‽"

Windy started. At the sudden movement, I gasped in surprise and grabbed for my bow, yanking it out of my quiver and hastily stringing an arrow. However, instead of the attack I'd been expecting, Windy simply looked at Yu Lian. "Oh, what?" she finally replied, sounding a bit dazed.

"Shouldn't you two get started?" she suggested, smiling faintly. "You've just been standing there for quite some time, after all."

"Yes. Sorry," she said, then fell silent again.

This person apparently wasn't all there in the head.

My eyes widened when I heard a horribly familiar, high-pitched voice from outside. "Windy, there you are!"

There was a great deal of stomping and I whirled around to find that the doorway had been blocked by several women. Women I knew straight away were from the support group. Dib screamed and grabbed my head again. "DON'T LET THEM GET ME!"

"We've been looking for you, Windy!" one explained. "The concert is starting soon. Aren't you coming?"

Much to my dismay, another turned in my and Dib's direction rather than waiting for Windy's response to the question. "Look! Isn't that Aeolus?"

The other two's heads immediately snapped to attention. "Aeolus‽ You mean Gui's brother‽"

Raising my bow, I drew back my arrow and extended my wings, stretching them out to either side and puffing up my feathers in a very bird-ish way to make myself look bigger. "Stay back or I'll shoot!" I warned, pointing my weapon at the nearest woman as I hastily retreated. I hadn't got far before I heard a soft, sickening, wet noise that told me without a look that I had stepped in one of the puddles of blood.

My poor boots.

"Aeolus, what do you think you're doing‽ Lower your bow!" Yu Lian chided.

I sent her a brief look of irritation before locking my eyes on the intruders. "No! It's self-defense! These are some of the people who groundlessly attacked my team after the war! And in Star City as well! We have done nothing to them, yet they keep harassing us!"

"Groundless?" one scoffed as they all hurried forward to stand by Windy, confirming my suspicions that she was one of them.

"Windy, do you know who this person is‽" another of them yelled as she hugged Windy against her while pointing at me. "That guy is a shameless bastard who has his own harem and even tricks little boys! Plus he's a Prince-hater, who tries to kill Prince every time he sees him! He's the worst!"

Furiously baring my teeth at them, I snarled for what had to have been the millionth time, "I'm _not _and I _don't_!"

"Heh! As if anyone would believe a pedophile like you!"

"Pervert!"

"Scum!"

Windy looked at me again. She didn't seem angry like her cohorts, oddly enough, although I couldn't tell for sure given that she was hidden behind that mask. However, I would have thought she would believe them and attack me without any hesitation at all.

"He is even worse than Gui!" the women told her.

"Even worse than Gui?" Windy obviously looked very shocked, then somewhat suspicious as if the women's words were finally starting to sink in.

"Yes! They're both perverts!"

"Al's not a pervert!" Dib angrily yelled at them over the top of my head, then huddled down again, hiding behind me.

They sent him pitying expressions. "You poor boy, you only think that because he's twisted your mind with his horribleness! Come on over here and we'll help you!"

"No way!"

"Yu Lian!" one said, whirling around to face the confused-looking magician. "Why do you let this nasty man stay in the city? I understand that you let Gui stay because he's your teammate, but Aeolus doesn't have any right to be here! Throw him out!"

"Yes, please throw me out!" I agreed before Yu Lian could say anything. I doubted it would work, but I desperately wanted to escape from this horrible situation.

"Not yet!" another denied. "Throw him out _after_ we've dealt with him!"

"No, throw me out now! I'll throw myself out, for that matter!"

"Shut up, you creep!"

"You had this coming, playing with the hearts of those poor women and that poor little boy you've forced to go everywhere with you!"

"_He_ forced _me_ to let him come here!" I hotly corrected. "Stop making such stupid accusations!"

Glares coming from all three faces, they stepped forward. "Hand over the innocent little boy and we'll only kill you once!"

"YU LIAN!" I yelled, drawing back my arrow. "Now would be a nice time for an intervention!"

"Now, ladies, please calm down. You're all very mistaken," she said in a half-scolding, half-soothing tone. **"I've called for the city guards, but it might take them a bit of time to get here. Most of them are guarding the concert hall at the moment,"** she added in a PM to me.

Now that Yu Lian had apparently taken my side over theirs, the trio of fangirls turned away from her in a disgusted way as if she wasn't any use to them anymore. A sword was drawn as another step was taken by all three women. "I said hand over the boy!"

"I refuse!" I took a step back and prepared to fly away with Dib, who was yelling, "No! No! No!" over and over.

"HAND HIM OVER, YOU PERVERTED, SLIMY, HORRIBLE–"

"SHUT UP!" Windy suddenly yelled. Her words, which were unnaturally amplified, exploded throughout the training grounds and I faintly heard Dib scream something that sounded like "OW!" as he let go of my head, probably putting his hands over his ears like I had with mine, though that did nothing to block out Windy's thunderous, deafening voice. Even after the echoing "shut up's" had faded from the air, they continued to repeat in my head for quite a while afterward.

Over a minute later once the worst of the ringing in my ears had stopped, all the women uncovered their own ears and glared at her. "Are you siding with him‽ You traitor!" Her indignant voice was barely audible, although I was sure that normally I would have been able to hear her just fine. I was somewhat surprised that my ears weren't bleeding.

Windy wasn't phased at all. "Weren't you going to the concert hall? If you don't hurry, you will miss the performance."

All their faces paled, and it seemed that in that moment they had completely forgotten about "rescuing" Dib from me. They let out a yell and started running toward the door. "The concert!"

Feeling extremely bewildered, I watched them disappear outside, then gave a guarded look to Windy. She was starting to become an enigma. Wasn't she supposed to be attacking me like the others? Why help me? Or did she simply put Infinite Band's performance at a higher priority than murdering me and kidnapping Dib?

I jumped and raised my bow again when one of the women suddenly came back in, grabbed Windy, said something I couldn't hear, then ran out again as if she'd simply come to collect something she'd forgotten. Regulating my breathing, I watched the doorway, making sure no one else was going to come bursting in, then looked at Yu Lian, wondering if I was allowed to leave.

She looked extremely agitated as she threw me a frown. "You may leave the training grounds for tonight, but don't you dare leave the city. I still need you to help her shoot a bullseye."

Nodding once, I launched Dib and I up into the air, leaving the walled-in archery range and flying off as fast as I could. **"Done for now,"** I announced in alleviation over the team chat. **"But Yu Lian says I'm not allowed to leave the city."**

**"What‽"** Wei Bo snarled. **"What's she want this time?"**

Sighing, I gave a brief explanation of the situation, which caused a chain of groans and grumbles in the other four. I told them to go ahead and train without Dib and I—Dib refused to go if I wasn't going, too—but they reluctantly said they would stay as well. After a brief discussion, we decided to go finally look at our team's chambers in the castle. But first, I flew around until I found a well near the eastern side of the castle.

Dropping down in the grass beside the well, Dib hopped off my back and I gave a glance around to make sure no one was there—I wasn't sure if the well was there for anyone to use or if it was private property—and then began to quickly lower the wooden bucket into the dark depths. Once it was full, I pulled it out and stuck my feet in one by one and swished them around to get the blood off the bottom of my boots.

Dib rolled his eyes while I washed and mumbled, "Neat freak."

Ignoring him, I dumped the dirty water out on the ground, put the bucket back where it had been, then grabbed the halfling and took off, aiming for a window on the third floor of the castle's eastern wing. Jumping through the wide opening, I landed on the stone floor inside and hurried along the spacious, airy corridor until I spotted the fifth door from the end. The other four hadn't arrived yet, so Dib and I sat down on the floor to wait, since Wei Bo was the one with the key.

"So," Dib said, looking somewhat bored as he stared at the wall opposite us, "feeling all better now?"

"Yes." As I had predicted, I had recovered from my fever by the very next morning, and had felt completely normal since then. I had been a bit sore, but other than that, there weren't any lasting problems from that euthermic injection. However, everyone else had been treating me very carefully, as if they all thought I was going to collapse and die at any moment.

"Oh. That's good." He sighed and impatiently drummed his fingers on top of his knees. After a few moments, he slowly scooted himself across the floor until he was pressed up against my side. Grabbing my arm, he lifted it up and draped it around his shoulders like a scarf, and began playing with my fingers.

I inwardly began to panic when he relocated himself to my lap, grabbed my arms, and wrapped them around himself as he leaned back against my stomach. Although I told them not to, my arms tightened comfortably around him.

"So, wha'cha gonna do for Spring Festival?" he curiously asked, tilting his head back to stare up at me.

Shrugging in a somewhat bored manner, I sighed. "My father and I will be visiting my aunt, and I'll be going to a business dinner. The usual. And Chen-mèi's family is visiting the Lin estate at some point, I think."

"O-o-oh," he breathed, then went silent for several seconds before he predictably continued. "Wanna come to my house?"

"I spent the _other_ New Years with you already," I reminded. "And Christmas."

"That was like a million years ago!" he huffed, frowning in annoyance.

"More like a couple weeks."

"SO WHAT‽"

"Don't you have family to visit?" I grumbled, trying to avoid getting dragged around for the whole new year. I knew if I didn't have plans, he would definitely stick to me like glue. On the one hand, that wasn't such a bad idea. But on the other, being around him was making me think things that made me feel extremely guilty.

"Nope," he quietly denied, hugging my arms a bit tighter. "Just friends. Both my parents didn't have siblings and all my grandparents are dead, so I don't have any close relatives. I suppose there's some floating around somewhere, but not anyone I'd go visit for the new year. So-o-o-o!" He smiled brightly and pressed his cheek to the inside of my arm. "I've got lotsa free time! You can come over whenever."

Not knowing how I was supposed to turn him down, I gave a single nod, then put a hand on his head and roughly mussed up his soft golden curls, shoving his head back and forth. As he loudly complained and yelled at me not to do that, swinging his tiny fists at me in a vague and completely nonthreatening way, I smiled and kept at it anyway, using the teasing as a cover to simply be able to touch him.

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><p><em>A big thanks goes to Chicaalterego for letting me use her character, Windy, and also for all of the help she gave me in writing this chapter. :) She and I have spent a very long time working with one another on this, and the chapters that follow. (This crossover project started in September of last year. xD It's been a lot of fun.)<em>

_If you're not already, be sure to go read and follow her story, _Lukewarm Ice_, because it is amazing. Windy's POV of this chapter will be uploaded once Chicaalterego has caught up (given that I already wrote Clockwork before I started this AE and thus already had a lot of these chapters written, I've jumped ahead of her. x_x But she'll catch up eventually, lol.)_


	50. Training a Conundrum

__**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo____

__**Note __– __**__Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)__  
><em>_

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><p>"What did you say‽" Dib demanded, glaring fiercely up at me.<p>

"I said stay here," I repeated for the fifth time, and tried to peel him off my left leg. His tiny arms, their cute appearance hiding the overpowering strength of a warrior, wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled. Sometimes being an archer was so inconvenient.

"WHAT‽" he yelled, although I knew he had heard me perfectly well.

"STAY HERE!" I yelled in return, shaking my leg around in an attempt to jiggle him loose, so I could leave. Tonight was my second—or first?—training session with that crazed archer, Windy, and I had been planning on going by myself. However, Dib had caught me walking out the door of our team chambers, and had announced he was coming, too. However, after the dangerous environment last night, I wanted him to be nowhere near the training grounds.

"WHA-A-AT‽" he screeched, holding on all the tighter when my struggling increased. "I'M COMING, TOO! I WANNA GO! YOU JERK! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME STAY HERE! JERK! JE-E-E-ERK!"

As he continued to be loud and obnoxious, I looked up to the other four, who were all sitting nearby and watching the spectacle unfold, their faces alight with varying levels of amusement. Frowning irritably at them, I pointed down at the halfling. "A little help would be wonderful."

Dib may have been very strong, but I doubted he'd be able to win against Avila and Wei Bo.

When the other two warriors stood, Dib's eyes went wide. A brief second of silence went by, then he looked back up at me, a very pitiful expression on his face. "Please, Al?" he asked in a quavering voice, blinking as large tears fell from his eyes.

He had changed tactics.

Quickly looking away before his adorableness could ensnare me, I stared at the wall in an attempt to fight down the heat creeping across my cheeks. He seemed to know that his cuteness wasn't working either, and he promptly began to throw a fit again. However, Avila and Wei Bo grabbed him and managed to force him off my leg. When they pinned the wailing halfling to the floor, I ran to the bedroom that Dib had proclaimed was his and mine, threw open the door, and dashed to the window, giving one last glance back.

Dib looked absolutely outraged that I was escaping.

But, before I could hesitate any longer and before Dib could break free of the warriors' clutches, I jumped out the window and spread my wings. I made my way around the edge of the castle and glided toward the sectioned training grounds, giving a few good flaps to carry me over the stone walls surrounding the archery range. One glance told me the range was deserted. Everyone who usually practiced here was probably too terrified of getting shot by Windy again and had decided to stay away during our "classes."

Pulling in my wings, I dropped to the short-cropped grass—I was very relieved to see the lakes of blood from yesterday were all gone—and sighed, trying very hard to ignore the angry PMs that Dib was throwing at me for leaving him behind. Perhaps after practice I would make a stop at Infinite City's bakery and buy him his favorite blueberry pie as an apology. But that thought grew fainter the longer he yelled at me.

Eventually I opened the system window and turned off my messages, giving lovely silence to the inside of my head when Dib's threats and insults were abruptly snuffed as he yelled a snippy premature finish of **"AND THEN I'LL CHOP–!"**

As I had arrived a few minutes early and had nothing better to do, I wandered over to the white line painted on the grass that marked where archers were supposed to stand to shoot at the targets. Pulling out my longbow and a few arrows, I fitted one onto the taunt string and pulled it back.

The arrow went in completely the wrong direction when Dib's voice suddenly exploded inside my head again, making me jump in surprise. **"STUPID AL! WHY DID YOU BLOCK MY MESSAGES‽"** he wailed dejectedly over the team chat, which I had forgotten to turn off along with my private messages.

**"Oh, leave me alone,"** I grumbled irritably. **"If you need me for something, wait until I'm done with practice."** That being said, I quickly shut off all methods of communication—aside from the public chat—and went to fetch my clumsily-shot arrow from the spot it had landed, several meters away from the target, buried head-first in the grass.

Going back to the line, I fitted the arrow on the string a second time. Letting it go, I watched it neatly slice through the air and hit the second-to-middle circle on the closest target. Out of boredom, I lazily shot the rest of the arrows I was holding, making a patternless mess on the center red spot.

With a glance at the range's entrance, I walked over to the target and retrieved my arrows, then walked back to the line and put everything away as I continued to reluctantly wait for my bloodthirsty student to arrive. The urge to fly away and simply leave the city was very tempting, but the thought of what Yu Lian would do to me if I left was dreadful enough to make me obediently stay put.

A quick look at the system's clock told me that Windy was two minutes late for our practice. Rather than feeling annoyed that she wasn't punctual, I was a bit relieved, and scenarios about how she couldn't come began to pop up in my mind, filling me with hope that she wasn't going to come at all. But then all of those hopes were smashed to tiny pieces when my unwanted student ran through the door, six minutes late and gasping for air as if she had ran here from the other side of the city.

Damn.

"Sorry…for…being late," she wheezed after a moment.

I nodded once, silently waiting for her to recover from her journey from wherever she'd come. I thought about berating her for her tardiness, but didn't bother. I wanted to get this lesson over with as fast as possible, and any berating would only waste time we could have used for something else.

That and I didn't want her to get angry and try to kill me. After witnessing the bloody aftermath of her practice session last night, I definitely didn't want to get on her bad side, for fear of being ripped to shreds for the sake of protecting Prince, or protecting the city's women, or protecting the city's innocent children—all of whom she probably assumed I was planning on molesting—or whatever other idiotic thing she and the support group were saying about me.

After a long moment of silence, Windy suddenly began glaring at me for no apparent reason, which swirled up all of my suspicions that she was about to murder me. Automatically flinching, I pulled out my bow and an arrow, just in case she was planning to attack. I assumed I could hold my ground long enough to fly away and escape, even if she shot me.

However, much to my surprise, Windy didn't pull out her own bow. The angry expression faded from what I could see of her masked face, and her head tilted slightly to one side as if she was pondering something, deep in thought. Even with the less-threatening demeanor, I didn't lower my bow. She might have simply been luring me into abandoning my defenses, after all.

Several minutes passed, and the only thing that happened was that she took a step back.

I finally relaxed a little, lowering my bow enough not to be completely dangerous, but high enough that I could still raise it and defend myself in a timely manner, if necessary. Still, Windy didn't do anything at all, her eyes gaining a rather vacant look. After another minute crawled by, I frowned in slight confusion, having no idea what she was doing.

"Hey," I finally called, trying very hard to keep the terror and caution out of my voice.

At last she seemed to come back from wherever her mind had wandered. "Did you say something?"

My frown deepened at her faint voice. Putting my bow away, I slowly shook my head and took a breath to calm my strained nerves. "Never mind. Shall we start?"

Windy nodded and flipped open her pouch. My hand twitched in a want to arm myself when she pulled out her bow and closed her pouch, then I inhaled sharply, hand flying to the hilt of my dagger when she started rigorously shaking her head. But, rather than attacking me, she placed herself on the white line and pulled an arrow out of one of the barrels on the ground.

Shakily letting go of my dagger, I crossed my arms and wondered what the hell I was supposed to do first. "As a start, just shoot normally," I told her after a moment of thought, and she nodded again. Might as well begin by seeing what it was she was doing wrong.

It took her nearly a minute to finish preparing herself and finally shoot. Her angle was far too high, causing the arrow to go way up into the air and arc down to a land halfway across the field. I stared in disbelief at the arrow—how did she expect to hit the target if she shot at the sky like that?—then looked at Windy, who was staring at me in annoyance as if it was all my fault the arrow didn't do what it was supposed to. "So, what do we do now?" she waspishly asked.

Sighing out my nose, I stepped forward, pulled another arrow out of the wooden barrel, and handed it to her with a simple command of "Again," thinking the weird angle had perhaps been a mistake.

She snatched it away from me, fitted it onto her string, and shot it the same way she'd done the first.

Glaring at her in agitation and wondering if she was shooting like that on purpose, I gave her a third arrow. "Make your angle shallower. You're aiming way too high."

The third time, she still shot too high. "I said shallower!" I snapped.

The fourth time, she shot the ground barely a meter in front of herself. Wanting to beat her upside the head with a blunt object, I crossed my arms again and dug my fingertips into my skin. "I didn't say shoot downward," I growled. "Shoot higher than that, but lower than before."

The fifth time, she somehow managed to make her arrow go in a twirly spiral. It landed several meters away to our left, feathery end stuck in the grass. I spent a long moment blankly staring at it, wondering how she had managed to shoot it in such a completely impossible way. I didn't even know how to tell her not to do that, since I didn't know how she had done it in the first place.

I settled for a "Don't shoot like that," and watched her notch a sixth arrow.

An hour passed. The field was peppered with crazily-shot arrows. The barrel was almost empty. The target was untouched. I was red-faced with frustration and screaming at her. "I SAID DON'T DO THAT!"

The amused look dancing across her eyes only made me angrier.

Inhaling deeply, I stomped away from her and began plucking arrows out of the grass. "Damned Starlight," I mumbled murderously, then whirled around and threw the arrows at barrel. They noisily clattered to the ground. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you‽" I demanded, narrowing my eyes at Windy before going back to collecting the arrows. "No one is _this_ horrible at archery! A BLIND, DEAF, AND DIRECTIONALLY-CHALLENGED AMPUTEE COULD SHOOT BETTER THAN YOU! WHY CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND SUCH SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS‽" Freezing in horror, I stared down at the arrows clutched tightly in my white-knuckled hand, suddenly realizing how similar to my father I was sounding with all of the awful things I was saying to her. Shame deepened the flush on my face, and I was filled with self-hatred for being so short-tempered and cruel.

I was startled back to attention when she spoke. "Do you think that I would come here if I didn't need advice? That would just be a waste of time." Her voice was, understandably, edged with anger.

Without saying anything in return, I quickly gathered up the remainder of the arrows—those which were still usable anyway—and went back to Windy, carefully putting the arrows back in the barrel, as well as the ones I'd childishly thrown on the ground earlier. Once they were all put away, I stared down at my feet, not wanting to look at her.

"What do you suggest I do, Aeolus-laoshi?" she asked, the title sounding somewhat sarcastic. I thought for a moment, wondering what there was left to say; I'd already yelled everything I could think of. I apparently didn't answer fast enough, because she then huffed, "You know what they say; there's never a student who cannot learn, only incapable teachers."

Giving her a brief frown, I straightened up and sulkily told her, "Well, I'm not a teacher anyway, so that really doesn't matter." Sighing, I pointed a hand at the barrel of arrows. "Let's start again. Remember to keep your angle shallow, but not _too_ shallow. And put some more strength into your draw; your arrows are all falling short."

She got an arrow out of the barrel, fitted it onto her string, unexpectedly drew it back as far as she could, and fired it. The arrow zoomed through the air and struck the ground. However, it then bounced back up into the air and hit the wall. I followed it with my eyes, feeling very surprised—she had already done so many weird things, I wondered if I should even have bothered to get worked up all over again—while it bounced around the inside of the range, nearly hitting she and I both before it finally buried itself in the wooden storage shed at the opposite end of the range from the targets.

What had happened yesterday was starting to come into perspective. The arrows that had been embedded in the walls, all of the injured people running away, Windy looking like nothing wrong was happening…This was, apparently, simply how she had always shot her bow. It was on purpose, but it wasn't on purpose at the same time.

Keeping that in mind, I managed not to yell at her again. Turning, I stared down at her, wanting to snap her bow in half. "Did I say 'Use _all_ of your strength'? Did I?" Not giving her any time to reply, I continued on. "No, I did not! I said 'use _more_ strength.'" Inhaling deeply, I closed my eyes for a moment. Opening them, I turned back to the targets. "Try again," I quietly told her, struggling to keep hold on my temper.

Windy got out another arrow and I readied myself for any weirdness that might occur as she pulled back the string of her bow. As I expected, she still put in too much force. The arrow bounced around like the last one had, shooting all over the place in an unpredictable pattern, until finally it planted itself in the most unexpected place—the target.

Well, the very outer edge of the target, but the target all the same.

And even though I knew it had been a complete accident, relief washed over me.

There was a noise at the door and I turned to look. Yu Lian was standing there, eyes going wide as she looked at the pierced target. She then gave me an extremely pleased smile. "It looks like you two are making progress! I knew you could do it, Aeolus!"

"I didn't," I told her at once.

"Oh, don't be so modest," she replied with a tiny laugh. "There's still room for improvement, of course, but it hit the target at least. I'm sure Windy will be able to hit the center in no time at all."

"I still didn't do it," I repeated, not wanting to take credit for something I hadn't done. Especially since what had happened was most definitely an unreproducible accident.

"Looks like forcing you to help was a great choice!" she added, not listening to me at all. "You've accomplished more than Legolas and the others combined! And in a much smaller amount of time, as well!"

"Yeah, whatever," I mumbled grumpily. "Why are you here, anyway? I thought you all had some concert to put on. Again."

"We just finished with the sound check, so I had a bit of time to spare and wanted to look in on you two to see how you were doing. I tried to message you actually, but couldn't. Your teammates told me you had your PM off, though, which I understand entirely, wanting to keep out all of those distractions and such."

"We're doing horribly," was what I wanted to tell her, but didn't and gave a glance at the door. "Speaking of distractions, have you posted guards outside? I don't want any of Starlight's crazed minions—or Starlight herself, of course—to come in here and disrupt our practice."

"I've got twenty men stationed nearby in the melee training grounds, near enough to hear and intervene quickly if you've got any unwanted visitors," she assured, after another small glance toward the arrowed target, she looked back to me, brows furrowing. "Did you really not do anything to them? It seems a bit strange that they would go after you so determinedly if you and your team hadn't done anything at all."

"I swear we didn't do anything at all to initiate this," I exasperatedly answered. "Ask my teammates if you don't believe me. Hell, ask _your_ teammates! The whole Infinite Band was there New Years Eve when the women ganged up on my team and I in Star City." I glanced at Windy, darkly mumbling under my breath, "Starlight is probably behind the attacks…That insane magician has it in for me." My eyes flickered back to Yu Lian.

Birds of a feather.

"Alright, I believe you," Yu Lian said, then started heading for the door. "I've got to go now and help with the final preparations before the concert. If something happens and you need more guards, just PM me. I'll send some over in a hurry, if the twenty you have right now aren't enough. Keep up the good work, both of you!"

I waved forlornly at her back as she disappeared out the door, long skirts swishing about her ankles as she hurried along. Yu Lian wasn't anywhere near the first choice on my list of "People I Want for Back-up Right Now," but having her here was at least a little better than being alone with Windy, who still scared me quite a bit.

But, uncomfortable as I was on my own, I turned back to the targets and swallowed all of my victimized sighs. "Shall we get back to it, then?"

Windy and I spent another half an hour practicing in a much calmer manner than before. I was still irritated at the fact that she hadn't hit the target a second time—accident or not—regardless of how incredibly easy _I_ thought it all was, but I managed to keep my temper in check this time. It also helped that she seemed to be listening more intently to my suggestions, instead of simply glaring at me. Not that listening more intently helped at all, but whatever. Progress was progress.

It was when that subdued half an hour was over, though, that for the second night in a row, all hell broke loose.

There was a cry from the door. "Look! Isn't that Aeolus?"

Turning in revulsion, I spotted the one who had spoken. It was a different set of women, but…

"Aeolus‽ You mean Gui's brother‽"

…they were, for whatever reason, saying the exact same things.

I took several steps back to be able to escape if the situation worsened. I felt vaguely surprised when Windy did the same; I'd been expecting her to go greet them, given that she was one of their group members. But she seemed oddly defensive.

After giving Windy a brief look of confusion, I returned my focus to the door and the six women who were coming inside. "Windy, get away from him!" one ordered and pointed at me, while the others shot the usual, predictable insults of "PERVERT!" and "BASTARD!" and "SCUM!" and other such lady-like words.

Not wanting to get involved with these people yet again, I extended my wings and prepared to fly away, not caring anymore if Yu Lian would get mad at me for skipping out on training Windy. I had a legitimate excuse now, after all.

However, before I could take off, the city guards Yu Lian had told us about suddenly hurried through the entrance and began dragging the women back out the door in a shrieking, flailing mess. I couldn't help but smile in amusement as I watched them get taken away, one yelling, "COME OUT HERE, AEOLUS, AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!" as if I actually would go out there and face her.

While the women's cries faded out, I gave a grateful look to the guards that were now standing directly outside the door, blocking admittance to anyone who might want in, then I turned to Windy. She sighed and relaxed. "Do you think they'll come back?" I asked. After all, after seeing how many had attended the concerts in Star City, I knew that those women were only six demented fangirls out of several hundred, or maybe even more.

"Don't worry," she assured, bending over slightly to pluck another arrow out of the barrel, "they wouldn't miss the concert." She questioningly lifted her bow. "Shall we continue?"

I raised an eyebrow in bewilderment. "What about you? Aren't _you_ going to the concert?"

Windy had the opposite reaction to my inquiry than I'd been expecting. "NO!" she darkly yelled, briefly glaring at me.

I inhaled to say something, but realized I had no idea what to say, so I closed my mouth and shrugged, turning back to the range. This girl was completely impossible to figure out.

She gave a shudder as she fitted the arrow onto her bowstring, raised her bow, and aimed. Just as she shot the arrow—it landed nowhere near the target, of course—there was another yell from outside. "WINDY! WE CAME TO RESCUE YOU!" came the heroic call. A much larger number of women could be seen peeking over the armored shoulders of the wall of guards.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the concert?" Windy asked.

"Don't worry! We were coming back from training in the forest, but then our sisters PMed us and told us to come rescue you from that pervert, so we ran here!"

Windy was silent for a moment, then said sweetly, "Don't worry. I'm fine."

"NO, YOU ARE NOT!" another one yelled. I couldn't decide if I wanted to be exasperated or horrified at how, directly after she'd finished speaking, a riot abruptly broke out outside the door. Weapons were drawn, war cries were loosed, and the poor guards were attacked by droves of women. It was instantly obvious that Yu Lian had underestimated the destructive force of the fangirls when she had decided on only twenty guards.

"HE THREATENED YOU INTO SAYING THAT, RIGHT‽" one woman screamed, punching a guard out of the way and hurrying inside before anyone else blocked her path. Given that there were only fourteen guards left and about thirty or more women whose fighting skills were on par with the guards', it only took a few seconds before the raging females streamed inside.

"How despicable!"

"How dare you trick someone as pure and innocent as Windy‽"

As they surged forward, Windy jumped on top of the arrow barrel and surprised me yet again by putting her bow into her pouch and withdrawing a sword. The way she handled the sword was much more natural and skillful than the clumsy and awkward way she handled her bow.

Well, no wonder she was a horrible archer…she wasn't even an archer to begin with.

"Get back!" she snapped, threateningly pointing the blade at them.

"But, the concert!"

"I'D RATHER DIE THAN GO TO ANOTHER CONCERT!" Windy declared in a roar.

Faces flushing angrily, the mob of women then turned and aimed all of their weapons at me. "YOU BRAINWASHED WINDY!"

"HOW DARE YOU‽"

"Girls, let's teach this depraved sex-fiend not to ever try to add our sisters to his harem!"

"I don't have a harem," I told them yet again, feeling absolutely exhausted with their antics. Pulling out my bow and an arrow, I turned on my private messages and hastily told Yu Lian about our situation, then focused on the cluster of females all staring me down. I gave a tiny look to the door, wondering if at least one of the guards had survived the riot.

The women had seen my hopeful look, and they scoffed, "Heh! If you're waiting for the guards, they won't come! We took care of them all!"

No more guards nearby. That wasn't good.

Assuming Windy would be safe, I began to flap my wings. Before I could get very high off the ground, Windy leapt at me and latched onto my leg, joining in on my escape. "Let go of me!" I snapped, beating my wings a lot harder to be able to continue gaining altitude.

I dodged to one side and narrowly missed getting hit by a melon-sized ball of fire that one of the women had shot at me with her magic staff. "HE'S KIDNAPPING WINDY!"

"WINDY, DON'T WORRY! WE'LL SAVE YOU!"

Several more spells and some arrows whizzed through the air. When I darted about, trying my best to evade all of the attacks, Windy tightened her grip on my leg and let out a frightened yell. I frantically sped up my wings as much as I could, carrying us both over the wall, away from the training grounds, and to the castle, where I hoped we would be safe.

"STOP TRYING TO BREAK MY LEG OFF!" I bellowed down to her as I began to lower us into a deserted courtyard. She didn't seem to hear me. Dropping us to the paved ground as quickly as I could, I gently landed, chest heaving. I gave a glare down to Windy when she didn't let go of my leg, regardless of how we were out of danger. "You can let go now, you know."

Shakily, she unwrapped herself from around my abused leg and sat down. "That was so scary!"

Eyes narrowing, I put my bow and arrow away. "What are you talking about? You're one of them. Aren't you used to their behavior by now?"

"Not that! I meant flying!" she snapped up at me, the furious look in her eyes taking on a fiery turn when I smiled in amusement at the unexpected reason. At that moment, I decided to try not to be surprised at her weirdness anymore; with as backwards as everything about her was turning out to be, I was only going to end up being surprised a million more times if I kept trying to predict things.

"What‽" she demanded hotly.

Crouching down beside her, I propped my chin up on my hands and curiously quirked an eyebrow. "You didn't want to go to the concert…Don't you like Prince?"

The anger in her eyes faded a bit at the question. "Yes. I think he is an amazing archer."

I frowned, extremely confused. "What?" Since when was that stupid elf an archer?

"He is an amazing archer," she repeated matter-of-factly.

Deciding not to argue about that thoroughly incorrect remark, I pressed my lips together, trying not to look completely lost at how this conversation was going. "Did you join them because of that?"

"Not really," she replied. "Starlight asked me to help her with the process of gaining money, to buy some tickets for the concert, and since I was around so much they decided that I became a part of them, though it's not something official." Her voice had taken on a helpless turn near the end of her explanation.

"Could it be…" Sympathy welled up inside me. "Is that insane magician, Starlight, forcing you to be her teammate?"

"What do you mean by 'forcing me'?" Her displeased look was back as she pointed her sword at me and stood. "Choose your words wisely, and don't you dare insult my friend!"

"Well," I murmured, leaning away from her in annoyance, "I apologize for upsetting you, but really. 'Insane' and 'forceful' are a few of the many negative impressions I got from her directly after the war. Your 'friend' stood and watched while my teammates—I repeat, my _teammates_, not my _harem_, which I don't have and don't even want in the first place and _never will_!"

I paused for a moment, trying to keep my temper in check. "My team and I were attacked by over twenty members of your group, when all we had been doing was clearing rubble. Starlight eventually intervened and gave a long-winded speech to calm them all down, but then she tried to recruit me to break up Prince and my brother!"

Pausing again, I took a deep breath, feeling hate rise up for the stupid magician. "When I told her no, she looked like she wanted to kill me. And now, every time I see her or your group members, they stir up trouble for no reason at all, as you have witnessed first-hand twice now at the archery range! Therefore, for all I know, you might just be another innocent bystander, like myself, who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up in Starlight's shenanigans!"

As I rambled on and on and on, venting all of my grudges with Starlight, Windy slowly lowered her sword, looking much more understanding and calm. "I see…" she said once I was finished, sounding somewhat distracted. A moment went by in silence, then she looked back down to me. "I'll handle this, don't worry. See you tomorrow."

With that, Windy vanished.

I sat staring at the spot where she'd logged out. While a tiny bit relieved at the thought of having more help against the magician, I was filled with extreme skepticism; it sounded too good to be true that someone—even a friend of Starlight's, as Windy apparently was—would be able to change Starlight's behavior. However, I still hoped that Windy's unexpected support would help.

Smiling faintly at the thought of regaining my somewhat peaceful in-game life, I stood and launched myself back into the air, listening to the first notes of the echoing music coming from the concert hall as I flew off to buy Dib a blueberry pie before going back to the castle.

Ten minutes later, I was climbing through the bedroom window again—it seemed much faster to use the window as an entrance rather than going in through the castle corridor—dropping to the floor and looking in surprise at the corpse-like Dib laying face-first on the circular red carpet placed in the center of the room. Walking forward, I crouched down beside him in confusion. "Dib?"

He didn't answer.

I lifted his right arm. It limply flopped back to the floor when I let go of it. Rolling my eyes at how dramatic he was, I reached into my pouch and pulled out the large box from the bakery. Setting it down by his head, I opened the lid. The warm, sweet smell of the freshly baked pie filled the room, but Dib sulkily didn't move. Feeling annoyed, I took hold of his left side and flipped him over. He glared up at me, his face red with agitation and dotted with imprints of the carpet. Had he been laying here the whole time I'd been gone?

"Was staying behind really so awful?" I quietly asked. If I'd brought him, he definitely would have gotten in the way of practice. Plus he would have been in danger when the women attacked. But it seemed like he didn't care at all that he would have simply been a hindrance.

Dib stuck out his tongue at me, then rolled back onto his stomach, returning to looking like he was dead. All of my irritation from earlier returning, I quietly stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but he didn't make a sound. Seeing that he was going to continue to ignore me, I stood up and went back to the window, wordlessly jumping outside and angrily flying away.


	51. His Jealousy

__**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo____

__**Note __– __**__Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)__  
><em>_

* * *

><p>Again the next evening, I flew to the archery range. Dib was still very sulky about how I'd left him behind, and had refused to even look at me when I'd said goodbye. It worried and annoyed me, but I tried to put him out of mind and focus on the task at hand. Landing in the grass next to the barrel of arrows, I glanced around. Windy wasn't there, but the whole field looked so…shiny and neat. There were no stray arrows or bits of garbage on the ground like there had been the night before, and the targets even looked new. Someone had obviously been in here to clean up after the other archers had run away before Windy and I could come.<p>

Since Windy wasn't here yet, I took the opportunity to try to think of some way to apologize to the woman for exploding at her several times yesterday, for which I was feeling very guilty. After all, although I found her ridiculous lack of progress to be annoying and unexplainable, it wasn't like everyone was good at archery. And just because Windy's archery level seemed to be in the negative numbers, that didn't mean I could scream at her whenever I felt like it.

Pacing back and forth along the white painted line on the grass, while I waited for her I mumbled possible apologies out loud to myself, just to see how they sounded, and tried to imagine actually saying them to her face. Or, well, to her mask.

"Laoshi!"

I jumped and gasped in surprise when the unexpected voice called out from behind me. Twirling around, I found Windy walking toward me, coming out of the storage shed, of all places. Reflexively I almost pulled out my bow to defend myself, but managed to keep myself from doing so. She never failed to catch me off-guard.

"What were you doing in the shed?" I asked in bewilderment, although it was obvious once I got over my initial shock. She had on an apron over her archer's armor, was carrying a broom, and was covered from head to toe in dust and grime. The one who had cleaned the training grounds must have been her. Although I did like the cleanliness, I felt somewhat annoyed; she was wasting precious practice time.

"Cleaning," she replied, her tone implying I should have known without asking.

"Oh. Well, um, good job. It looks nice," I commented in an attempt to calm myself down after her abrupt entrance. I wanted to plug my nose when she got closer; all of the dust clinging to her was wafting off of her clothes with every puff of wind that blew into the training grounds. I was mildly surprised that she wasn't sneezing.

"Thank you." She set down the broom and took off the apron, then placed herself in her usual spot to begin the practice. While she pulled out her bow, I attempted to remember what it was I was going to say to her. She'd scared all of my apology ideas out of me.

A thick, gray cloud of dust suddenly fell out of her cloak when she lifted her arm. Feeling somewhat disgusted, I quickly took several steps back to avoid getting dirty. Windy, who was unfortunately stuck in the middle of the cloud and was sending up more dust swirls with every move, began to cough.

"I think you should take a bath before we begin," I suggested, covering my nose and mouth when the cloud began to grow.

Windy gave a glance down at herself, then looked up at me. "You think? But then I would be late for practice again." Her tone was entirely serious, as if she thought she would still be able to shoot arrows while hacking and wheezing.

Refraining from rolling my eyes, I shook my head. "I don't mind if you're late for a reason like that. Anyway, it would be faster if you were to bathe and come back than if you stayed here and spent the whole time coughing. The dust is only a hindrance." And I didn't want to get dirty, but I kept that part to myself in a want to not seem narcissistic.

"Well, okay. I will be back soon, Laoshi." Windy gave me an extremely exaggerated, full ninety-degree bow, much like the majority of people at work did. That and the very annoying honorific that I really didn't want both made me cringe. I hated getting treated so respectfully, like I was someone of importance. It made me feel pressured and inadequate.

I watched in relief while she hurried out the door, squeezing through a gap in the wall of guards outside and disappearing. Frowning down at the dusty ground, I pulled out my wings and took a few steps back. Flapping them as hard as I could, several of my mana points drained away as I used one of my special skills to manipulate the breeze, turning it into a strong wind that carried the dust away. Once the last few specks disappeared into the sky, soaring off to find somewhere else to settle, I gave a satisfied look down at the clean-once-again grass, and retracted my wings.

Having nothing else to do while Windy bathed, I began to pace back and forth again, trying once more to come up with an apology. It had been a long time since I had actually done something that required an apology. I'd apologized to my father more times than I could count, but that was always so mechanical. He had expected it, so I had given it. A formality and nothing more. Usually I hadn't actually felt apologetic in the slightest. But now it was entirely my fault and I was going to feel horrible about it forever unless I said something. Windy was probably mad at me for it as well.

Long before I was prepared to actually say anything, Windy was back, gulping down air as if she had again ran all the way here, although I had already told her I didn't mind if she was late—or, well, it was more like I didn't mind if she never came back again. Ever.

Shakily hurrying to the line, she pulled out her bow and stared up at me. "I am back, Laoshi."

Inwardly grimacing at the irritating title, I cleared my throat and nodded. "Yes. I see that." Dammit, I had stupidly forgotten what I had wanted to say again. Why was apologizing so difficult?

Deciding to simply wing it, I held out my hand for her to stop when she reached down to get an arrow out of the barrel. "Windy," I began, my voice much more forceful than I meant it to be in my nervousness. She looked up again, eyes questioningly staring at me. "I, um, wanted to apologize for yesterday." My face started to warm up with embarrassment and shame, but I tried to ignore it. "It was entirely wrong of me to yell at you, and I will do my best to keep my temper in check today." I quickly bowed to her in a want to show my sincerity.

For a long time, I stayed in my incline, waiting for her to make some sort of response. I already knew her mind drifted a lot, so I tried my hardest to keep my patience together and continued to awkwardly stare at the ground, hoping she was going to accept. She finally chuckled, and I looked up in bewilderment. "You are so weird," she remarked.

Frowning at the irony of her words, I straightened. I thought about asking her just what she thought was "so weird" about apologizing when I was the one in the wrong, but I kept my mouth shut. I turned back to the targets to finally start archery practice, and watched while Windy shot a few arrows, none of which hit the target, of course, and I simply fought to keep my annoyance to myself, inwardly repeating "Calm down!" over and over as I gave her what I hoped were helpful tips to improve, not that any of them were working.

Before we could get much of anything accomplished, there was suddenly a disturbance at the door. Expecting another riot to break out, I turned and lifted my hand to my bow. One glance told me who the person was, and one glance was all I needed to put up my defenses and arm myself for a battle. Glaring at Starlight, I watched mistrustfully as Windy called greetings to her teammate and hurried toward the entrance, telling the guards to let the horrible woman inside.

Through the anger pounding in my head, I barely heard what Windy was telling Starlight as they walked toward me. I pulled out an arrow, fully prepared for an attack, although I didn't know if I would be able to take on both women at once. However, using the rebirth point as an escape route wasn't too unthinkable, I supposed. Not that I wanted to die, but if it was the only way then I could deal with it.

They stopped in front of me, Windy seeming to be oddly cheerful and Starlight looking extremely grumpy. "Aeolus told me about what happened at the city gates, when you were supposed to be helping me find my mask," Windy said to Starlight, her tone oozing with honeyed sweetness.

Starlight warily glanced at Windy and said nothing.

"Starlight, I think you should apologize to Laoshi. He is a nice guy, and you shouldn't bully him," Windy reprimanded.

The magician fully turned to Windy, still not speaking. I lowered my bow a tiny bit, seeing that they thankfully weren't going to gang up on me. After a moment, Starlight turned back to me and angrily mumbled, "I'm sorry," completely surprising me. Seeing how little she listened to her other underlings, it was almost unbelievable that Windy could control her so easily.

"I don't think he heard you," Windy added.

Giving me a sneer-like smile, Starlight repeated herself. "I'm sorry."

"You don't sound too sincere." Windy's voice was somewhat sad.

I jumped in terror when Starlight suddenly roared at Windy and yelled, "FINE! God, you are so annoying!" then turned to me again. "I'm very sorry to have caused trouble for you and your teammates."

"And?" Windy prodded, regaining her sweetness.

"I hope you can forgive me."

"AND‽"

"I swear I will never do it again," she added in obvious annoyance, then looked at Windy. "Satisfied?"

"Yup. Now you can go."

Starlight was silent for a moment, then darkly warned Windy, "I will get you back for this," and whirled around to stride back to the door, leaving. Taking a deep breath, I waited until she was completely gone before I put away my bow, my hands still shaking with the sudden fighting-energy that was coursing through me. I crossed my arms to hide my trembling.

Windy went back to the line, giving me a small glance. "See? She's a very reasonable person," she remarked. I had no idea why Windy thought that behavior was "reasonable." It was obvious that the only reason Starlight had said all those things was because Windy was nagging her about it. It was like me trying to persuade Dib to do something he didn't want to do. But, even if Starlight's apology wasn't sincere, I didn't care, as long as she had meant what she said about not messing with me or my teammates again.

"Laoshi, shall we continue the practice?"

"Yes," I softly replied, glad to have something to keep my mind off of Starlight.

After that, practice dragged on as it always had, minus all of the yelling and interruptions. It was soon apparent that Windy, who barely ever listened to anything I said, was not much of a verbal learner. Giving up on the instructions I'd been saying to her—more often than not, she hadn't even realized I'd been speaking—I stared at her left hand as she gripped her bow.

Striding forward, I grabbed said hand and began adjusting and loosening the fingers in an attempt to correct her grip. Ignoring her questions, I let go of her hand, watching in annoyance when the fingers I'd just moved shifted back to their original and incorrect positions. "Try not to move your fingers," I told her while I put the fingers back the way they were supposed to be.

"Okay." Her eyes narrowed in a frustrated way when I let go, as if she was fighting the urge to move.

"Aim and shoot." I took a step away, hoping as usual that I wasn't about to get shot in the face by her chaotic, fly-away arrows. After a brief pause, her right hand let go of the arrow and off it flew…sort of in the correct direction. It veered off to the right and landed in the grass, nowhere near the target, yet closer than her earlier attempts.

I frowned in slight confusion, then said, "Shoot another."

She pulled another arrow out of the barrel, notched it, and pulled it back. Her hands were wobbling.

"Stop," I ordered, staring at her awkward grips. Her hands simply didn't look like they wanted to do what they were supposed to do. Or were they not supposed to be doing that at all?

"Are you really right-handed?" I asked, moving to stand in front of her.

She slowly shook her head. "I'm left-handed, though I've always used my right."

"Ah…" Parents forcing their left-handed children to use their right hands were still numerous. Even my father had tried to switch me over, but it was terribly awkward. Now I only used my right hand predominantly when he was around, and relied on my left the rest of the time, not caring about all of those old beliefs and whatnot.

"Does being left-handed have anything to do with archery?" she asked in confusion.

Inwardly sighing, I nodded. "Nearly everything that has to do with using your hands has to do with which hand is dominant," I explained in exasperation. Why the hell would I even need to explain something obvious like that? Then again, I'd been "explaining" quite a lot of things—things I saw as obvious—to her for quite a while now.

Taking her bow and arrow away, I switched the hands and turned her to face the other direction. "Try shooting as a left-hander would; hold the bow with your right hand, and draw the arrow with your left. Perhaps it will be easier."

"Okay," she agreed. "I'll try it."

Before she could release the arrow, I stopped her again with what I hoped were the simple, easy-to-follow instructions of "Keep your right arm straight and relax your hand to allow the bow room to move once you've shot the arrow."

With a short and silent nod, she locked her eyes on the target. I stepped back to allow her room, watching the arrow intently. When she released it, my eyes widened in surprise when it flew straight. It still landed far away from the target, but it looked a lot more…correct.

Oh, thank god, we were actually making progress at last.

Quite a while passed in which Windy didn't shoot the target, but it was apparent that she was having an easier time handling her weapon, and an hour later the unthinkable happened. She shot her arrow and it cut through the air, flying in an arc up and down to stab into the target, not because of any crazy shot or accident, but because—oh _please_ let it be because she was actually improving.

The arrow had hit one of the outer circles on the target. Not the center, but not the corner either, as she had hit yesterday.

Feeling extremely excited that perhaps the end of these lessons was coming sooner than I had thought, I looked down to Windy and smiled. She was shaking and had her head lowered. My elation slipping into confusion, I hesitantly tapped her on the shoulder. "Windy, are you okay?"

For a brief moment, I thought she had attacked me. She dropped her bow and lunged at me, tears brightening her eyes, and she…yanked me into a hug. Gasping in surprise, I stumbled backward, staring down at the top of her hooded head, feeling extremely bewildered. Not saying anything, she simply continued to squash me. Was it really _that_ moving to have shot the target?

My eyes narrowed in annoyance when I saw the Very Angry Dib come stomping through the door; he had probably used his Cute Attack on the guards, so they would let him through without a fuss. Glaring murderously, he raced forward and latched himself onto Windy's cloak, tugging her backward as hard as he could. Her arms slipped away from me as she stepped back. "LET GO OF AL, YOU CRAZY WOMAN!" he screeched, giving her one last yank before he ran around her and planted himself between us, drawing one of his tiny scimitars and pointing it at her.

"Dib," I tiredly began, "put that away." One minute he was furious and pretending I didn't exist, the next he was his usual clingy and jealous self. His mood swings were so confusing.

"NO!" he yelled, pushing on my right knee with his free hand. "Hurry and escape, Al! I'll hold her off!"

"She wasn't attacking me."

"WAS SO! SHE WAS PROBABLY GONNA EAT YOU!"

"I wasn't," Windy denied, sounding indignant.

Drawing together my eyebrows in perplexity, I pulled on his tiny shoulder guard. "Come on, move. You're getting in the way."

"NO-O-O‼" Dib began to flail around, determined to stay and protect me from Windy the Cannibal.

"Dib!" I snapped in irritation, dragging him backward. "I said she wasn't attacking me! Now go away! I told you not to interrupt our practice!" I was grateful that he felt protective of me, but Windy was finally starting to improve, and I sure as hell wasn't going to allow anything to mess that up.

"I DON'T WANNA LEAVE!" he wailed. "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

"Dib–"

"NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!"

"DIB!"

"NEVER!"

Sighing, I frowned down at him as he continued to scream his refusals and began to kick my leg. That went on for nearly half a minute before a quiet but completely audible mumble of "Brat," came from Windy, and Dib immediately whirled around.

Glaring fiercely up at the woman, he did his best to look grownup, although there was no way that he could accomplish that, given his appearance. "I'm NOT a BRAT!" he snapped in offense.

"Oh, well, if you are not really a brat then I have to applaud your amazing acting skills. You sounded so bratty." Windy raised her hands and began clapping. Although I couldn't see her face, I felt sure that she was making some sort of condescending expression at him.

Feeling extremely apprehensive at the fight unraveling before me, I attempted to come up with something to stop them both with, but Dib was obviously much angrier after Windy's retort, regardless of the fact that he had indeed been acting like a brat. "Thanks, I know my acting skills are great!" He sneered at her. "Too bad I can't say the same about your archery skills! You're just wasting Al's time with all this!"

Windy's eyes went cold. "Well, you know, even if I'm a less that proficient archer, I can still fight on my own. I bet that when you train, you hide behind your teammates and leech off their EXP…You are not just a brat, but useless baggage as well, so you should at least behave like a good child and shut your trap in front of those who are older than you, little kid." Her icy eyes gained a saddened look. "What a pity that kids nowadays are not receiving a proper education…I fear for the future of our country."

"I DON'T LEECH!" he screamed, drawing both of his scimitars and pointing them at her. "AND I'M NOT A CHILD! I'M A MAN! A MAN WHO GOT SUPER AWESOME GRADES IN SCHOOL! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE RESPECTFUL, STUPID! MY BRAIN'S WAY BETTER THAN YOURS‼"

"Dib, just calm down," I begged, trying to tug his swords out of his hands. His fingers wouldn't budge from around the hilts. This argument was getting completely off-course. What did the country's future and his brain have to do with anything?

Windy chuckled, then suddenly burst into body-shaking, eye-watering laughter as she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Dib's face became tinted with pink from the humiliation he had thrown himself into. Windy eventually managed to force out a mirth-filled "Pfft, yeah…Whatever you say, little boy. You are a damn genius."

Dib looked absolutely devastated that his insult hadn't had the proper impact on her. I was sure he had wanted her to cry, but I was also sure he hadn't wanted her to cry only because she was laughing uncontrollably. "Stop laughing!" he ordered, face going very, very red with embarrassment and further anger. "It's not funny!"

I sighed and attempted to block out Dib's yells and Windy's laughs, wondering if the idiotic pair would even notice if I left or logged out. This was such a waste of time.

Rather than following Dib's order, Windy continued to laugh at him, and then Dib's temper finally snapped. He dashed forward and swung both of his scimitars at her. "Stop!" I yelled at him, but he didn't listen to me, as usual. Windy, still laughing, dodged as he continued to slash and stab with his blades. He jumped, lifting his left scimitar high above his head as Windy flashed to one side, and a loud tearing noise broke through the sounds of their one-sided fight.

Dib's sword had torn Windy's hood.

No longer laughing, she jumped away from him and inspected the damage to her clothing. Her eyes glinted angrily behind her mask as she pulled a set of knives out of her pouch and buckled them onto her belt. I watched in horror as Dib jumped forward again, not even waiting for Windy to arm herself before he swung his blades at her stomach.

Windy vanished and one of her knives flew out of nowhere and struck his blade, sending a harsh metallic clang through the air. From the spot where she had retreated, Windy called, "Brat!" again, taunting him. The enraged Dib charged toward her, looking completely determined to chop her to bits.

"STOP!" I yelled again at them both, trying my hardest to keep up visually as they flashed across the training ground. I could hardly see what was going on, although it looked like Dib was wildly slashing and stabbing, but I assumed Windy wasn't getting hit, because she made no noises of pain. Although they were barely visible, it was obvious that Windy's speed outmatched his.

Windy swept behind him and roughly shoved his head, sending him sprawling forward to the grass. He gave a yell of rage, jumped to his feet, and began to chase after her again. The wild pursuit continued for several minutes, but then Windy suddenly froze. Seeing that she was distracted, Dib took the opportunity to drive one scimitar clean through her arm. My heart pounding at Dib's ridiculous amount of anger over such a stupid argument, I watched helplessly as Windy threw knives at Dib's spike-toed boots, pinning him to the ground. Jumping several meters away, Windy gasped for breath and quickly pulled out a potion.

Dib made incoherent noises of fury as he sheathed his scimitars and began to yank the knives out of his boots, freeing himself while Windy healed her arm. Knowing this was probably the only chance I had to intervene, I ran forward as fast as I could—nowhere near as fast as they were, but at least I managed to get to Dib before he could attack again. He stumbled to his feet and drew back his hands to throw Windy's knives back at her, but I grabbed his wrists and lifted him off the ground. "I SAID STOP, DAMMIT!" I shouted at him, shaking him slightly. Turning my head, I briefly glared at Windy before returning my attention to Dib, prying the knives out of his trembling hands. "You're both immature idiots, okay? There you go! Your argument is all settled!"

Windy's eyes narrowed when she looked away from Dib and I. "I'm not immature…and he started it!" she added in a sulky tone.

I forced the knives away from Dib, then threw them at the ground near Windy's feet. Scooping Dib up in my arms, I protectively shielded him from her and continued my glare. "Fighting with a toddler–"

"I'M A _MAN_!" Dib interrupted in a wail and burst into pathetic tears, but I ignored him.

"–is not something I would ever consider to be mature. And if you try to hurt any of my teammates again, fight or no, I will attack you as well." Even if her level was obviously way, way, way higher than mine…I would probably be able to do a little damage before I died, anyway.

She crossed her arms and mumbled, "Fine," still in a sulky tone, "I won't harm your teammates. But still…Laoshi, I think you should chose your teammates more carefully. That brat is completely annoying and troublesome. Besides, you should be thankful I'm not really an immature person…A really immature person would get revenge. Even Starlight can't go against me when I really want something, so what hope would be left for that kid there?" she ended darkly.

Frightened thoughts started swirling up when I imagined the horrible things that would happen to Dib at Windy's hand. _Second Life_ was starting to be far more trouble than it was worth. If I was simply going to be caught up in trouble every night, I didn't want to play anymore. Things were already bad enough without Windy joining the Torture Aeolus Club composed of Yu Lian, Starlight, and Prince's fans.

"So am I immature or not?" Windy demanded defiantly.

"I don't care if Dib is annoying and troublesome," I quietly told her. "He's my friend, so I'm willing to put up with it. It's none of your business what my teammates are like, just like it's none of my business what yours are like." Inhaling deeply, I gathered up my courage again and added, "And yes, I still think you're immature for fighting with him. Instead of arguing, you could have just as easily stayed silent and let me convince him to leave."

Windy uncrossed her arms, her eyes relaxing behind her mask. "You are right. It's none of my business if you don't know how to judge people. But if that's really so important to you…then…I promise you I will try not to do this again, as long as you can manage to get the kid under control." She put a hand on her hip and pointed her other hand at Dib. "He was the one who attacked first. So if he attacks again I might not be able to control myself. Besides, I'm a woman, seen as equally weak as a kid. So even if I am immature for arguing with a toddler, he is unmanly for attacking a woman. Plus I didn't hit him. I only avoided his attacks," she huffed.

"You were both moving too fast for me to see what you were doing," I explained, feeling annoyed at my stupidly low level. "However, you're right. He did attack first, and I will–"

"I did not!" Dib cut in again, angrily rubbing at his eyes, then glaring at her. "You attacked Al first!"

"Do you see any wounds on him?" Windy demanded irritably. "You don't, do you? So what makes you think I attacked him?"

"You _did_ attack him!" he insisted, cowering down in my arms when Windy's voice darkened. "It was a…hug attack! Didn't leave any injuries," he ended in a mumble. His face took an annoyed turn as if he was mentally reliving the event.

"So you were jealous. Sorry for snatching your crush's arms," she teased.

Although Windy hadn't said that last remark in a malicious way, Dib's face flushed again and he started squirming around. I put him back on the ground, but was prepared to grab him if he attempted to attack her. Instead, he took my hand and huffily yelled, "WELL, YOU SHOULD BE SORRY‼" before pulling me toward the door.

"Dib, let go," I snapped.

He defiantly glared up at me. "If I'm leaving, you're coming with me!"

"No!" I twisted my hand around, trying my hardest to break out of his ridiculously strong grip. "I've got to stay!"

"Nope! You're coming or I'm staying!"

"Dib, dammit! Stop being so bratty!"

"Nope!" He gave one last raging look back to Windy before yanking me through the door and away from the archery range. I gave an apologetic glance around the guards, to Windy before resuming my battle against Dib.

"Let go!" I ordered, but he continued to pull me along, around the corner of the archery range and toward one of the castle's smaller side entrances. "I SAID LET GO!" I bellowed, lifting him off the ground and throwing him to one side. He landed harmlessly in the grass, but looked stunned that I had gotten so angry with him. "Why the hell are you so determined to interfere‽" I demanded.

"I don't want you to train her!" he yelled right back, standing up.

"It's not like I'm training her by choice! If I could I'd be outside the city, training with you and the others!"

"You coulda just said no to Yu Lian!" he snapped. "You're always letting people push you around, 'cause you never say no to what they ask!"

"I _DID_ SAY NO! SEVERAL TIMES!" Breathing heavily, I glared down at him and took a step away. "You were there when she asked, and you heard me say no. Stop being so damn unreasonable. You say you're not a child, but then you act like this…Just leave me alone and don't get in my way."

"Al, I just wanted–!"

"The more time I spend on this, the sooner I'll finish!" I yelled over my shoulder and started to walk away. "Stay out of it!" Before he could say anything else, I turned off all chat channels and took off into the air, flying out of the city, not wanting to return to the archery range tonight. With as angry as I was, I would probably only yell at Windy some more.

Always letting people push me around…Dib pushed me around more than anyone else, and yet if I said no to him then he would get angry. Why did he have to be so contradictory?

The never-ending battle for dominance between us was getting incredibly tiresome.

After a night spent alone and a day spent in frustrated silence, the next evening I arrived at the usual time at the archery training grounds. Not feeling up to doing anything, I simply flopped down on the grass and stared at the doorway, waiting for the archer-warrior-thief-thing to make her appearance. Really, she had a bow that she was terrible with, she had a sword that she seemed to use pretty skillfully, and she had knives that she was very good at handling.

What was next, a magic wand or staff with which she would be amazing? But then, I didn't really want to think about that particular scenario; Dib would be ruthlessly blasted to pieces, just as Windy had implied the night before, when she'd threatened to retaliate if he attacked her again.

Then again, Dib getting blasted to pieces sounded kind of nice at the moment, in a morbidly amusing way…Stupid, troublesome brat. I was determined to give him the silent treatment for a very long time, and it seemed he was doing the same, given that he hadn't messaged me once since the night before, although I did have all of the messaging channels on again.

And it also seemed that Dib wasn't the only person giving me the silent treatment.

Sighing deeply, fell backward into the grass and stared up at the sky, briefly blocking the blue expanse by opening up the system window, to check the in-game clock, wondering where in the world Windy was. She was half an hour late, which was ridiculous, given her obvious aversion to being tardy for our lessons. Of course, I wasn't going to complain about it if she had some sort of reason, but I was getting bored waiting.

A few more minutes passed, and I considered PMing her to ask her whereabouts, but she beat me to it. **"Laoshi?"** her voice called to me over the messaging system.

**"Windy,"** I messaged back, **"where are you?"**

**"I'm sorry,"** she replied, **"but I won't be able to come to practice tonight."**

My eyes widened in surprise and eagerness, and I hastily sat up. **"Oh, really?"** I tried very hard to keep the relief out of my voice. **"Why?"**

**"Well…let's say I'm in the middle of what Starlight would call 'revenge,'"** Windy said with a sigh, then added angrily, **"You **_**really**_** don't want to know about it."**

**"Okay."** I nodded at nothing in particular, letting my smiles leak out, since she couldn't see me. Finally, no more archery training…well, none for tonight at least.

**"Also, Laoshi,"** she continued, **"I won't be able to attend the archery classes for a couple of nights. I have some work to do in real life and I need to pull a couple of all-nighters for it."**

**"Of course,"** I said, nodding again, all the more eager to agree to gaining even more time off from this annoying task. **"Real life affairs are much more important than **_**Second Life**_**. Go ahead and take all the time you need."**

**"Thank you, Laoshi,"** she replied. **"And, um, Laoshi?" **Windy's voice was hesitant and nervous. **"About yesterday…" **She paused, then went on,** "Sorry for upsetting your boyfriend. I know gay people have things hard as it is, but…" **There was another pause and I stared, horrified, at nothing in particular as I listened to her final blurt of **"Do your best!"**

**"W-WINDY!"** I yelled, panicking.

**"SYSTEM ERROR!"** the game unexpectedly replied. **"UNABLE TO CONNECT WITH PLAYER: WINDY!"**

Mouth dropping open, I called for her several more times, but the game was the one that kept messaging me in return. She must have logged out or something. Damn it all. Damn, damn, damn…Stupid Dib. That damn brat was going to get it the next time I saw him…This misunderstanding was terrible. Well, it wasn't exactly a misunderstanding, but I was struggling so hard to hide all of my feelings for Dib, and yet Fu Han and Windy had both noticed so easily all because of Dib.

"I am not gay," I said aloud, glaring at the stone walls surrounding me as I whipped out my wings and shot off the ground, determined to go beat up Dib for causing this. But then I remembered I was ignoring him and instead changed my course to the city walls. **"Archery practice is canceled for a few nights,"** I snappishly announced over the team channel. **"I'll be waiting at the northern gate."**

Glowering and biting my lower lip, I barely heard Wei Bo and Avila as they started cheering that we could finally go train as a team, my mind instead filled with dull anger at Dib. However, the halfling wasn't with the others when they met me at the gate. I felt a bit worried at first, but sulkily pushed it away and started off down the dirt road, trying my hardest not to care that he wasn't here.


	52. Lotus Party

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note __– __**__Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)__  
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><p>"I don't want to go," I complained, staring irritably down at the box full of silky red-colored and embroidered traditional clothing that was sitting on my bed. "I hate parties…" Especially parties that my father was attending. And I had found out just last night that the perverted Victor Larson was going to be there with his family, too. Unfortunately, it was too late to back out and say I wasn't going. It was an important dinner party, one hosted by the very powerful Lotus company, plus my father was planning on using the event as an opportunity to publicly announce Jiao and my engagement, but I still really, really didn't want to go.<p>

"Too bad." Delun slapped my back. "You're going whether you want to or not, so get changed."

Sighing in reluctance, I quickly began to undress, then slipped into the black pants and red jacket, which matched the one Delun was wearing, except his was embroidered with black thread and mine with gold. Trembling from the horrible cold pressing in from all sides—the thin clothes did little to nothing to keep me warm—I hurried to my bookshelf and picked up the smaller of the two glass bottles—the larger one had my daily white capsules—I had placed on the top shelf. I took the stopper out of the top, upending the bottle so one of the tiny, triangular, red pills fell out onto my palm.

Red-colored as well. Perhaps I should have taken that as a sign of luck, just like the majority of the population of P City who had bathed the town in red to welcome the new year, but to me the pill simply looked like it was supposed to be hot and spicy, sort of like a cinnamon mint.

Returning the bottle to its place on the shelf, I picked up my cup of tea, and stuck the pill in my mouth, taking a long drink of tea afterward to wash it down. Delun looked extremely apprehensive while he watched, although I had already taken one several days ago to test and see if they were dangerous, as that euthermic injection had been. The pills were the same mixture, but far more diluted. One dose warmed me up for close to twelve hours without any negative side effects, although it did take longer than the injection had to take effect. But waiting a little while to get warm was a cheap price to pay in exchange for not drowning in a pool of my own sweat every time I took the stuff.

After grabbing a coat to wear until I was warmed up, I grumbled a "Ready," to Delun, and we left my room and went to his, where Jiao and Chen were putting on makeup in the bathroom. They were both wearing a red, sleeveless qipao that fell all the way to their ankles, each dress embroidered with pretty patterns.

Delun went to adjust the decorative pin Chen had put in her short hair, murmuring things in her ear that made her blush. I immediately looked away, feeling embarrassed. My attention was snagged as I watched Jiao lift a terrifying-looking metal thing to her right eye and proceeded to use it to…do something.

"What is that‽" I demanded in horror, hurrying forward, afraid the thing would pinch her eyelid.

She gave me a confused glance when I took away the dangerous thing. "It's an eyelash curler."

"Oh…Well, can't you just go like this?" I demonstrated the much safer way to do it, using the sides of my index fingers to push up my own eyelashes. "What if you accidentally pinched yourself when using the curler and it got stuck, and then it tore off your eyelid‽"

Delun looked like he completely understood my fears, but it seemed Chen and Jiao couldn't decide if they wanted to be annoyed or amused. "Give me that," Jiao snapped, snatching the curler away from me. "I know what I'm doing!"

Although I didn't think curlier lashes was worth the risk of losing her whole eyelid, I didn't try to take it from her again, instead looking down in surprise at all of the stuff they had scattered all over the counter top. I had no idea what most of it was. "Do you two use all of this every day?" I asked in bewilderment, picking up what looked like a very fat pencil. Jiao immediately took it away and elbowed me sharply.

"Not _every_ day," Chen denied, leaning toward the mirror as she carefully put on some red lipstick. "Just on special occasions. Jiao-mèi and my daily makeup is much simpler."

"You can't expect us to go to a party without preparing first," Jiao mumbled, going back to using the Scary Eyelid Pincher. Even if she did know what she was doing, I was still extremely suspicious of the contraption, positive that it was going to harm her in some way or another.

Several seconds went by, and I started to get fidgety and impatient as I watched the pair. Delun and I had gotten ready in minutes, but the women looked like they were nowhere near finished. "How long is this supposed to take?"

Sighing, Delun stepped over to me and patted my shoulder in an uncharacteristically brotherly way. "Don't expect them to be done anytime soon. Sometimes Chen spends hours and hours preparing herself, and I waste away long before she's finished getting ready."

Chen shot him a frown. "Excuse me, but we ladies _have_ to spend more time getting ready than you hasty men!"

Jiao nodded in agreement. "It's a long and complicated process! How else will we look pretty for you?"

"I think you look very nice without it," I told her honestly, sort of hoping that would make them finish quicker.

"Well, thank you," she replied with a faint laugh, her tone implying she was trying to brush it off humorously, but her face telling me she was somewhat embarrassed at my compliment. "However, we look even nicer _with_ it, so shoosh. If you keep distracting me, I'll paint your whole face with permanent lipstick."

I frowned at the threat and watched them for a few more boring seconds, then turned around and left the cramped bathroom. "I'm going to wait downstairs," I announced.

"I think I'll join you." Delun hurried after me a moment later, and we went into the sitting room downstairs. Delun's father joined us soon after that—his mother was, predictably, also still getting ready—and I made half-hearted attempts at listening to their conversation, but actually my mind was wandering into the place it always seemed to wander, no matter how much I didn't want it to.

Heng.

I hadn't spoken to him or even seen him since I'd left Dib outside the archery training grounds. It had only been a few nights since then, not as long as some of the times he and I had been reluctant to see one another after some fight we'd had, but I missed him so much. Over the past few days, I had often sat around in my room and simply stared at his number on my cellphone's screen, one finger hovering contemplatively over the dial button, debating whether or not I should call him, but I had never managed to get myself to actually go through with it. He hadn't messaged or called me, either, and that made me feel even more cowardly.

However, I made use of the time away from him and went to see my doctor as often as I could, for as long as I could, until I was with him nearly every evening for several hours at a time. The further we got into the repressed memories, the more intense the headaches were becoming. But I was stubbornly pushing through the pain, determined to remember everything I possibly could. Over the past few weeks, we had only gotten to late July. The progress felt slow and made me somewhat frustrated, but I was still happy that I was actually achieving something.

What felt like years after Delun and I had left his bathroom, we finally heard the women coming down the front stairs. Feeling extremely relieved, I stood up and followed Delun and his father as they went into the front entryway. I came to a stop in the doorway and smiled up at Jiao as she carefully walked down the steps, Chen at her side and her mother leading the way.

"So," Jiao began as she stopped in front of me, her hands patting smooth her dress, "how do I look?"

"Very beautiful," I replied, smiling a bit wider. She had straightened her long and normally curly hair, and had twisted it into a bun, holding it in place with a jeweled pin much like Chen's. Simple but pretty pieces of gold jewelry hung about her neck and dangled from her ears.

Her cheeks reddened slightly as I spoke, a tiny smile playing at her mouth. Then she slapped my arm with an inhuman amount of strength, almost knocking me over, but Delun was in the way, so I managed to stay upright by crashing into him. After so long of getting beaten up by Mei Rong, Jiao, Delun, and even Shuang—thankfully, Chen had never joined in on their playful abuse—why did I still stupidly stand within arm's reach of them?

"Oh, thank you," Jiao gushed while Delun irritably shoved me away. "You're so sweet. You're looking very beautiful, too! I'm sure you would look wonderful in a dress and makeup, Princess!"

I frowned indignantly down at her and rubbed my sore arms, abused by the siblings. "I should never have told you about that nickname," I darkly mumbled, then turned toward the door when she started laughing. Shedding my coat and putting on my shoes, I followed Delun, Chen, and their parents outside to the car waiting at the circle drive.

Jiao decided to annoy me further by holding the car door open for me and giving me a bow, murmuring, "My lady, please allow me to hold your hand while you enter the vehicle." Giving her another frown, I pushed her into the car and slid in after her, trying to ignore her and Chen's laughs.

Within twenty minutes, we were rolling to a halt outside of the recently-built office building owned by Lotus, where the party was being held. A Lotus employee hurried forward and opened the car door for us. Delun's parents got out first, then Delun and Chen. After they were out of my way, I scrambled out of the car before Jiao could get out first and offer me her hand again.

A doorman took our invitations and we followed the other fancily-dressed people as we headed to the room in which the party was taking place. The walls were paneled with mirrors, making the room look much bigger and crowded than it actually was. Green and pink—the company's colors—decorations were everywhere, and were somewhat refreshing after seeing so much red and gold. A long food table was on one side of the room, but I knew with one glance that I wasn't going to go anywhere near it; the majority of the dishes looked to be caviar, escargot, and other such foods I had never tried and never wanted to because I was absolutely sure that if I ate any I would vomit.

I took a moment to greet my father, then I grabbed a glass of ice water from a passing waiter's tray and went with Jiao and her siblings to stand off to one side. Many people came to greet us and congratulate us on our engagement—the engagement had happened almost seven years ago, and yet no one seemed to know about it—each person making me more uncomfortable than the last, but I forced myself to keep my polite, business-like persona, knowing my father was expecting perfect manners from me.

Half an hour passed before the people finally left us alone and I was allowed to relax a bit.

But, sadly, that didn't last.

"Long time no see."

I turned my head, looking for the speaker of the greeting. An automatic reply, one of the usual New Years greetings, slipped to the front of my mouth out of habit after greeting so many random people that evening, but I held it in as I stared in confusion at the woman that had spoken. Rather than one of the dry old businessmen and their wives and adult children I'd already had the unfortunate pleasure of greeting, it was a young woman in a green qipao, arms crossed and a glass of white wine held in one hand. Although she had said we hadn't met for a long time, I couldn't place her at all. Perhaps we'd met during the months I'd lost.

"Yes," I finally replied, smiling politely on reflex, "a very long time."

The woman chuckled slightly. "What are you doing here, Laoshi?"

Realization hit me when I heard the honorific in her question, and I felt my face warm in embarrassment; she and I hadn't met before; she and _Gui Wen_ had met before, so no wonder she had greeted me with something different than everyone else…Dammit, I was going to kick Gui Wen the next time I saw him. Not that it was his fault that he and I looked so similar, but really, it was so bothersome getting mistaken for him wherever I went.

Trying my hardest not to look extremely grumpy, I forced my smile to stay in place as I slowly shook my head. "I am sorry, but I think you have mistaken me for my elder brother, Gui Wen, who is a professor."

She blinked twice, looking confused, but then gained a rather annoyed look and said, "I'm not Gui Wen," in a much lower tone. The fact that I was already forcing myself to smile allowed me to cover up my shock at her impression of something I had said a million times before. Apparently I was the mistaken one; she and I really had met, and it wasn't difficult to know from where, since there was one and only one person who had ever called me Laoshi—Windy.

Rather than relaxing at that revelation, I became even more tense. Windy was here to terrorize me in real life as well. This was horrible. I had been hoping that I'd gotten rid of her, yet here she was.

Inwardly groaning, I took a deep breath and hoped my smile looked at least a little natural. "Oh…I see. It is you."

"Of course I'm me…Who else would I be?" she asked, frowning. "By the way, Laoshi, it seems like you didn't hear me. I asked you what are you doing here. I mean, it's kind of unexpected."

Clearing my throat, I swept my eyes over the room until I spotted my father. He was talking with a group of middle-aged men near the food table. Giving a nod in his direction, I felt my smile fade. "My father told me to come," I answered.

Windy-whatever-her-name-was turned to look where I had indicated, and briefly gained a vaguely disgusted expression before she turned back to me.

"He said it would be a convenient time to publicly announce my engagement," I added, and then frowned in remembrance of Windy's last message in-game. I grabbed Jiao's shoulder and gently pulled her forward until she was standing directly in front of the other woman. "This lady, Lin Jiao, is my fiancée," I explained, trying not to sound too frantic in my want to clear up the fact that I was most definitely _not_ gay.

The woman's face unexpectedly filled with pity as I spoke, and then, even more unexpectedly, she glared furiously at Jiao. Jiao, looking extremely surprised at the reaction from the other woman, took a tiny step closer to me, as if expecting me to be able to shield her from the Raging Flames of Doom coming from the real life version of Windy.

"Laoshi." She snatched up my hands into her own, and I almost dropped my water, which clanked against her glass of white wine. Upon noticing she was within the other woman's reach, Jiao took a step back and came to a stop beside her brother. I stared down at my captured hands, then awkwardly looked up to meet the woman's empathetic green eyes. "Don't worry. If you need any help, I will give it to you no matter what."

…Help with what?

Jiao and her siblings looked just as confused as I. This was not the reaction I had been expecting from her. Then again, why had I even bothered expecting anything normal? Windy was always doing weird things…Oh no, what if she still thought I was gay?

"Thank you," I replied after a moment, wishing she would hurry up and let go. "That is very kind of you to offer so much support." Feeling uncomfortable, I lightly tugged my hands out of hers and quickly steered the conversation away from my personal life. "And what are you doing here? As you said, it is a very unexpected meeting."

"Work," she briefly answered, then took a deep breath, her face helpless. "I have been spending so much time in the new branch that I feel like I practically live here." Ah, so she worked for Lotus.

Nodding, I smiled faintly. "Yes, unfortunately I know how it feels to 'live' at the office. It is quite tiring, having so much to do…but lately I have been taking more work home with me rather than going through it at the office. It takes a little bit of the stress off, at least." Sighing, I swirled around my glass of ice water and sipped it, wishing this party would end so I could leave. Being around such a crowd was just as bad, if not worse, as being stuck in my office for an entire day, with nothing but paperwork for company.

"How curious. Lately I feel the other way around. I used to work from afar as much as I could, but now my responsibilities have increased quite a bit…I kind of miss it right now. My father seems like he wants me to try out things outside of my area of expertise. It's so very hard, but I guess there is no helping it." A ringing suddenly came from her purse. She quickly withdrew a cellphone and glanced at it. "Oh, I'm sorry, Zian, I wish I could stay longer, but it seems that they need me at the front lines." With a slight bow and a bright smile that was quite infectious and blush-inducing, she ended, "Until next time," and turned away, leaving me with the other three.

Feeling extremely happy that she hadn't bent herself in half while bowing, like she had in-game the other night, I sighed in relief and took another drink of water, wondering for a moment how she had known my name. I hadn't given it during our brief conversation, although I probably should have. But, deciding how she had known wasn't important, I turned to the other three again. They were all staring at me with red-faced, shocked expressions. I glanced from one muddled face to the next. "What?"

Delun exhaled slowly and raised one eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'what'‽" he demanded in a low voice. "I know you're used to dealing with that demonic father of yours, but what in the world did you do to get Long Zhou Xia of all people to talk in such a friendly way, and smile like that‽"

"I've only met her a couple times, but she's always so intimidating and stern," Chen murmured, one arm tightly wrapped around one of Delun's.

"Why did she glare at me?" Jiao faintly asked, frowning in perplexity.

I was bit surprised when I heard who the woman was, but I simply shrugged and looked down at my water, melting ice cubes tinkling against the inside of the glass. I'd heard of Long Zhuo Xia and all of her impressive accomplishments within Lotus; my father had drilled me over and over on important people in the world of business. However, I'd never met her in person, until now. She didn't seem to be as bad as the horrifying rumors, though. But then, my father often put on a polite front when he was at social events, and I already knew that Windy was scary, so, like my father, Zhou Xia must have only been pretending to be a nice person.

My suspicious thoughts about Zhou Xia were interrupted when the person who I found a million times as intimidating as Zhuo Xia walked up and stopped in front of me. My father stared hard at me, then glanced toward where the woman had left. "I do hope you were polite to her," he quietly said, tone as threatening as it always was.

"Yes, Father," came the mechanical reply.

"Long Zhuo Xia and Long Lien are very important, and I will not tolerate any improper behavior toward them."

"No, Father."

"I was actually planning on introducing you to them this evening, since you did not attend any dinners they were at in the past. You always whined until I let you stay at home. But it seems introductions are is unnecessary after all." He frowned faintly. "When did you meet her? I was unaware of it."

"I met her only earlier this week," I replied softly, "and our meeting was by chance, outside of work. She and I happen to have a…common interest. I did not know who she was until a moment ago."

"I see." His eyes narrowed and he took a drink of his red wine, then lowered it and tapped one finger against the side of the glass. "She would be a wonderful choice for Gui Wen's fiancée. Quite the capable woman; their skills and intelligence are nearly on par with one another. But, since he…" He fell silent, face darkening with what I assumed were thoughts about Gui Wen's abrupt disappearance.

I was filled with thankfulness that Zhou Xia had risen in the world of business after I had been engaged to Jiao, thus eliminating her as a potential candidate for my fiancée. I was quite happy with the kind and calm Jiao, and most definitely didn't want to marry a terrifying maniac like Zhou Xia. Although, from what I had heard of Long Lien, I doubted the protective man would have agreed to my father's marriage proposal. And given that my father thought I was worthless and stupid, he probably had never even considered pairing me with Zhou Xia, in my brother's stead.

Whatever had happened, I found fresh contentment here by Jiao's side.

Sighing slowly, my father finally looked back to me. "Keep up the good affiliation. It will be quite beneficial for me if you are close to her."

"Yes, Father." It had been Yu Lian's choice in the first place to keep up the relationship between Zhou Xia and I, but oh well. All I had to do was be polite, and that wasn't too hard, I supposed.

My hope that he was going to go away vanished when his face suddenly became confused again as he looked me over. "What in the world are you wearing?" he asked, frowning.

The word "clothes" flew to the tip of my tongue, but I managed to keep my mouth shut, knowing he would be furious if I said something so smart-alecky. And just how unobservant was he that he hadn't noticed until now that I wasn't wearing a million layers?

He didn't wait for me to answer anyway. "Go change your clothing immediately," he ordered. "I will not have you shivering all evening."

"There is no need to change," I slowly replied, "I am not cold."

"Impossible," he growled, eyes narrowing. "You have always…" Pausing, he stared at me a moment, seeming to notice that I really wasn't shivering, regardless of my thin apparel. I flinched when his hand darted forward and briefly touched my chin, and he suddenly looked angry. "Why have you come here when you are sick‽" he demanded quietly enough that no one else would hear. "You stupid boy, think about how many people will–"

"I am not sick," I denied.

"You obviously have a fever," he hissed, glaring at me.

"I do not!" I snapped, then caught myself, feeling somewhat horrified that I was daring to speak back to him. Taking a deep breath, I hastily explained, "My doctor gave me a bottle of pills that one of his coworkers developed. Apparently, he was creating them with the idea of making them available to people who live in cold climates. The pills are still a work in progress, however, and he asked if I would like to help him test them, and I agreed. They keep me warm, thus I do not have to wear a large amount of thick clothes."

Something that seemed close to fear flickered across my father's face, but it was gone in less than a second. "So, that is where you have been disappearing to every evening…That damned laboratory. Your doctor's coworker. Who is he?" His normally smooth voice had taken on a harsh turn.

"He did not give me his name. He only said he is the head of their research team."

Although he managed to keep his face blank, his skin paled slightly. "Take no more of those pills. Dispose of them immediately."

I stared at him in bewilderment for a moment, then surprised myself by saying "No." I had no idea what the hell was wrong with me, but somehow I felt a tiny bit braver than usual. Still, I began to shake afterward, frightened of my own audaciousness.

His eyes went wide at the same time mine did, and I was absolutely sure he would have punched me had we not been standing in a room full of people. "Dispose of them," he repeated threateningly.

"Why?"

The shock on his face became more apparent. "Because I told you to!" he hastily said. I had never seen him so unsettled and flustered before.

Inhaling slowly, I shook my head. "F-Father…" I hesitantly began, trying to piece together my argument. "I see no point in disposing of them. They are very beneficial to me, and are of no harm at all. I…" I had to take another breath, trying my hardest to stand my ground. "I told you already," I murmured, looking down, "I am not going to be a mindless drone anymore. I will not blindly follow your every order, especially not one so strange. You have given me no reason to obey."

"Comprehension has nothing to do with obedience," he icily whispered. "It matters not that you do not understand." Exhaling out his nose, he straightened. "Dispose of them," he commanded again, then turned and walked away before I could say anything else.

Now that he wasn't looking at me, I glared at him, the ice cubes in my glass tinkling loudly as my hand began to shake harder with a mixture of terror and anger. He may have told me to get rid of the pills, but I most certainly wasn't going to. Perhaps I was finally entering my rebellious stage, but I felt absolutely determined to not follow his order, mostly out of a want to spite him.

Turning to the other three, I sighed heavily and looked around. "I need to sit down."

With a worried nod, Jiao took my arm and began leading me toward one of the circular tables, at which I spotted Chen's parents, Mei Rong, her boyfriend, and a middle-aged couple I assumed were the boy's parents.

Just when I was starting to feel a tiny bit more cheerful, my mood was once again ruined when someone pinched my butt, interrupting my trek to the table. Holding in the automatic yell of surprise, I whirled around and glared at the culprit. Another person I didn't want to see cheekily grinned up at me, his green eyes glinting mischievously. "Victor!" I hissed, very much wanting to throw my water—and the glass—at his girly face.

"Hello, darling!" he greeted, rubbing his gross hand around on my shoulder. "I have been looking everywhere for you! Really, it was difficult, since I was looking for your usual bundle of coats, but you are…wearing so little." He quirked one of his pale eyebrows and ran his gaze up and down me.

Delun began dragging Jiao and Chen away.

I would have followed them, except Victor took my arm and dragged me in the other direction. "Would you like a drink?" he smoothly asked, lifting a glass of bubbling champagne. I stared in horror at it and immediately began to shake my head, having learned what happens when I drink something offered by him.

Victor laughed and took a sip out of the glass in my stead. "Mm…" He slowly swallowed, then gave my arm a hard squeeze. "I was so disappointed at Christmas, Zian. I waited and waited, but you never came to my party!"

"I told you over the phone that I had plans," I reminded, inwardly sighing.

"Plans you made _after_ I invited you," he grumbled. "You're so cruel, always avoiding me…and I even promised not to drug you. Didn't you believe me?"

"Please stop pretending as though my caution is groundless."

"But it is!" he insisted. "It's rather silly of you to hang on to old grudges. I was a stupid little fourteen-year-old with too much time on his hands and too much audacity. I have long-since learned my lesson when it comes to such underhanded tactics, so you really don't have to be so guarded!"

Like hell I'd believe that.

He smiled up at me again. "Now then. There is something I want you to see. You will love it! It is—Oh! Let's not walk _that_ way," he whispered, suddenly changing directions as we wove through the crowd. "My brothers are over there. Ugh." A sour look briefly took over his face as he gave a shudder. I would have preferred being in his elder brothers' company, really, although the pair was quite boring and bland, the opposite of the lively and energetic Victor, who hated them. They hated him as well, understandably, although their reasons might have been different from mine.

Half a minute later, Victor halted me up against one of the mirrored walls and pointed one finger in the direction of a nearby clump of people. After another sip of his champagne, he tilted his head slightly to one side. "He is quite rough around the edges, but he certainly cleans up nicely, doesn't he?"

Feeling a bit confused, I scanned the crowd, wondering who Victor was talking about. It took me a moment, but my eyes went wide as I spotted a familiar face in the group. His long and wavy black hair had been cut shorter, which caused it to be a lot curlier now that it wasn't weighing itself down. Although his face usually had a shadow of stubble, he'd shaved himself smooth. A pair of rimless glasses were resting on the bridge of his nose, and he was wearing clothes as fine as what anyone else in the room had on. His usually childish, energetic behavior had taken a much more mature, gentlemanly air.

Heng blended in perfectly.

"What the hell have you done‽" I barely kept myself from yelling at Victor, my words coming out as a strangled whisper.

"What have _I_ done?" Victor chuckled. "I didn't do that. Well, I did sneak him in, but he and your fiancée's sister asked me to do it. However, he did the makeover all on his own. He looks quite handsome."

Although horrified at seeing Heng here, I couldn't help but agree with Victor. Heng himself was rather plain and average, but he looked very nice at the moment.

Then again, Heng always looked nice to me.

And I most certainly didn't like that someone else had noticed how nice-looking he was.

"You're welcome," Victor murmured, smiling and giving my shoulder another pat before he walked toward some scantily-clad woman I didn't know, looping his arm in hers and bending over to talk into her ear. Looking back to Heng, my face hardened into a blank mask when he briefly turned in my direction. Thankfully, he had enough sense not to give me one of his goofy smiles. Without any reaction at all, he looked away and continued talking with the group of Victor's friends, obviously pretending he hadn't known me.

Feeling extremely irritated, I wandered back over to where everyone else was and heavily sat down beside Jiao, giving polite greetings to Chen's parents and Mei Rong's boyfriend and his family. Jiao leaned toward me, eyes wide with anxiousness. "Are you okay?" she whispered. "I tried to grab you when Dàgē started shoving Dàsăo and I away from Victor, but you were already gone. He didn't do anything weird, right?"

Slowly shaking my head, I forced my face to stay blank. "He didn't do anything to me…but you might want to ask Mei Rong-mèi why she decided to ask Victor to sneak Heng into this party."

Jiao looked confused. After a brief pause, she gave a casual look about the room. "Dib's here? Why?" Anger seeped into her expression. "What if your father sees him?"

"I was wondering that," I mumbled, taking a long drink of my water. I set the glass on the tabletop, then stood. "Please excuse me for a moment." I stepped away from the table, heading for the door. Once I was out in the hall, I hurried to the right, trying to look like I knew where I was going as I passed by several other people.

I walked far enough that I felt like I'd made it at least halfway across the building. After a glance up and down the hall to make sure no one else was around, I stopped at a random door to one of the offices and tried the doorknob. For whatever reason, it was unlocked. I read the room number displayed on the wall, then slipped inside, locked the door behind myself, and pulled my cellphone out of my pocket, sitting at one of the desks. Texting Heng, I told him to get his ass to the room as soon as possible, then settled down to wait.

Nearly fifteen minutes went by before the doorknob jiggled. I stood and opened the door, yanked Heng inside, then shut and locked it again. "What in the hell are you doing here?" I snapped, glaring up at him.

Heng silently stared at me a moment, then his eyes thoughtfully narrowed a bit behind those glasses. "Well…before you interrupted me, I was talking to people. Socializing. You should try it sometime."

Anger roiling up, I punched his shoulder. "You know that's not what I mean!"

Frowning in annoyance, he rubbed the spot I'd hit. "Geeze, what's your problem? Avila suggested I should come, and I wasn't busy today, so I did! Even if I'm here, I'm staying out of your way like you told me!"

"Why would you even consider coming to a place like this‽" I hotly demanded. "And to go so far as to get the help of that damned Victor!"

Heng sighed and sat down on the corner of the nearest desk, looking completely unconcerned. "Victor isn't so bad, you know. He's a nice guy, if you ignore all the creepy groping."

In shock, I stared at him for a long moment, unable to speak. I never would have expected Heng to defend someone I hated. It was probably a very conceited assumption, but I thought he would have always taken my side.

"I couldn't care less what sort of person he is," I coldly remarked. "I've hated him since the day I met him, and my reasons are completely justified. However, Victor is not the issue, so stop trying to change the subject. _You_ are the issue. Leave."

Hurt briefly flickered over his eyes. "Why do you do that?" he quietly asked, then stood up, his face becoming angry. "Stop treating me like I'm one of your servants!"

Staring up at him in disbelief, I shook my head. "That is not what I meant! I was–"

"Yes, it is!" he countered. "You constantly look down on me and throw around these orders like you expect me to say 'Yes, master,' and give you a bow! I'm fucking tired of it!"

"I DID NOT MEAN THAT!" I roared, feeling extremely offended. "DIDN'T YOU GIVE ANY THOUGHT AS TO HOW DANGEROUS IT IS FOR YOU HERE‽ WHAT ABOUT HOW DANGEROUS IT IS FOR _ME_ IF YOU'RE HERE‽ I DON'T WANT MY FATHER TO SEE YOU! IF HE RECOGNIZED YOU, DO YOU THINK HE WOULD DO NOTHING‽ WAS MY NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE LAST OCTOBER NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU TO SEE HOW DANGEROUS IT IS TO DO SOMETHING AS RECKLESS AS THIS‽"

Inhaling deeply, I shook my head again. "How will you possibly defend your choice to come here if my father retaliates? It's just a damn party. It's not worth the risk you're taking. That is why I want you to leave. I did not mean to be condescending, I'm simply worried about you."

Heng relaxed slightly after my explanation, but he didn't seem to be any closer to leaving. "Al…Look, I understand all that. I'm not an idiot. I really did think things through before I did this. I've been out in the world since I was a kid, unlike you, so quit acting like I don't know anything about what people are like.

"I'm sure he's not going to recognize me. He's already walked past me twice and he didn't even glance at me. Plus he's only met me in person once, so I doubt he even remembers what I look like. And I was blending in with Victor's friends, who didn't know who I am, either, though they saw me that one time when you and I ran into them. Victor told them I'm a friend of his visiting from somewhere in mainland China, and they all believed him."

"Just because my father didn't look at you doesn't mean he didn't know it was you," I snapped. "He would never cause a scene at an event like this, so don't assume he isn't planning something for later."

"It will be fine, so stop worrying," Heng firmly said. "And I really think you're exaggerating what he can do. You're overestimating him."

All of my rage suddenly returned. Completely unable to hold back, I punched him again, and again, and again, and again, hitting every bit of him I could reach until he finally grabbed my wrists and held me away from himself, looking surprised at my outburst. "OVERESTIMATING‽" I bellowed, struggling in his grip. "YOU'RE _UNDER_ESTIMATING HIM!" Trembling, I glared furiously up at him. "How could you say I'm overestimating him?" I demanded. "After everything I've told you about what he's done to me…Everything I've been through…You think I've been exaggerating this whole time‽ You think I've been lying‽"

"No! I mean–"

Tearing myself away from him, I turned and stomped to the door. "Fine, do whatever the hell you want, Heng."

"Wait!"

"And don't expect me to ever tell you anything important again. Like you'd even care, since to you they're all EXAGGERATIONS!" Grabbing the handle of the door, I started to open it, but it abruptly slammed shut when Heng caught up to me.

Shock made me gasp when he roughly took hold of me, yanked me backward, and slammed me to the floor. "I SAID WAIT!" he screamed, fingers digging into my arms as he held me in place. "STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME BEFORE I'VE FINISHED WITH WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY! THAT'S WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT WHEN I SAID YOU'RE LOOKING DOWN ON ME! YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME! YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME, DAMMIT!" His chest heaved as he fell silent for a moment, staring angrily down at me. I felt completely terrified seeing this side of Heng for the first time. Although a tiny part of my mind knew that Heng wouldn't seriously hurt me, I automatically shielded my face, having been in this position with my father more times than I could count. But the rain of fists that I expected didn't come.

"At least respect me enough to let me finish," he whispered, all of the anger gone from his voice, although he continued to grip my trembling arms so tightly they were going numb. "Just listen to me. I don't think you're lying. And I don't think you exaggerate when you talk about what your father has done, but I do think you're overestimating him. Your fear of him exaggerates what he's capable of. I know he did a lot of shit when you were younger, but you're not a kid anymore. You can stop him if you'd just stand up for yourself. And even if you're too scared to do that, you've got so many people to give you help. You're not alone like you were before. You've got Wei Bo and his whole family—they'd definitely protect you and get in contact with the police if your father got too crazy. And you've got Gui and his friends, and you've…you've got me, too. Hell, I bet even Victor would back you up. All you have to do is ask."

A moment of silence went by. I didn't uncover my face, although I wasn't particularly afraid anymore. I was just ashamed of myself, yet again. His words made me feel incredibly relieved, and yet incredibly hurt, and I couldn't decide whether I was supposed to be happy or not.

"You've gotta stop pushing people away, Al," he continued quietly, finally releasing my aching arms, although he continued to sit on me. "If you keep isolating yourself…someday you're gonna look around and you really will be all alone. You'll have pushed everyone far enough that they've all left you. I've…got a lot of patience, and I'm trying really hard, but…you're wearing me out. Even I've got my limits.

"I know you don't wanna be a bother to people, so you try to work things out on your own, but geeze…Sometimes people are more bothered when you don't rely on them. You make me feel really useless when you act like I can't do anything for you. Why the hell am I your friend if you don't need me? It'll be pointless for me to stay by your side if you're not ever going to see me as someone who can help and support you."

He let out a loud sigh, got off of me, and sat down on the floor. "Well, that's all I wanted to say. Go ahead and stomp off like the spoiled brat you are."

Rather than getting up, I simply continued to lay there, too embarrassed with my own stupidity to move or speak. I'd had no idea I was wearing him out. He'd never mentioned it, or hinted about it, or anything. He always acted so upbeat and cheerful, so how was I supposed to notice?

No, that wasn't right…I should have noticed something so important, even if he hadn't said it aloud.

Why the hell did I have to be so dense about other people?

"Hey," Heng suddenly said, leaning over me. I flinched when he grabbed my arms again, but he was much gentler than before. Lifting me into an upright position, he unexpectedly began unbuttoning my shirt. Finally opening my eyes, I looked down in confusion, but didn't try to stop him. He slipped my left arm out of its sleeve and held it up, his face taking on a very remorseful look. "So that's why my fingernails are red. Damn…I didn't think I'd used _that_ much strength."

There was a set of five purple-edged, bloody, rounded marks dug into my upper arm.

"Sorry," he whispered, pressing his hand over the cuts.

"It doesn't matter," I mumbled, looking away. I hadn't even noticed them, really. They barely hurt at all.

"It does matter." His tone as gruff as his frown, he slipped around behind me and pushed my shirt to the floor as he inspected my other arm. "Stop being so apathetic about getting hurt, geeze."

Not feeling like arguing, I didn't say anything. He trailed a hand down my back, his fingers tracing over the various lumps and indentations in my scarred skin. "One look at this and anyone would know you're not exaggerating about the shit that bastard did to you." His hands dragged to my sides and he slipped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest and resting his head against my left shoulder.

I was a bit embarrassed when he kissed the side of my neck, but didn't struggle or tell him to stop. Trembling from the contact of his lips, I leaned back, hugging his arms to myself while I listened to his nervously thudding heartbeat, wondering if he always felt so happy and safe when I held him like this in _Second Life_.

"Are you cold?" he softly asked.

He moved to pick up my shirt, but I grabbed his hand and wrapped it around myself again. "I'm fine."

"Okay." With a tiny sigh, he relaxed against my back.

I shifted myself slightly and stared at the side of his head. Lifting one hand, I patted the curly ends of his soft hair and brushed them away from the silvery temples of his new glasses. "Why are you wearing these?" I asked.

Heng frowned at me. "Because I need them, of course. Why else would I be wearing them?"

"To look scholarly?" I guessed jokingly, pulling them off and putting them on my own face. Everything was suddenly distorted. "Whoa." Blinking away the ache that was bursting through my eyes, I quickly took off the glasses and stuck them back on Heng.

Adjusting them, he let out another sigh. "I've needed them for a while…Only just got around to actually getting my eyes checked out at an optometrist."

"They look good on you," I murmured, giving his hair another pat. "Your haircut is very nice as well. I didn't even recognize you for a moment."

Heng laughed. "Thanks. I guess my disguise is better than I thought."

Several minutes passed in comfortable silence, then I opened my mouth and inhaled, suddenly getting the urge to tell him about my evening activities. "Remember when I had that fever a few weeks ago?"

"How could I possibly forget that nightmare?"

"Ever since that day I've been going to see my doctor almost every evening after work. Nothing's wrong with me," I quickly assured when he made a surprised noise, "but he's been trying to help me…retrieve that stuff I've forgotten."

Heng's heart sped up considerably as I spoke. He was quiet for a bit, and then asked, "And?"

"It's going slowly. I've remembered almost all of July, although it's all kind of jumbled and messy."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Feeling a bit guilty at the pain in his voice, I squeezed his hand. "I didn't know if I'd be able to remember anything, and didn't want to disappoint you if nothing would happen. And I…well, even if you tell me not to be afraid, I'm still terrified of the thought of what my father would do to you and I both if he found out. So I kept it a secret."

"Are you doing this just because I asked?" He sounded somewhat annoyed. "As I said in-game…you're such a pushover, doing whatever people ask…And you told me you didn't want to remember. I don't want you to force yourself to go through with this if you don't even want to do it in the first place. I want you to be willing."

"I am doing it because you asked," I admitted slowly. "I doubt I would have ever tried to remember if you hadn't brought it up. But I'm also doing it because I want to do it. I feel kind of incomplete, I guess, having that big gap there. And I never said I didn't want to remember, I just said I didn't need to. But as you said, needing and wanting aren't always tied together…so, yeah. That's that.

"And now!" I loudly said, standing and scooping my shirt off the floor. Heng stared up at me in bewilderment as I shook out the red jacket, then threw it around myself and began to button it up. "I told the others I would only be gone for a moment. They probably think I fell in a toilet and got stuck or something. Plus I would rather not raise any suspicions if my father notices I'm missing." Taking a deep breath, I strode to the door, then turned, watching as Heng stood up. "But," I murmured, looking away from him, "I'll try to leave soon…if you want to come over…?"

Heng didn't answer for several seconds. When he did, he sounded very amused, and somewhat embarrassed. "Yeah. I'll come. Geeze, I think this is the first time you've invited me over."

I paused, shrugged, then whirled around and left the room, shutting the door behind myself before he could follow. An hour and a half later, I managed to convince everyone to leave, so we all piled into the car—Delun's parents had discovered Heng and forced him to also ride back with us, so he didn't have to call a taxi—and went home.

It was raining heavily when the car door opened and I stepped onto the wet pavement, sheltered by an umbrella held by the driver. Not caring if I got wet, I walked away from him and stood under the downpour, tilting my head back to watch the drops fall from the dark sky. It was a bit cold, but felt very nice anyway. Turning, I watched as the others got out and hurried to the house. "I'll be back in a moment," I announced, then headed toward the path leading into the garden, ignoring Delun's irritated yells for me to come back.

Darkness enveloped me as I walked along the brick pathway, the rain dribbling through the canopy of the trees and swiftly drenching me. Pausing a moment, I slipped off my shoes and socks, then continued on barefoot, staring down at my feet. Normally I would have been frozen solid by now, but I could barely feel the cold at all. Those pills were amazing. That doctor had told me they weren't addictive, but I had a feeling I was going to get hooked on them anyway.

Stopping by the koi pond, I dropped my footwear on the nearby pavilion's floor and wandered over to the water's edge. All of the colorful fish immediately swam over to me and clustered together. I felt a bit guilty that I hadn't brought them any food, but I knew Shuang and Chen made several trips out here daily, so they were all well-fed.

Loud splashy noises made me turn. Heng was hurrying along the path, a blue umbrella held aloft over his head. "Al! Wei Bo is super mad now, you know!" he huffed, hopping into the pavilion and rumpling up his wet hair. "He says if you make yourself sick again, he's gonna drink all of your favorite tea."

"Oh no," I exclaimed, feigning fear, "how terrible. Whatever shall I do?"

With a grumpy frown, Heng beckoned me over to him. "Come on, you really will get sick after standing out in the rain like that. You're soaked…and you're not even wearing your shoes! Put them back on, stupid!"

Shaking my head, I looked upward again. "This is the first time I've ever been out in the rain. It feels wonderful."

"Does not! How are you not turning into a popsicle‽ Even _I'm_ cold!"

Smiling in amusement, I turned and walked over to the pavilion, lifting myself up over the railing and dropping to the wood floor. Stretching out my arms to either side I leaned against one of the pavilion's posts. "I'll warm you up," I offered. For whatever reason, I was feeling very daring that evening; I'd talked back to my father, yelled at Heng, and had even braved the rain just to go for a walk, although I'd been on the brink of hypothermia every other time the weather was so bad and I was stuck outside.

Heng's eyes went wide at my invitation, his hands twisting around the umbrella's handle. After a moment's hesitation, he slowly walked forward, dropping the umbrella at our feet. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly, savoring his solidarity and lewdly loving how I could feel every bit of him through our thin clothing. I'd always had so many layers on before, but now…well, there wasn't much that I couldn't feel. I was vaguely happy that it was nighttime and the garden had very little lighting, so I hoped Heng couldn't see how red I was turning.

With a humming noise, Heng buried his wet face in the crook of my wetter neck, murmuring, "So warm." His lips briefly pressed against my neck, then my jaw and cheek. As his light kisses trailed up to my temple, irritation began to grow in my mind until I put a hand on his chest and tried to push him away. Self-control…

"Stop."

Self-control…

"No," he immediately denied, chuckling faintly as he gave me a squeeze and continued the kisses.

Self-control, self-control, self-control…

"I said stop!" Lightly smacking his head, I frowned at him when he obediently—and very grumpily—drew away to stare down at me in discontentment.

Self-control, self…cont…Oh, to hell with self-control.

Gathering up all of my courage, I took a deep breath and locked my eyes onto his mouth. "If you're going to kiss me, do it properly," I quietly ordered, leaning forward and pressing my lips to his before I could change my mind. I was probably going to regret this. No, I definitely was going to regret this. But at the moment I couldn't have cared less, and pulled him closer.

However, he inhaled sharply and tore away from me, looking thoroughly shocked. "W-wha…! Al!" he nearly yelled. "Have you been drinking‽"

"Yes—ice water," I innocently replied.

"Then…a fever again?" he guessed breathlessly.

"I assure you I am entirely in my right mind." Maybe.

He opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again and nodded. "Oh, well. Okay then." That being said, he hungrily resumed our previous activities, one arm wrapped around my waist and the other raised to touch my face. My mouth was filled with the sweet tastes of chocolate and raspberries from the cake he'd been eating at the party. My mind became somewhat fuzzy and I tightened my arms around him, leaning into him and losing myself in the lovely feeling. I hadn't known it was possible, but I was fairly certain I wanted him a hell of a lot more.

After a moment, Heng exhaled through his nose and leaned back a little bit, frowning down at me. "Not to ruin the moment or anything, but…Al, you're really bad at this."

Glaring up at him in offense, I huffed, "Well, yeah. What were you expecting?"

Shrugging, he sighed and remarked, "In my imagination it was always so much more…passionate and amazing and stuff…and we always seemed to be wearing a lot less clothes."

"This isn't your imagination. This is _reality_," I reminded snappishly, feeling somewhat embarrassed—and also ridiculously happy—to hear that he'd been thinking about such things. "Just how many people do you think I've kissed before?" It wasn't like I went around practicing.

His eyes widened a little in curiosity. "How many?"

Taking a slow breath, I admitted, "Well, several people have forced kisses on me, but how many people I've kissed back…that would be one…if you include you. Just now."

Several seconds passed by before Heng finally responded. With a very disbelieving expression, he quietly asked, "Are you being serious?"

"Yes." I nodded quickly.

"That…That was your first time kissing someone?"

"…Yes?"

"No way."

"Yes way."

Even though it was so dark, I could clearly see that Heng's face had gone very red, and a pleased-with-himself smile appeared. "Oh, geeze…This is ridiculous, Al. An amazing, super-attractive person like you? Never kissed…Well, no, never mind. If it's you I guess it's not surprising, now that I think about it, but…Geeze. No wonder you're so bad at it."

Much to my increased annoyance, he suddenly started laughing as if my complete lack of experience was humorous. Feeling humiliated, I roughly shoved him away and angrily stomped across the pavilion, stepping onto the slick pathway, though I wanted very much to turn around and punch him as hard as I could.

Still laughing, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back out of the heavy rain. "W-wait…Ha-ha-ha…Wait, Al."

"Let go!" I yelled, attempting to smack him away.

"Al, come on." He took another moment to laugh, hugging me from behind.

"I'm never kissing you again," I decided heatedly, trying and failing to pry his arms off from where they were wrapped around my chest.

"No-o-o!" he exclaimed. "That's so mean!"

"So is laughing at me!"

"I'm not laughing at you!" he hastily corrected, then nuzzled my cheek with his cold nose. "I'm just so happy that I got your first kiss. Even if it was terrible. Hehe."

"Stop laughing, dammit! It's not funny!" I snarled, squirming around until I managed to face him.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he murmured, his words nearly drowned out by the rain pounding against the pavilion roof. He smiled as he dipped down to kiss me again. All of my will to struggle out of his grip faded away and I sighed against his lips, closing my eyes and wrapping myself around him, far happier than I could remember ever feeling before.

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><p><em>*cue Yiruma's song, Kiss the Rain, to start playing in the background* haha. Gaaaahhh! Finally! xD The romance happened so fast in the original, but now it's going really slow…I'm sorry for making you all wait so long. lol<em>


	53. The Guilt of Infidelity

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note __– __**__Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)__  
><em>_

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><p>My heart was pounding, my hands were sweating and shaking, my lip was hurting from how much I'd been biting it, nervous energy was pounding through my whole body. Trying to regulate my shallow, uneven breathing, I slowly stepped forward, pushing open the scuffed-up metal door leading into a large abandoned warehouse I had stumbled across. It was dark inside, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust.<p>

Keeping to the dirty wall, I tip-toed along, carefully scanning the area surrounding me, checking behind boxes and old machinery before I passed them by. The whole place was quiet, except my soft footsteps across the dusty concrete floor, the gusting of the wind outside, and the rapid thudding of my own heart.

A clatter made me whirl around and lift my shotgun as I dove behind one of those piles of crates. Narrowing my eyes, I peered down the gun's barrel, scanning the dark warehouse again. I couldn't see anything out of place, but I still felt twitchy. Another noise made me turn to the right, my finger trembling over the gun's trigger, ready to shoot if necessary, but again there was nothing.

The malicious chuckle that came a few seconds later filled me with dread and I turned, fearfully looking up at the ceiling as a black-clad figure seated in the metal rafters pointed an alarmingly huge machine gun at my head, chuckled again, and pulled the trigger. Before I could run or even scream, he blasted my head to tiny pieces and splattered the contents of my skull all over the floor.

For the tenth time "YOU'RE DEAD – PRESS START TO CONTINUE" annoyingly flashed in bloody red letters across the right side of the TV screen, and I furiously turned to glare at Heng. He was laughing triumphantly. "You're cheating, aren't you‽" I demanded, kicking him with one foot. "How the hell were you stuck to the ceiling‽"

"I'm not cheating," he denied, giving me a smirk. "And I'm not telling how I got up there. You've gotta figure it out for yourself!"

"Dammit!" Biting my sore lip again, I pressed the start button on my game controller and frowned at the TV, watching while the little me on the screen stood up, my head miraculously intact, although the floor where I had died was still very…messy. "Now I've got to get all my equipment again," I grumbled, moving out of the warehouse and running off to find more weapons, ammo, and armor. Not three seconds later, a tiny red spot appeared on my left ear, signaling that Heng was aiming at me. Before I could react, my head was blown off. For the eleventh time that evening the game told me I had died, as if that wasn't completely apparent.

Letting out a roar, I kicked Heng again. "Stop killing me!"

Heng's face turned red as he laughed and laughed, obviously enjoying this video game much more than I was. "But killing one another is the whole point!" He giggled and leaned forward, taking a mint cookie from the plate on the table and cramming it into his mouth before he flopped back down on the wide couch cushions. "Told'ya I wasn't gonna go easy on you! But I'll be nice and give you a ten second head start. ONE! TWO!"

Stabbing the start button again as he continued to count, I quickly ran away from that damned warehouse, frantically searching for something with which I could arm myself. I smiled grimly as I picked up a set of grenades that had been inside a broken-down truck. With a clicking sound, I buckled them onto my belt and lifted one, turning around to look for Heng, so I could blow him up.

After spotting him on top of the warehouse roof I carefully aimed, then threw the grenade at him. As it sailed off, I turned to run away and find more weapons. However, as Heng got to "TEN!" I was the one who blew up, my limbs and insides disgustingly flying in all directions. I obviously wasn't the only one who had grenades.

"YOU'RE DEAD – PRESS START TO CONTINUE."

"WHY IS THIS GAME SO DIFFICULT‽" I screamed, standing up and squeezing the controller. "YOU PICKED THE HARDEST ONE ON PURPOSE, DIDN'T YOU‽"

Heng gasped for air, leaning forward and shaking as he laughed even harder than the last time he'd killed me. "Y-you're just so-o-o bad at this…" he wheezed. "Don't bl-blame me for your sucky gaming skills!"

"Let me win once!" I ordered, sitting down again and pressing the start button. I died before I could take two steps. "STOP THAT!" Turning, I punched Heng's shoulder as hard as I could. He still didn't stop laughing. "IT'S NOT FAIR THAT YOU WON'T GIVE ME ANY HANDICAPS WHEN I'VE GOT NEXT TO NO EXPERIENCE WITH GAMES AND YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING THESE FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG!"

Heng shook his head and continued to laugh, lifting his hands to ward off my attacks. Roughly shoving him off the couch, I gave him a kick, then pressed the start button again, determined to win. Although I was expecting to die immediately, nothing happened. Feeling surprised, I looked down at Heng to see what he was doing. He was laying on the shaggy black carpet, eyes closed and not moving.

Worried, I set my controller on the couch and knelt down beside him. "Are you okay? Did you hit the table?" I anxiously asked.

His eyes cracked open, a pouting look on his face. "That hurt, you jerk."

Rolling my eyes, I gave his head a shove, relieved that it seemed he was simply exaggerating, as usual. "Just how much could it hurt? You fell off a couch and onto a carpet."

The TV suddenly let out an agonized, garbled yell. Confused, I looked up. My avatar was falling to his knees, several knives sticking out of his chest as bright red blood gushed from his newest set of wounds and dribbled out of his mouth. The health bar at the top of the screen drained and he died within seconds.

"Gotcha again," Heng sneakily chortled.

"YOU CHEATER!" I yelled, grabbing Heng's shirt front and shaking him around as the amused giggles bubbled out of him. "I wasn't even holding the controller that time!"

"It's your fault for not pausing the game!" His chest heaving with the force of his laughter, he dropped his controller and grabbed me. We wrestled and tumbled around on the hard floor for several minutes and I quickly forgot all about the game, my mind completely occupied with the want to get back at him for picking on me so much. I eventually managed to pin him underneath myself, and gave him a superior look. With an airy laugh, Heng smiled up at me, lifting his arms to loop them around my waist. "I give up. You win."

Not feeling at all satisfied with this level of revenge, I tangled one hand in his thick hair and leaned down, lowering my mouth onto his. Once I'd barely touched his lips, I drew back, leaving him open-mouthed and inhaling, all ready for a kiss he hadn't received. After a slight pause, I brushed my lips over his again, pulling away and smiling in amusement as his irritated reaction to my teasing started to appear on his face. I tormented him for a while longer, then finally gave in and kissed him. He let out a happy noise and held me closer, his eyes closing. Taking advantage of how he was completely engulfed in the moment, I suppressed my smile and changed my target to his lower lip, sucking on it briefly before carefully but firmly chomping down.

"Ah!" His eyes flew open and he frowned grumpily at me. "You jerk," he mumbled, lifting his hands to grab my head and force it to stay in one spot as he resumed the kiss. Deciding I'd teased him enough, I thrust my tongue into his mouth, still moving somewhat awkwardly, but not as I had been last week. Heng, saying that it was disgraceful that a twenty-four-year-old such as myself had no experience kissing, had been "teaching" me as often as I would let him, and I had obediently and very willingly been trying my hardest to absorb his lessons. Ever since the night of the party he hadn't said anything about how horrible my kissing skills were, so I assumed I was improving.

When the kiss ended, I tucked my head against his left shoulder and relaxed, vaguely wondering if I should let him get up off the floor, but had no willpower to actually move, so there I stayed, squashing him underneath myself. He didn't complain anyway.

"Hey," he said a moment later. I shifted slightly and stared at the side of his blushing face, but he kept his eyes locked on the ceiling. "…What…um, what are we?" A small, somewhat embarrassed-sounding laugh puffed out of his mouth as he added, "I mean, are we dating now…or what? We just never…labeled it…and I kinda want to know…"

Of all the things he could have brought up…

Sighing, I slid off of him and rolled onto my back. "I don't seem to remember agreeing to date you."

"Then what is this?" he asked, his tone becoming a bit demanding.

I sent him an angry glance, but he was still looking upward and probably didn't see. "'This' is…two friends doing something they shouldn't. The situation between you and I remains unchanged, albeit the intimacy levels have…gone up. However, I'm still engaged. Even this much is making me feel guilty and nervous enough to give me stomach aches every time I go home. I can hardly look Jiao or her family in the eye anymore."

We were both silent for nearly a minute. "Do you love her?" he whispered hesitantly.

"No."

"Does she love you?" His tone was a fraction more hopeful than before.

"No. She and I," I began to explain, carefully piecing together an answer that didn't sound too advantageous for Jiao or Heng, "…care for one another, of course. But it's just a marriage of convenience. There is nothing romantic or deep about it. However…well, I respect her, so…hence why I am feeling so guilty about these near-daily make-out sessions with you."

"Why not just tell her, then?" Heng challenged. "If you don't love her and she doesn't love you, then I don't see why you can't just, you know, let it out…She won't mind, will she? I mean, she's probably had guys she's liked. She was only fourteen when you two got engaged, and you never even met until last year. She had six years to fall for someone else. I knew a lot of girls when I was in high school, and most of them had boyfriends galore. I bet she's no different."

"I have no idea if Jiao would mind this or not." I gestured between Heng and I. "However, I know that I most definitely do not want Jiao to have an affair. Although…that's more of a want for her not to get pregnant by someone else, I suppose, since my father would be furious if she had a child that wasn't mine, and then we would probably have to get married faster to make it seem like the child _was_ mine, to avoid making the whole thing into a scandal, and ah…It'd just be messy." Having my life watched so closely by the public eye was definitely one of the most annoying things about being a prominent figure in society. Unlike some of my 'friends' who adored publicity and seemed to make it their mission in life to get into every single newspaper and tabloid article possible, I hated when such things were aimed at me.

Heng sent me a sneaky smile. "I can't get pregnant. No problem there."

Trying to hide my extreme embarrassment brought on by his statement, I returned his smile with an incredulous frown. "Right. No problem. Male lovers are so much better than illegitimate children. I'm sure my father won't mind at all."

With a heavy sigh, Heng rolled onto his side and stared hard at me. "When did I say we should tell _him_?"

"You and I were friends in secret for…" I paused, trying to count how long it had been.

"Three months," he supplied after a moment, "but now you're living away from him, so it'll be a lot harder for him to find out!"

"Perhaps it would be," I acknowledged, "but how long can that last?" I turned to look at him. "Four months? A year? Two years? Ten? How long until my father finds out and harms you in some way? How long until Jiao finds someone she loves and decides that since I have a lover she can have one, too? Now we're back to the pregnancy issue."

"Haven't you ever heard of condoms‽"

"Condoms can break."

"Birth control pills!"

"What if she forgets to take them?"

"ABORTIONS!"

"That would be a decision I would leave entirely up to her. And if she decides to keep the baby, what then?"

"Tell the kid and everyone else that you're the father!"

"What if the real father wants to take that role? I would not steal it from him."

Heng let out a roar and flopped onto his back again, looking extremely angry. "Why d'you have to complicate stuff so much?"

"I'm not complicating anything. You're simplifying things." I sat up and looked down at Heng, but Dib was obviously leaking out and he sulkily rolled onto his other side, facing away from me. How did the mood manage to go from amazing to horrible in so short a time?

Feeling hurt that he was blaming all of this on me, I stared at my lap. "I'm sorry, but…right now I can't see any way to change things. I _could_ tell Jiao, but…it's not like I can just casually bring it up.

"And even then," I whispered, eyes miserably darting about the floor, "even if she allowed it…and even if we managed to hide it from my father, how long will it be until you can't stand the jealousy of seeing Jiao and I together?…How long until you tire of hiding and find someone you can be with openly, with no third person involved?"

Gui Wen had left me behind, my father had sent me away…If I was abandoned by another person important to me, I had no idea how I would survive. I knew Heng cared for me, but he had already told me that the friendship between he and I was tiring, so how long would a deeper relationship last? He was very outgoing and had a lot of friends; there was bound to be someone who would catch his eye sooner or later. Someone who was much easier to be with than me. Someone who could really make him happy and content. Someone who wouldn't make him miserable so often like I did.

The fear that he might leave me was suffocating and terrifying, and I was sure that's what would happen eventually, so I didn't want to start anything in the first place—then again, I kind of already had. I had fallen hard for him, and for the most part I didn't regret that, but I didn't want to know what it would feel like to hit the bottom.

Heng draped his arms around me and gave me a hug. "Would you stop trying to put an expiration date on this stuff? I've been chasing after you ever since university, so don't you dare think I'm going to give up so easily."

"I never said it would be easy," I retorted thickly.

"Look, Al…I've known from the beginning that this was going to be super difficult, but I'm going to stick with you for as long as you'll let me. I promise I won't leave. Just trust me."

Relief welled up in me, though it was still edged with disbelief. Squeezing my eyes shut, I leaned forward and pressed my hands to my eyes, trying to keep myself from crying. Heng shifted closer, resting his head on my back. "I do get really jealous when I see you two together…Can hardly breathe sometimes, and I get so angry I wanna smash things…Especially right after I found out about it all. It seemed so unfair, you getting stolen from me so fast after I'd put so much effort into getting close to you. I was so afraid that you'd like her instead of me, then I started wondering if I should back off and leave you two alone…Bu-u-ut, then I didn't. Selfish, as usual."

"If my feelings for you back then were anything like they are now, I would have been extremely depressed for a very long time if you had left," I mumbled, "so thank you for being selfish."

He laughed softly and rubbed a hand on my back. "You're welcome." His comforting weight disappeared for a moment. The room dimmed, and the action-packed music and the ambient noises, all of which I'd been tuning out, coming from the FPS game we'd been playing stopped when Heng turned off the game system and the TV. Then he was at my side again, and pushed me onto my back, sliding on top of me. Supporting himself on his elbows, so I wasn't getting flattened, he gently kissed me, each second both assuring me and making me more anxious. Even if Heng wanted me to stop being so pessimistic, I couldn't help but worry about the future.

"Hey," he whispered several minutes later, interrupting the kissing in which I'd been so absorbed. His eyes cracked open and his face gained a very seductive expression. "…Stay here tonight?"

My heart began pounding nervously at his invitation, knowing what he had in mind definitely wasn't a casual sleepover. Face burning when various scenarios began automatically popping into my head, I struggled to work out a coherent response.

While I stumbled over my words, Heng's face darkened a bit. "You don't have to if you don't want to," he mumbled, resting his head on my chest. A mixture of relief and disappointment rushed through my brain, making me even more confused. He let out a long sigh. "Am I rushing things?…If I'm being impatient, then sorry. I mean, I know it's only been a week since _this_ started…but I've…wanted to sleep with you for a really long time."

Taking a deep breath, I once again attempted to sort out a reply. "Well, I…I want to…I admit…but, um, I'm not…I'm not really ready for that…Not just because it feels so fast, from my view anyway, but also, well, I…said already that what we're already doing is really…stressful, trying to hide it from everyone…"

Propping up his chin against my chest, he stared eagerly at me. "So…does that mean if you tell Jiao then we get to do it?"

"I…um…!"

"I can help you talk to her about it, you know. You don't have to do it by yourself. It'll be easier if you've got backup. Plus, knowing how much you hate talking, I know if I helped then it'd happen sooner. And–"

"He-e-eng," I sighed, "I would much rather do this at my own pace. I—I'm sorry that I'm…holding out on you, or…causing you sexual frustration, or whatever the hell it is, but I don't want to rush through this, okay?"

He growled and laid his head down again, but not before I had spotted the extremely sulky look on his face. Feeling guilty, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly, gazing vacantly at the ceiling and wishing there was some way to make everyone happy. It seemed no matter the scenario, someone was going to wind up getting hurt.

"I _will_ try," I assured somewhat desperately. "And hopefully soon…could you just be patient a while longer?"

"Yeah…" he mumbled, sighing dramatically.

Tilting my head back, I gave an upside down look to the clock on the table next to the couch. It was four past eleven, much later than I usually stayed out, which gave me an excuse to leave. Gently pushing Heng off myself, I sat up. "I know this is abrupt, but I should go."

Wrapping his arms around my waist, he shook his head. "No-o-o…stay a while longer."

"It's late. And I have work tomorrow."

"You _always_ 'have work tomorrow.'"

"You have work tomorrow, too, so come on," I huffed, shoving him harder, "let me up."

One of his Dib-ish pouting expressions fell over his face as he finally let go and crossed his arms, kicking one leg at me as I got to my feet. I kicked him back, then walked to the vestibule. Sitting beside the door, I picked up my shoes and slipped my feet into them as Heng walked up behind me. "Want a ride to your car?"

Shaking my head, I stood up and grabbed my bag from the spot where I'd dropped it on the floor earlier when I'd arrived. "I can walk. It's not that far to the lot."

"You sure?"

"Yes," I said, smiling and giving him a brief kiss. "Thank you for having me over. Goodnight."

"'Night," he mumbled reluctantly. "Be careful."

Waving my hand, I opened the door and stepped onto the narrow street, pulling my gloves and hat out of my bag and putting them on as I hurried away from his house, my breath fogging up the air in front of my face and momentarily making it difficult to see where I was going, much like the foggy confusion, which didn't seem to ever go away, muddling up my mind.

Half an hour later, I was finally in the downtown area. Hurrying past the bright neon lights of the bars dotting the roadside, I deeply inhaled the cold air, scented with the usual smells of cars, too many people, and, faintly, the quickly incoming springtime. As I was covering the last stretch of sidewalk, the edge of the parking lot just appearing around the buildings, I gasped in surprise when someone unexpectedly thudded against my back, then a pair of arms snaked around my waist. I was about to tear off the arms and hit whoever it was, thinking it was a thief or a molester, but then I heard the drunken greeting.

"Laoshi!"

Oh, good god, she was everywhere…

Looking behind myself, I spotted the women and sighed deeply. "Hello, Windy," I replied, and took an awkward step away, trying to get out of the overpowering smell of alcohol that surrounded her. It wasn't a thief or a molester, but Zhou Xia wasn't much better, in my opinion, than either of those options. Especially not a _drunk_ Zhou Xia.

She stared up at me for a long while, then gave a glance about us and seemed to be a bit confused. "Laoshi," she repeated, eyes coming back to me, "you shouldn't be in this kind of place. You might get robbed or something."

"There's no need to worry about me," I mumbled distractedly, fighting with her arms in a want to make them let go. I wasn't carrying much money or anything else of value, I had my new self-defense moves that I was a tiny bit confident about, Jiao had given me a bottle of pepper spray as a joke, plus my car was right over there in the parking lot…if I could just get Zhou Xia to unhand my waist.

"I think _you_ are the one you should be worried about," I added, "walking around drunk like this and grabbing people."

Zhou Xia gave a sodden chuckle and declared, "I'm not drunk! I only had a couple of drinks!" She waved her hand about, lost her balance, and promptly fell over backward. Embarrassment smothered me when many of the people walking past laughed at us.

"Yes, not drunk at all," I sarcastically agreed, trying to ignore the discomfort of being made into a spectacle. Sighing again, I reached down and pulled her back into a standing position, keeping my hands on her shoulders just in case she was going to fall a second time. "Are you okay?"

She opened her mouth, but said nothing and looked away from me, taking a deep breath. There was a brief pause, then she smiled, tears abruptly pouring down her face as she said, "I'm perfectly fine," completely unconvincingly.

Feeling alarmed that she'd started crying for some reason, I began to pull her toward the parking lot. "Do you live near here? I can drive you home."

Slapping my hands away, she shook her head. "I'm okay, really. I'm fine," she firmly repeated. She covered her face and I frowned in frustration, wondering what I was supposed to do. Slipping a hand into my bag, I pulled a handkerchief out of one of the inner pockets and stuck it between her fingers, then crossed my arms and looked away, mentally preparing myself for any more crying she was about to let loose. I always felt so awkward and helpless in situations where people were in need of comfort, so hopefully the handkerchief would suffice.

Zhou Xia finally uncovered her face and looked up at me again, giving the handkerchief back. "There is no need for that." Sighing, she looked behind herself. "I need a drink."

Having no idea what to say or do to cheer her up, I immediately countered, "You most definitely do not need a drink, unless it is nonalcoholic," and took hold of her shoulder again, just in case she was about to go wandering off to find another bar.

She gave another weak attempt at shaking me off, but I resiliently held on. "Don't worry too much, Laoshi. Someone will come to fetch me soon," she assured.

"Alright." I glanced around the nighttime crowds, scanning the building fronts for any sign of an open coffee shop in which I could put her. However, it seemed that the only places that were open were bars, clubs, and the like, and who knew what sorts of mischief she would get into if she went to one of those.

I carefully pulled her toward my car again. "I'll wait with you. I don't want to leave you here like this." Much to my relief, she nodded in concession. "Let's sit in my car, then," I suggested. After a very long few minutes of stumbling down the sidewalk, I had deposited her onto the passenger seat. Climbing in on the other side, I turned the car on so I could use the seat heater. Much happier now that I was warm again, I slipped off my hat and gloves and stuck them into my pocket, comfortably stretching my legs.

"Have you…" Zhou Xia began, her words prematurely fading out. "Have…" She sighed and smiled at me. "Are you…good at keeping secrets?"

I laughed faintly at her question. Many, many secretive things quickly came to mind. I had more secrets than I knew what to do with. "Yes," I quietly answered. "I am quite practiced in the art of keeping secrets."

"I…bet I'm better than you at it. Say one thing about me, and I will prove you wrong. It can be whatever…My life is a big lie anyway."

I glanced at her in confusion, then turned to watch the nearby traffic light change colors. "One thing…" I slowly replied. "My father spoke quite positively of you once, when he mentioned how hard you work." Shifting on my seat a bit, I gave Zhou Xia a smile. "However, I have heard many negative things on the same subject, from one or two of my friends. Apparently you often drive your poor employees to exhaustion. How cruel of you."

It was the first thing that came to mind, because I had been unintentionally doing the same thing to my own department for over two years. However, Zhou Xia had, so I heard from my father, worked her employees to the bone for the sake of getting things done quickly; I had worked mine to the bone simply out of my own silliness.

"Well, about that…" she began, "people jumped to the conclusion that I was older than I was. I had no field experience back then and thought that it was the normal pace to work under. I troubled a lot of people, but Dad was by my side all the time pointing out my mistakes and helping me slow down…Well, I don't really know if 'Dad' would be the most appropriate way to call him." She looked at me and admitted, "I'm adopted, and not as an uncle adopting his niece. We are not even blood-related. Surprised?"

I nodded, eyes widening slightly. "Very surprised. That is definitely not something I would have expected…But you're quite blessed, having a parent—father, uncle, whatever you prefer to call him—who cares so much for you, even if you aren't related." I fell silent, picking at the skin on my lower lip and growing to be envious of her for having such a father figure in her life. Then again, Delun's father had been plenty kind toward me, although I still felt somewhat awkward and afraid around him.

"Yup, my daddy is great, and I have great friends…Well, none of them work in the same field that I do. After all, it's full of back-stabbers and blood-suckers.

"You know, Starlight is a very good person. She is kind, loyal, and reliable. A rare find! My life wouldn't be the same without her support. She accepted me for who I am and made me believe in people again…It's a shame that you have such a bad impression of her."

I was barely able to hide the my grimace at the change in topic. Leaning my elbow against the door, I put my chin on my hand, hoping to cover up my expression with my fingers. "Well, it's good to know that she…"

…isn't completely horrible…

"…is such a good friend to you," I replied in a forcefully relieved tone. "Especially while being surrounded by so many horrible people, the back-stabbers and such…Dib is the same for me as Starlight is for you. He's very supportive." After I'd said that, I suddenly realized I was smiling, and quickly wiped it off. I shot Zhou Xia a guarded glance, suddenly remembering she thought I was gay. "A very good _friend_," I clarified, heavily emphasizing the word "friend" in a want to clear up that misunderstanding, determined to live in denial for as long as I could.

"He is?" she asked. "But Dib is a kid. Well…maybe he really is mature. After all, you fell in love with him, and it's for the best to remain _friends_ for the time being. He is really too young for you," she ended with a nod.

If she was a man, I would have hit her really hard for saying that. Hearing it said aloud was painful nearly at a physical level, regardless of how I knew perfectly well that she was right in how I felt about him, minus the part that I was holding back because he was a child.

Gritting my teeth, I turned back to the window and put my head in my hand, hating myself for having just made things worse. I tried to think of something to say to once again deny the claim, but nothing came to my panicked mind. What the hell had I ever done—in public—that would lead people to assume I was in love with the little brat? If anything, I would think people would assume it was a one-sided affection on Dib's part.

Running my eyes over the dark street filled with the nighttime crowds, I bit the inside of my cheek, wondering when her ride was going to arrive. I was very bored, as well as grumpy and tired, and wanted her to go away, so I could go home, so I could go to bed.

A tiny laugh suddenly came from the other side of the car, and she poked my arm. "Don't do that," I ordered huffily, rubbing the sore spot where she'd stabbed me with her finger.

She giggled and poked me again, smiling widely. "You know, Laoshi…" Her voice trailed off, but her finger continued to jab me. Hoping she would get bored if I gave no reaction, I tried my hardest to ignore her as she poked me over and over, the irritation building up the more she picked on me. "Hey, Laoshi," she began again, "can I tell you an amazing secret? You have to promise not to tell anyone."

I gave her a cautious glance, not particularly wanting to know any of her secrets. But she was probably going to keep poking me if I said no, so…"I promise I won't tell anyone," I eventually replied. "What is it?"

"Well…it's about how I ended up in charge of the new branch. Dad had never tried to put me in charge of one before…Guess why he changed his mind." A small smile quirked at her mouth.

Not feeling like thinking very much, I guessed the first thing that came to mind. "It was convenient." However, I doubted that was it, since that wouldn't be much of a secret.

"What kind of reason is that‽" she snapped, looking very pissed off. "Geeze, and I thought my dad was crazy when he named me president of the new branch for agreeing to skip a week of work, so we could go to the beach. But your reasoning is also completely abnormal."

Feeling confused at her anger, I glanced at her again. "It isn't abnormal. Even if there were other candidates, picking you was obviously a convenient choice; he knows you well and you're very skilled." Why would Long Lien have wasted time searching for a person to manage the new branch if he already had someone like Zhuo Xia?

"Yeah, I'm so skilled that he decided that I was ready, since I agreed to lie to my employees. I told them I wouldn't be able to come to work, since I was taking care of my sick uncle. I have never skipped work in over five years, so they all thought that he was on the verge of death. Do you think that I deserve a promotion because of that? The only profitable result was that funeral clothes sold out, since all the people in the company were getting ready for his funeral," she complained, her face turning red.

Covering my mouth with one hand to hide my extremely amused smile, I shook my head. "No, I don't think that is a very legitimate reason…But, um, reasons aside, at least it seems like it was a good decision." Long Lien was surprisingly whimsical.

Seeming to forget that she was inside of a car, Zhou Xia stood up and began to say something, but her words were cut off when her head crashed into the roof. She let out an "Ouch!" and held her head for a moment, then glared at me. "I think my leading a company is absurd! Who in their right mind would let a nineteen-year-old girl be in charge of a company‽"

Staring blankly at her, surprise popped through my head. I'd thought she was around my age, but she was even younger than Jiao. No wonder she was thinking the promotion was strange.

"Ask your father for help if you're feeling uncertain," I suggested momentarily.

With an intense, expectant, teary gaze, she sat down and tugged on my sleeve. "Wouldn't it be too selfish?"

Feeling extremely uncomfortable under her ardent stare, I slowly shook my head. "N-no…?" It would obviously be much better in the long run to ask for help and keep things running properly, rather than stay silent and cause problems through mistakes.

Her face brightened. "So I don't really need to lead the company if I don't want to. That's so great! That settles it, I will quit Lotus and go job hunting!" she declared energetically, reaching into her green shirt. My eyes went wide in shock when she pulled a cellphone out of her bra. Why the hell did she keep her phone in _there_, of all places?

Horrified, I suddenly realized what she was doing. "Whoa, wait!" I yelled, grabbing her wrist before she could dial any numbers. I was most certainly not going to be the one responsible for causing Long Zhou Xia to leave Lotus.

Taking a deep breath, I stared seriously at her. "Look…I have no idea how much you've been drinking this evening, but you are obviously not thinking properly at the moment, and you should just…put the phone away. Okay? This is definitely not a decision to make when you're drunk."

She tore her arm away from me. "You just said I could! And I'm not drunk!"

"I never said you should quit your job!" I snapped, grabbing her hand again and struggling to take away the phone, although I was somewhat reluctant to touch the object now that I knew where she kept it. "I said you should discuss your problems with your father! This is not discussing! This is being rash! AND YOU _ARE_ DRUNK!"

"I'm not!" she stubbornly declared, fighting me to gain control of the phone.

After a brief moment, there was suddenly a loud voice coming from the device, and I jumped in surprise. "_WHY IN HELL DID YOU CALL ME AT THIS FRIGGING HOUR‽ YOU DAMNED WEIRDO!_"

Zhou Xia took advantage of the fact that I'd let go and lifted the phone to her ear. "Mei, I'm quitting Lotus and moving back to T City right now. Can I stay over at your place?" she asked all in one breath.

Seizing the phone, I yelled into it "DON'T LISTEN TO HER! SHE'S NOT QUITTING!" and smashed my thumb down over the end call button, glaring angrily at Zhou Xia. "JUST THINK IT THROUGH! YOU'RE TRYING TO THROW AWAY AN AMAZING CAREER! UNGRATEFUL IDIOT!"

"WHAT AMAZING CAREER‽ BEING A MARTIAL ARTIST, OWNING A CASINO, AND LEADING A MAFIA ARE AMAZING CAREERS! WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT WORKING IN AN OFFICE‽"

"People work their whole lives to get to the point you're at!" I snarled, ignoring the rings coming from the phone. "Your father may have flippantly handed that position over to you, but that doesn't mean you can throw it away just because you think it's not as interesting as other careers! That is completely irresponsible!"

"But I don't want to lead a company!" she sobbed, tears flooding her eyes. "I want to go back home with my daddy!" She shot me a pitiful look, then snatched up the ringing phone.

Seeing that she was going to answer the call, I leaned over and began struggling with her again, trying my hardest to take it away before she made such a huge mistake. I finally managed to get hold of the phone and pressed the answer button, putting it up to my ear and using my other hand to ward off Zhuo Xia's attempts at taking it back. "Who is this?" I demanded, hoping it was whoever was coming to get her.

"_WHO AM I_‽__" the woman on the other end echoed, sounding extremely angry. "_WHO ARE YOU_‽_ WHY ARE YOU ANSWERING HER PHONE__‽_"

"Give it to me," Zhou Xia ordered in a low, threatening tone while she continued to struggle to regain control of the device.

"I won't!" I huffed at her, then rambled into the phone, "I am Min Zian, an acquaintance of Long Zhuo Xia, who is currently—Ouch! She's quite a bit…intoxicated at the moment!" I belatedly hoped that whoever was on the other end of the line wasn't anyone who shouldn't have known that she was drunk.

She began to yank on my coat and wailed, "ME-E-E-I-I-I, HE TOOK MY PHONE AWAY! HE-E-E-LP ME!"

"_So she is drunk. No wonder she is acting so unlike herself. For that girl to claim she is quitting, she must be really wasted…Did you happen to tell her something you shouldn't?_"

"I didn't!" I denied, using all of my strength to shove Zhuo Xia away from myself. "She was talking about how she got her job, and then I told her that if she has problems she should ask her father for help! I have no idea why she thinks she should quit!"

"_I see…_" the woman replied, sounding disbelieving. "_Anyway, put her on the phone, so I can fix this and go back to sleep._"

"Give me my phone back, you thief!" Zhou Xia commanded furiously. Hoping the woman would be able to fix the situation, I thrust the phone at Zhuo Xia and retreated against the car door, staring guardedly at her and watching intently for more dangerous movement. However, she stopped all attacks, focusing on the phone. "Me-e-e-e-i-i-i!…But Mei…I'm not drunk!" There was a long pause after her grumpy denial, then her face abruptly became shocked and she froze, the phone slipping out of her hand and falling to her lap.

Glancing between Zhou Xia's horrified face and the phone, I sat quietly, feeling utterly confused, and was unsure whether this behavior was any better than how she'd been moments before. Several boring, silent minutes passed before I finally put a hand on her shoulder, knowing she probably wouldn't respond to words alone. "Windy?" I called, roughly shaking her back and forth in an attempt to get her attention. "Are you okay?"

Her face turned red as she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine…just a little drunk and apparently out of my mind."

Completely out of your mind, I thought, taking my hand back. Although I wanted to relax, I kept myself at the ready in case she was about to continue with her mission to leave Lotus. "I really think you should give some more thought to quitting," I told her, hoping she would listen now that she was calmer. "Such decisions shouldn't be made rashly. Of course, in the end it's your own choice whether you'll quit or not, but please don't be so hasty."

"I'm not planning to quit. It's just, I don't know if I'm ready. A new city, a new job…it all happened so fast. I'm capable and all, but I…" She sighed, then looked out the window. "How can I be responsible for the lives of so many people? I can barely cope with my own problems. I…there are times when you just want to run away from everything."

"I know what you mean, although my experience is on a smaller scale," I murmured with a nod, then smiled. "However, you're not the only person in the company. There are many people who will help you if the burden becomes too heavy. You simply have to ask."

Zhou Xia gave me a small glance before turning back to the window. "I don't need you to tell me about it. I have been relying in other people for years. I know how much I can ask from others and know what other expect from me. I'm not worried about my performance or my job."

"I see," I slowly breathed, staring up at the roof in bewilderment over her characteristically contradictory words. One minute she's telling me she's worried, the next she's trying to convince me she's not worried at all…I once again had to remind myself not to expect her to say or do anything normal. What was the problem if she was already confident she'd be able to manage everything?

A few minutes passed by in silence, then I turned to her again. "When is your ride coming?" I asked, then paused and waited for an answer, but she didn't give me one. I leaned forward and finally noticed her eyes were closed. She had fallen asleep.

"Windy?" I called quietly, pausing again to see if she would wake up. She didn't, so I gently shook her. She still didn't wake up, so I shook her a little harder, but nothing happened. Settling down in my seat, I stared at the road, deciding to wait a while. However, when nearly an hour passed and no one came, I sighed and got out my cellphone, quickly dialing Jiao's number and holding the phone up to my ear, hoping she was still awake. Then again, I kind of hoped she was asleep. I really didn't want to talk to her at the moment.

She answered after several rings. "_Hi, Zian._"

"Hello," I reluctantly greeted, praying that my voice wasn't giving away how thoroughly guilty I was feeling. "Would you ask the maids to prepare a guest room?" I requested in a whisper, not that I really had to be so quiet, I supposed; it was obvious Zhou Xia wasn't going to be awake again anytime soon. I leaned around her, so I could buckle her seat belt, then I grabbed her phone and put it in my pocket. "I met Long Zhou Xia on the way back from Heng's house…She's really drunk and fell asleep in my car."

Leaning back in my seat again, I buckled myself in and sighed, smiling faintly as I listened to Jiao's chuckles. "_Oh my…Alright, I'll have a room fixed up for her._"

"Thank you."

"_Sure. Who knew the terrifying Long Zhou Xia could behave so normally?_" She laughed again.

"You mean 'annoyingly'?" I corrected, shaking my head as I glanced at the sleeping woman beside me. "I'll be home soon."

"_Okay. Bye._"

"Bye." Ending the call, I stuck my phone next to Zhou Xia's in my pocket, then quickly shifted into drive, pulling out onto the road. When one in the morning was approaching, I had finally arrived home, and was parking my car inside the enormous garage attached to the side of the Lin house. After I'd gotten out and walked around to the other side of the car, I opened the door and carefully unbuckled Zhou Xia, hoping I wasn't going to wake her up. I awkwardly dragged her out of the car and picked her up, my legs and arms protesting against her weight; either I was still super weak, or she was really heavy…or both.

I used my hip to shut the car door, then cautiously walked to the house door, kicking it with one foot, so someone would let me inside. One of the maids opened it seconds later, giving me an amused smile and mouthing a greeting as I stepped through the doorway. Things were going smoothly until I got to the second floor and strode down the hallway, following the maid to the guest room for Zhou Xia. Before we could get there, Delun suddenly appeared, dressed in his pajamas and blinking sleepily. "Oh," he mumbled, yawning, "you're finally…home." His eyes landed on the woman in my arms, and his face went very red with what was unmistakably anger.

Oh, dammit.

"What are you _DOING_‽" he roared, stomping forward, hands curled into fists. "SNEAKING AROUND AND BRINGING GIRLS HOME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT‽"

"Be quiet," I hissed, glaring at him. "You'll wake her up."

He didn't listen to me, and continued to stomp and yell about how much trouble I was in. His face went pale when he finally noticed who I was carrying. Inhaling sharply, he furiously glowered at me, grabbing my coat front. "I knew it!" he snapped. "You're having an affair with her! I thought it was weird how nice she was to you at the dinner, but this proves all of my suspicions!"

"I'm not having an affair with her," I angrily denied. "She was drunk and I–"

"You said earlier you were going to Heng's house!" he interrupted. "I see now! You were really out drinking with her! YOU BASTARD! HOW COULD YOU CHEAT ON MY SISTER‽" Guilt once again twisted at my insides as he continued to yell. Although I certainly wasn't having an affair with Zhou Xia, I was with Heng. It was annoying, but Delun had every right to be furious.

"Dàgē!" Jiao suddenly snapped, coming up behind us. "Leave him alone!"

"JIAO-MÈI! I CAUGHT HIM–!" he began, but was cut off when Jiao shoved him backward, gave me a tired look, and began to drag her shouting brother away. Feeling extremely angry with myself—I certainly didn't deserve any of the trust I had been hoping to gain from these people—I continued on down the hall, following the maid again until we got to the guest room. I carefully laid Zhou Xia on the bed, put her phone on the bedside table, then exited the room, leaving the drunk woman to the maids.

Although I could still hear Delun's muffled yells, I didn't go to him to explain myself and instead went to my own room, showered, and crawled into bed. I didn't particularly want to see Delun again that night, but reluctantly put on my _Second Life_ helmet, trying my hardest to quell the guilty nausea swooping over me.


	54. Her Secret

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note __– __**______Another thanks goes to Chicaalterego for her collaboration with me on this chapter. :)____

* * *

><p>Covering my mouth with a hand, I did my best to stifle a yawn as I shuffled down the hallway after Jiao and Mei Rong as they chattered to one another. I would have joined in, maybe, but I was very tired after our morning workout, as usual, and was still feeling grumpy after last night's encounter with the extremely irritating Zhou Xia, which had resulted in my getting a measly four hours of sleep.<p>

My weary plodding came to an unexpected halt when I collided with the pair of sisters I'd been following. Trying very hard to keep my eyes open, I looked around to see what they were doing. They were standing outside the door to the kitchen, instead of the door to the adjoining dining room. Just like every other morning, there was a lot of conversation, laughter, and food smells coming from the open doorway.

"Why'd you stop?" I mumbled, yawning again and pressing my palms to my eyes.

Mei Rong shooshed me. "There's a voice we don't recognize," she whispered.

I frowned in bewilderment—who cared if there was an unfamiliar voice?—and pushed them forward until I could see inside. Rather than the usual one or two kitchen maids, house maids, and the cook, there was a huge, boisterous crowd—Zhou Xia included—cluttering up the room. Mei Rong gasped dramatically, looking very surprised. Apparently she hadn't known the woman was here.

At the loud noise, the group in the kitchen quieted a little and Zhou Xia looked up, her cheerful face turning stern upon noticing us. She gave us a small bow. "Good morning. Sorry for borrowing the kitchen. Erin said you wouldn't mind."

"Yes," Jiao quickly replied, smiling, "it's fine if you use the kitchen."

Not caring what was going on in there, I wandered away and went into the dining room, seating myself in a random chair and leaning forward, resting my head on my crossed arms and yawning again, listening to the footsteps of the other two as they followed me in and sat down nearby, exclaiming in whispers about how surprised they were that Zhou Xia was cooking and chatting up the maids. I was more surprised at the fact that she wasn't resting in her guest room, hungover and puking.

Reluctantly opening my eyes, I withdrew my cellphone from my pocket and set it in front of myself, staring down at the "1 New Text Message" alert displayed on the screen. Opening the text, I automatically smiled when Heng's message appeared. **[5:49 **_**Good morning! :)**_**]**

I selected "Reply" and began pushing random buttons on the keypad, creating a mess of gibberish, then sent it to him. Sliding the phone out of the way, I watched drowsily when the door leading to the kitchen opened and in came the food-bearing maids. And Zhou Xia. A surprisingly skillfully-made breakfast was laid out in front of us. I hesitantly picked up my pair of chopsticks, staring down at the noodles in the bowl closest to me.

"Sorry to impose," Zhou Xia said from across the table. I didn't look up from the bowl with which I was having a staring match, wondering if she had put anything weird in it. I still didn't trust her…What if she had booby trapped the food?

"It's delicious," Jiao murmured, sounding very pleased with her portion. I glanced up at her. It didn't look like Zhou Xia had poisoned it or anything, so I slowly lifted a noodle out of the bowl and stuck it in my mouth, prepared to spit it out again if Jiao was just being polite to cover up how gross it was. Zhou Xia was probably used to servants doing all of her chores for her, after all, so who knew if she actually had even a shred of culinary skill.

However, it wasn't bad at all, though definitely not as good as Heng's cooking, in my biased opinion.

"Very good," I agreed after swallowing the lone noodle, forcing my tired face to smile at Zhou Xia, who gave me a "Thanks," as she continued to eat.

My phone beeped, and I slid it back over to myself, opening the new message from Heng. He had sent me a lot of gibberish in return to the mess I had sent him. Inwardly laughing, I quickly wrote him a brief message telling him to stop wasting my minutes.

After it was sent, I pushed my phone away again, going back to my food and half-listening when Mei Rong cleared her throat and asked Zhou Xia in a nervous tone, "How do you know Erin?"

Instead of our guest, the maid in question answered. "We have known each other for a really long time. We sort of…ended up becoming friends when she started working as a maid in the same household."

Choking on a bite of tofu, I coughed and covered my mouth with my right hand to hide my extremely amused smile at the fact that the impressive Long Zhou Xia had been a maid, of all occupations. No wonder she'd been so good at cleaning the archery grounds in-game…

"We did a lot of really crazy things together," Erin continued. "It was a lot of fun. She–"

"Erin," Zhou Xia cut the maid off, "I bet they are not interested in that."

"Oh, that's so nice that you're friends." Jiao smiled widely, swirling a chopstick around in her bowl, and she gave a curious look to Erin, seeming to be about to ask something, but the door behind us opened. A glance over my shoulder told me Delun, Chen, their parents, and Shuang had arrived. Everyone exchanged greetings as the newcomers seated themselves around the table.

Delun grabbed Shuang around the middle when she tried to run over to me, and he gave me a triumphant smirk before stomping over to the other end of the table, obviously feeling very pleased with himself that he had deprived me of my morning greeting from the energetic four-year-old.

"Are you feeling better this morning?" Chen politely, and somewhat fearfully, asked Zhou Xia.

"She made this whole breakfast," Jiao praised, and Chen's eyes widened in surprise.

"You know how to cook?" Delun asked, frowning in confusion at our guest, while he tried his hardest to keep his hold on Shuang, who seemed determined to come back over to my end of the table.

Another beep from my phone drew my attention away from the conversation. Heng had texted me again. **[6:06 _What are you doing?_]**

**[6:06 Eating breakfast. Sitting at the dining table. Typing this. Breathing. Blinking.]**

**[6:07 _Whoa! You're so good at multitasking!_]**

**[6:07 I know. What are you doing?]**

**[6:07 _Texting you instead of getting out of bed. :D_]**

**[6:08 Get up, lazy.]**

**[6:09_ Fiiiiine. Call me after you're done eating._]**

**[6:09 Okay.] **I put my phone in my pocket and went back to my meal, listening to the numerous compliments directed at Zhou Xia's cooking. Feeling very uncomfortable, I tried to ignore the suspicious stare coming from Delun, who seemed to be expecting Zhou Xia and I to be sending one another loving looks. I chewed a bit faster in a want to leave and go upstairs to get ready for work.

Several minutes later Zhou Xia stood up, went to the kitchen door, then began to talk to Erin again. Everyone else was nearly done eating, so I quickly ate the remainder my breakfast, swallowed the food and stood, neatly stacking up my empty dishes. "If you will all excuse me, I have to go get ready for work," I announced, and turned toward Zhou Xia. "Do you have someone to contact for a ride home?" I asked her, hoping very much that she was planning on leaving soon. I'd seen quite enough of the woman over the past couple weeks, and didn't want her to be here when I got home in the evening.

"We have drivers, if you are in need of a ride," Delun's father added.

"I don't see a need for them," she replied, shaking her head. "I can get a cab." She ran her eyes over all of us, then continued. "Thanks for everything. However, I must request that you don't let others know about last night. It is my duty as the new president of the Lotus branch to set an example, and I don't want to cause others to feel uneasy. The way I behave in public is really important, especially since I happen to be a very young woman with a rather high position. I hope you understand."

Smiling faintly, I nodded. "Don't worry. We will keep everything a secret; you were never here, and last night never happened." There was a scattered agreement from those still seated at the table, Delun's commanding voice much louder than the others. He was really starting to irritate me…

"And…" Zhou Xia added, "about the thing Erin mentioned." With a dramatic pause, she stared seriously at us, stoically continuing, "If you repeat it to anyone, they will _never_ believe you." A tiny smile briefly quirked at one corner of her mouth.

Taking a deep breath, I warily glanced at those still seated at the table, the air becoming very thick. Other than the oblivious Shuang, nearly everyone was wearing a confused frown. Mei Rong, on the other hand, looked openly offended at Zhou Xia's accusatory words. However, she had enough sense to keep her mouth shut and angrily turned back to the remainder of her breakfast.

"As Zian has said," Delun's father finally spoke up, "we will not be telling anyone about any of this. I assure you we are not gossipers." He had done well keeping his voice calm and under control, but I could tell that the man was agitated. What benefit would any of us have in telling other people that she'd been a maid, anyway?

Zhou Xia nodded. "That's good to know."

I gave another glance to the fuming Mei Rong, then inched toward the door, not wanting to get caught up in any indignant yelling she was most definitely going to let loose when Zhou Xia left. "Well…Please excuse me now," I requested again, turning and hurrying into the hallway. Much to my annoyance, I didn't get far before I was interrupted by footsteps following after me.

"Erm, Laoshi?"

Why couldn't she just leave me alone?

Although I wanted to pretend I hadn't heard her and simply keep walking, instead I turned and plastered a polite smile onto my face, if only because my father had told me not to be rude. "Yes?" Go away, go away, go away…

Zhou Xia rummaged around in her pants pocket for a moment, then pulled something out, took my hand, and pressed the smooth and slightly warm object to my palm. "Be careful," she cryptically told me, then walked down the hall. In bewilderment, I looked down. She had given me a rock.

What the hell?

I looked up to find Delun stomping toward me, Chen and their sisters right behind. Delun came to a halt and grabbed my hand. "A-_HA_!" he triumphantly declared, forcing open my fingers. "I CAUGHT…you again." His face went blank when he saw what I was holding. The triangular, dark gray stone sat innocently on my palm.

"Good job," I sarcastically replied, glowering at him as I turned to resume my journey to the front stairs.

"Why'd she give you that?" Delun demanded, striding after me.

"Dàgē, leave him alone," Jiao scolded. "He's not having an affair with her."

"How the hell should I know her reasons?" I huffed, shoving him away from myself.

He shoved me right back. "You two are seeing one another! Of course you'd know! There's some secret meaning, isn't there‽"

"Gēge would never date that pompous bitch," Mei Rong growled.

Chen and Jiao both yelled at her to watch her language, but Delun was completely obsessed with nagging me about the rock and didn't notice what was going on behind us. "Tell me!" he ordered.

Sighing deeply, I turned and stared somberly at him. "Okay, I admit it…" Delun's face regained its lost triumph when I paused. "You see…just now she told me she doesn't like you, and she gave me this rock to throw at you." I abruptly drew back my hand.

"WHAOH‽" he yelled, automatically shielding his face as if he thought I was being serious. I took advantage of the distraction and turned away, ran down the hall, slid around the corner, stumbled into the entryway, and raced up the front stairs, listening in amusement to his angry yells echoing after me.

After I'd shut myself in my bedroom, I gave another confused look to the small rock, wondering what Zhou Xia was expecting me to do with it. Use it as a paperweight? Polish it and put it on display? Actually use it as a weapon? I would have simply disposed of it in the garden, but since it was a gift…I put it next to my two glass pill jars on the bookshelves.

Giving it a questioning frown, I turned and went into my bathroom, pulling my cellphone out of my pocket and calling Heng, my frown quickly becoming a smile. "Hello," I murmured when he answered.

"_Hello-o-o-o! Did you eat everything? You better have!_"

"Yes," I replied, rolling my eyes as I slipped out of my jacket. "I assume you didn't want me to call just so you could ask that, so what is it?"

"_Geeze. Way to kill off the small talk._"

"There's no time for small talk," I huffed. "I have to get ready for work."

"_Fine, fine. I wanted to invite you to my house next Saturday!_"

"Alright, I can be there at the usual time. What will we be doing? It better not be video games. I refuse to play them anymore."

"_No, it's not video games. But what it is…it's a surprise,_" he sneakily answered, then paused when a faint yelling came from his end of the line. "_Damn. Yi is calling me. I have to go. Bye, Al!_"

"Bye." Closing my phone, I sighed and smiled again as I finished undressing, then tossed my phone onto my pile of clothes and stepped into the shower.

That Saturday, I was walking down the sidewalk in town, Heng grumpily tramping along at my side. I gave him a morose glance, then sighed and returned to looking for the café at which he wanted to eat. "Do you really have to be so disappointed?"

He made a grumbly noise, which I assumed was a "Yes."

"I told you it was a bad idea before we started. And you knew I'd never done it before, so…well, you shouldn't have expected me to do it correctly."

"I know," he huffed, frowning. "But my instructions were so basic, anyone with no experience would be able to follow them! All you had to do was carefully stick it in, then slowly pull it out, over and over. So-o-o simple! And I kept telling you to slow down, but you went way too fast! And the mess you made was huge; there were splatters on the floor, the walls, and even the _ceiling_. I have no idea how you managed to do that."

Feeling extremely embarrassed all over again, I shook my head. "Neither do I."

"I doubt I'll ever get get the stains out of my pants."

"Sorry," I mumbled for the nineteenth time that afternoon.

We both fell silent while Heng led me across the street and into the designated café. A waitress seated us in the far corner, gave us menus, and left. Heng sighed, stretching his long legs out underneath the table. "Next time…" he began, then paused and sent me an annoyed frown. "If there is a 'next time'–"

"I hope not," I interrupted, grimacing in recollection of the horrible experience we had just gone through at his house.

"Me either," he agreed immediately. "But…next time you're in the kitchen with me when I'm making something, don't you dare touch anything. I swear, chocolate-covered strawberries sounded so simple! Pick up a strawberry, stick it in the melted chocolate, take it out, and do another! How could anyone possibly mess that up‽"

Miserably glancing down at my lunch menu, I shook my head. "At least the ones you made are still alright." Mine were all ruined. I'd been carrying them on a tray to put them in the fridge and I'd tripped along the way, throwing them all over the floor. Plus I'd accidentally burned our first batch of chocolate, and then once we had made a second batch, I'd somehow knocked over the pot, splashing the hot, melted chocolate everywhere, and had burned my hands trying to catch it before it poured all over Heng's lap. Cooking and I obviously didn't mix.

Certainly, chocolate-covered strawberries were a simple sweet to make—Heng wanted to make some for his brothers and I for the upcoming Valentines Day and had refused my suggestion of just buying the candy—but involving me in the process somehow complicated everything. However, I tried to convince myself that the reason I had been so ridiculously clumsy was because I was nervous cooking for the first time, being under so much self-inflicted pressure to make my strawberries perfect. And also simply being around Heng made me nervous anyway.

After a short inspection of the menu, we ordered, then threw idle chatter back and forth while we waited for the food to be delivered. Once it had arrived, Heng announced he had to go to the bathroom and slipped out of the booth, calling back to me not to ruin his sandwiches before he had a chance to eat them. I watched him walk toward the restrooms, then sighed and picked up my teacup. A few seconds later, I gasped in pain when I somehow managed to spill the hot tea all over my already-burned hand. I set the cup down as carefully as I could, gritting my teeth against the fresh set of injuries as I searched for something with which I could clean up the newest mess I had made. There was a napkin dispenser at the table, but, of course…there was only one napkin left in it.

Feeling like an idiot all over again, I stood and hurried to the bar counter at the front of the shop. "Excuse me," I murmured, reaching around a woman to grab some napkins out of the closest dispenser.

Leaning to the side, she replied, "It's alright," and turned to look at me. Then we both froze in surprise.

Laughing faintly as I wiped my stinging hands on one of the napkins, I smiled somewhat uncomfortably at Jiao, who was one of the last people I wanted to run into at the moment. "Hello."

"Hello," she awkwardly replied, her eyes briefly darting to somewhere beyond me. "What are you doing here? I…thought you went to Dib's house…for the afternoon. Cooking, right? A few days ago he asked my sisters and I what kinds of sweets you like. Told us he wanted to make them with you." A warm little smile briefly flickered over her face, making me feel a bit embarrassed. "I hope it was actually something you like," she cautiously murmured. "Since you barely ever eat dessert, we just gave him a bunch of random suggestions."

Chuckling again, I nodded. "Yes, he chose chocolate-covered strawberries. And we were making them, but then I accidentally wrecked his kitchen, so he and I came here for lunch."

"Oh."

There was a thick pause, then I glanced down at the white bag she had on her lap. "Did you get a lot of studying done at the library this morning?" The new term had started, and all three of the girls were completely swamped with schoolwork, a fact I had been lectured on many times when Mei Rong complained about not being able to go out with friends as often as she wanted.

"Ah…yes. I'll be going again after I eat. Just taking a short break."

"I see," I mumbled, wishing Heng and I had gone somewhere else. "Do…um, do you want to join Heng and I at our table?" I invited, hoping that would make this situation seem less weird. I knew Heng would hate me for it, but I didn't want any suspicions to crop up. Then again, was it actually weird for two men to get lunch together? Friends ate out together all the time…Maybe I was just over-thinking things in my panic.

"O-o-oh, no," she declined in a nauseated tone, slowly shaking her head and trying to smile. "I'm here with a friend, and, uh…I wouldn't want to impose on you and Dib, of course."

"You wouldn't be imposing," I corrected. "You and your friend are free to sit with us if you want. But if you–"

My left shoulder was suddenly grabbed, yanked, and squashed at the same time that Jiao's white face went even whiter, and she alarmingly looked like she was about to pass out. "Hey," a voice roughly snapped, "stop flirting with my girlfriend."

Glancing behind myself in confusion, I met the furious gaze of some man. "I am not flirting with anyone's girlfriend," I slowly replied, angrily shoving his hand off my shoulder and wondering where I'd seen him before. He was vaguely familiar.

For some reason, instead of looking relieved, he abruptly looked as utterly mortified as Jiao. "You idiot," she whispered after a brief pause, and he swore under his breath. I glanced between them, a sinking feeling growing in my stomach as realization of what was going on slowly dawned on me.

"Oh," I breathed, eyes going very wide. "Oh no…Jiao‽"

She started to tremble when I turned to look at her, and her mouth opened and closed several times. Finally waving a hand at the other man, she carefully began to speak in a faint voice. "Quon, this is Min Zian, my fiancée…and Zian, this is…this is Hou Quon, my…boyfriend."

A very long moment of silence stretched out, while the shop's other patrons went about their lunch around the three of us. I stared in shock at the other man standing before me. He was a little taller than I was, and his short and slightly messy hair stuck straight up into the air, his challenging eyes a darker shade of brown than his hair. He was a very active, outdoors-type person, judging by his sporty clothes, tanned skin, and obviously fit body.

Quon irritated me in so many ways.

Not a minute later, Heng appeared beside us, looking curiously from face to face as he leaned on my sore shoulder. "What's going on?"

* * *

><p><em>Last year when I was planning this alternate ending, giving Jiao a boyfriend sounded like the easiest and most believable way to break up her and Zian. And so, here is the seventh addition to the Socks: Quon (meaning bright).<em>


	55. Arduous Sacrifices

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>My eyes drifted between the frightened Jiao and her bold boyfriend, who was wearing a competitive expression. As if he was actually my competition. As if we were competing in the first place. After all, this was far from a contest.<p>

Taking a slow breath, I sipped at my tea, then continued to stare at them. "So, you two are dating," I murmured, smiling politely. "May I ask for how long?"

"Four years," Jiao replied quietly. Her wide eyes seemed to be glued to the wood grains on the tabletop between us. The pieces of my father in me were telling me to force her to look at me when we were speaking to one another, the way I had been taught never to look away, but I managed to keep the shaking control I had on my temper.

My courteous smile stretched wider. "Such a long time. You two must be very serious about one another."

"Of course we are," Quon growled.

"Well then, that certainly changes everything," I added with a small nod, taking another calm drink of tea. Both of the faces across from me suddenly took on a hopeful turn. My fake smile vanished at once as my anger snapped to the surface. "Did you really think that was what I would say?"

Heng mumbled, "Oh, good grief, Al," and shook his head, carefully looking in the other direction as he tore apart a bit of the crust on one of his sandwiches.

"Did you both think you could suddenly spring all of this on me and expect me to be understanding?" I demanded. "Four years? Well, Jiao and I have been engaged for nearly_ seven_. I was here first, thank you very much!"

"Engaged on paper," Quon corrected in a superior tone. "You only just met a few months ago, so that means_ I_ was here first. Don't treat her like your possession when you didn't even care enough to see her after–"

"Do not talk to me in such a pretentious way," I interrupted, scowling in irritation at him.

"How the hell am I being pretentious‽" he demanded. "It's the truth! Even if you try to cover it up to defend yourself!"

"I am not covering up anything. You know nothing about my side of this, so do not assume that you do. I did not meet her because my father said it was not necessary to do so. His word is final, thus I did not.

"And also, I would greatly appreciate it if you did not say that I am treating Jiao as my possession. If I had the ridiculous notion that I _owned_ her, I would have dragged her away at once without generously allowing you both a chance to explain yourselves. Now please tell me why my fiancée has a boyfriend when she already has me."

Allowing them time to sort themselves out, I leaned back against the cushioned booth and busied myself with my tea again, giving them both expectant glances. Heng, looking uncomfortable over having to be a spectator to the situation, let out a tiny sigh and prodded the top of one of his sandwiches. Several minutes went by in silence.

Finally, Jiao spoke. "When your father approached my parents with the marriage proposal…at the time I had no reason to turn you down; I was very excited about the idea of getting married; my parents supported the engagement, and I wanted to make them happy; and although I know it sounds stupid, I was also a bit jealous of Dàsăo…I was happy for her and Dàgē, of course, but seeing them get so close was rather annoying. I wanted to have someone like that, too. After all, it's the dream of a lot of young girls to find their 'Prince Charming' and start a family. However, that fantastical happiness faded away quickly after nothing more happened. My life went on as it always had; nothing changed and you were…easy to forget about. Quon and I were good friends and classmates at the time. And, well, a couple years after that…we started dating and have been ever since."

"So your excuse is that you forgot about me. How convenient." I stared hard at her slightly offended expression. "Why did you not cancel the engagement when you began to date him? You and I would not have had to deal with this mess if you had broken up with me years ago."

She frowned incredulously at me. "How in the world do you think I could have accomplished that? You know your father! Even if you wouldn't have minded, he would have been furious if my family had withdrawn from the agreement! I didn't want to cause problems for my parents!"

"Then you should not have cheated on me in the first place!" I snapped, slapping my hand down on the table. "Even if we never met or spoke, you should have been responsible enough to keep your promises to me, as I have for you. Marriage is not something you can just ignore whenever you do not want to see it. Every time in the past when I was posed with a prospective relationship, I _always_ said no. Then again, except for one particular instance, I have never been interested in dating. I suppose that is where our difference lies."

"One particular instance," Jiao softly repeated, raising an eyebrow. My heart nearly stopped when her eyes darted to Heng. Thankfully, he refrained from reacting and kept his focus glued to his uneaten sandwiches. "I wouldn't have minded if you dated that person. Go ahead and date him now if you want. It's none of my business."

"I digress; it is entirely your business," I countered. "I find it insulting that you think I am the sort of person who would have a relationship on the side. This may just be an arranged marriage, but I can assure you that from the beginning I have been fully prepared to be dedicated to only you. And that does go both ways; I would much prefer if, once we are married, I am not having indirect sex with your boyfriend." When Jiao and Quon's faces reddened, I added, "Not that I am meaning to be crude, but it will happen eventually. I need an heir, after all, so there is no point in avoiding the inevitable."

Quon furiously glared at me. "If you fucking touch her, I–"

"You will what?" I coldly interrupted, returning his look with double the intensity in an attempt to intimidate him. Much to my continued annoyance, it seemed to work. "You are in no position to threaten me or even get angry. If anyone is to get angry about all of this, it should be me. So do not bother."

He gave me a humorless, sneer-like smile. My eyes dropped to his hand when Jiao pulled on it, interlocking their fingers. I honestly had no desire to make them stop holding hands, but they sent me challenging looks afterward as if they though I was going to tell them to let go.

Sighing softly, I took a moment to calm myself before I continued. "Not to anger you further," I quietly directed at Quon, "but are you two planning on breaking up now that I have arrived? Or were you going to date even after she and I are married?"

"We…" he slowly began, glancing at Jiao. After a deep breath, he looked back at me. "We talked about breaking up…a few times. But we haven't come to a decision."

"No, I do not suppose it would be a simple task to go your separate ways so abruptly after four years of being in a serious relationship," I murmured, gaze flickering between the two. After a moment of silence, I laughed. "If you chose to stay together, which I would assume you are, regardless of any talks you may have…If I had not accidentally caught you two, were you even going to _tell_ me about this?"

Jiao pressed her lips together, teary eyes darting about her lap. "Not unless we had to," she whispered, much as I had been expecting. "I don't want to break up with him, so…keeping it a secret…I hoped…"

"How long did you think you would be able to hide it?" I challenged, fighting to keep my voice from being too sharp. "Did you think that if you were careful you two would be able to stay together forever, always skulking in the shadows? Would you really be happy like that? Love is not enough to hold your relationship together. It will never work."

"We know that," Quon said harshly with no less fury than before. However, this time there was also the beginnings of sad distress in his eyes. "We knew this would happen eventually, so stop acting like we didn't consider it at all. We've spent hours talking about what we should do. You have no idea how much Jiao has been worrying about getting caught, breaking up, marrying someone she doesn't love…hurting you."

That last bit caught me by surprise, though I wasn't really sure why. I'd always known she was a kind person, so it really wasn't so strange that she would also be worried about me. However, this whole situation had thrown me into Battle Mode and had set me off on a very long rant.

"Well," I sighed, "sooner or later someone or something would have been your wake up call. It just so happened to be me." I drank the rest of my tea, then stood and picked up my bag. "I must ask that you two have another talk. I hope your decision is the correct one."

Quon leapt to his feet, giving me a desperate stare. "Wait. Don't…" He gritted his teeth and dropped his gaze to the tabletop, looking much more submissive than he had earlier. Hints of tears started gathering on his eyelids. "Please…don't take her away from me," he whispered.

Frowning in annoyance, I slipped my bag onto my shoulder and said flatly, "If you do not want me to take her away from you, you take her away from me. It is as simple as that. I assume you are up to the challenge."

Jiao suddenly glared at me. "Don't treat me like a prize, Zian."

"I am not," I returned, feeling a bit offended. "I am asking him to prove that he is the better husband. If he cannot then I am going to marry you as my father has ordered."

"Why do I have to prove it to you?" he murmured icily.

"And why would you do that?" They both looked rather confused, so I sat down again and sighed in exasperation. "Why the hell do I even have to explain this…I am not the one to whom you need to prove yourselves. It is our parents who made this decision in the first place. I had no say in the matter, thus it would be completely pointless to give _me_ proof that you two should be the ones marrying. Although I would also like to hear it, as it would give me peace of mind that Jiao would be in good hands. I do not love her, but I do care for her as family, of course, so I would not readily agree to hand her over to a bumbling idiot." I glanced toward Quon and added, "Not that I think you are a bumbling idiot. If Jiao has stuck with you for this long then I assume that you do have your good qualities."

Quon's eyes went very wide and he sat down with a loud thud.

"You're…not trying to break us up?" Jiao carefully asked, as if she couldn't believe what I'd just said.

I gave her a tired look. "Is your opinion of me really so low that you think I would purposefully make you miserable? I am not going to force you to marry me, especially not when we have other options from which we can choose."

She broke out into a bright smile, then took Quon's hand again and squeezed it when I finished.

Heng suddenly started giggling. "Al, you are the most misleading person in the whole world."

Feeling confused, I gave him a glance. "How am I misleading? I was completely candid."

"You looked so angry," he explained, smiling in bemusement. "Wear a scary face like that and anyone would think that you were trying to break them up."

"Of course I'm angry. I have every right to be angry. Not about their relationship, but that they hid it from me. And also that you, Jiao, apparently still think I'm a monstrous person like my father, regardless of how many times and ways I've tried to show you that I'm not. I've been living with your family for several months, yet you still misunderstand me."

"No, Zian," she assured, an anxious look on her face, "I honestly don't think that. I know you're not like him. I'm sorry I kept it from you, but I was just really worried about how you would take it…As you said earlier, it's not like I could just blurt it out and expect you to accept it." With a small sigh, she helplessly stared down at her steaming coffee. "When you and I spoke in-game before the war, I really wanted to tell you, and just get it out of the way…but I was so afraid that you wouldn't agree to canceling our engagement, and I'd lose Quon. I didn't know what to do."

"I understand your hesitancy." I tried my hardest to smile in a reassuring way, being completely empathetic to her, as I had been torn over that same thing in my want to keep Heng and I a secret from her until I was ready to reveal it. "I'm happy to have relieved you both. However," I cautioned, "this doesn't mean we definitely aren't getting married. It won't do either of you any good to be overly optimistic. I don't suppose your parents, Jiao, will be difficult to sway, assuming you two prepare yourselves well enough for giving them the news, but my father might be quite the obstacle. But don't worry, I'll do my best to convince him." I stood up again and stepped away from the table, picking up the bowl of salad I had ordered earlier but hadn't even touched until now. "We'll leave you two to your lunch. It was nice to meet you, Quon, in many ways."

"Oh," he breathed, "yeah…um." He suddenly jumped to his feet again and gave me a polite bow as he smiled brightly, looking like an entirely different person than the one he'd been a few minutes before. "It's nice to meet you, too." I gave him a hesitant smile in return. Although the complete turn-around bewildered me, it was somewhat relieving to know that I had put his fears at ease at last. Heng and I had only been secret friends for a few months. I couldn't imagine what Quon and Jiao had gone through for four entire years, hiding their relationship from everyone.

Heng quickly grabbed his uneaten sandwiches, stood up, and followed me while I slowly walked away. "Zian!" Jiao jumped up out of her seat. I paused and glanced at her over my shoulder. "Thank you…"

Laughing faintly, I continued on my way, waving my hand. "You're welcome."

After Heng and I put our food into take-out boxes and paid, we left the café and went back to Heng's car. With a deep sigh, I settled against the dark gray, sun-warmed fabric of the seat and closed my eyes. Other than the sound of Heng's door shutting, silence hung over us. "Well?" I murmured after a pause. "Are you not going to say it?"

There was a small rustling noise. "Say what?"

"'I told you so,'" I slowly explained, smiling grimly.

"Oh, that." He let out a faint chuckle. "…No. Wouldn't wanna make you even more mad."

"It sounded so absurd to me last weekend when you brought up this scenario…Jiao cheating on me…" Rubbing my forehead, I sighed again. "You certainly do know better than I how people work."

"Not everyone is as honest and obsessively devoted to their responsibilities as you are," he quietly pointed out. "You shouldn't assume people are going to do everything the way you do."

"I suppose not." I cracked one open eye and glanced at Heng. He looked insufferably ecstatic. "Why are you so happy?" I inquired, turning away from him to stare out the window. Now that we were out of Jiao's sight, I fell into my gloom, deciding to let her wallow in her joy for a while longer before bringing up the negative side to all of this.

"Because!" Heng exclaimed, nearly cheering as he laughed. "This means you might not have to get married! Of course I'd be happy about that, stupid! It's so relieving." I felt his hand touch the back of my head.

I swatted it away and irritably looked at him. "This is nothing to be happy about."

His eyes widened at the news. Slowly taking his hand back, he settled down in his seat and stared at me, looking confused. "…But…But I thought you wouldn't mind if she marries someone else. She even said she doesn't care if we date. W-why aren't you also getting happy?"

"The fact that she _might _be getting married to someone else doesn't mean things between you and I are allowed to change."

"Why not?" He still looked just as perplexed.

Briefly glaring at him, I went back to staring out the glass of the car window. "Isn't it completely obvious?" I muttered. Why did these things never occur to him? Especially since he was so people-smart?

"If it was, I wouldn't be asking!" he snapped, rocking the car a little when he angrily rearranged himself in his seat. "I've told you tons of times, I can't read your mind. I can hardly ever predict what you're thinking in that weird brain of yours."

"Well, you are the one who strives to understand me. Give it some thought. It should come to you eventually."

At my challenge, he fell silent for several minutes. I continued to look out the window, watching streams of people mill up and down the concrete sidewalks, obliviously passing us by. "Give me a hint?" he finally asked, sounding somewhat meeker than before.

"My father."

"What's he got to do with this? You don't live with him, so you can do whatever you want now."

"Wrong," I murmured. He let out a long sigh, then went quiet again. Turning myself about, I rested my left side against the seat and stared at his concentrated profile. "My father is a very easy person to understand, even for people who don't know him very well, so I'm sure it will not be difficult at all for you. He sees everything as either useful or not useful. So think about things this way; what is the thing he values most?"

Heng's eyebrows lowered and he slowly answered, "His…company? I guess."

"Exactly," I affirmed. "So what does he want most?"

"Anything that benefits the company?"

"Yes. So," I continued, "knowing that the Lin family won't go back on the business partnership, even if I'm not marrying their daughter, what do you think my father will do when his obedient tool of a son conveniently becomes single again?"

After another thoughtful pause, Heng's mouth dropped open in shock. "He wouldn't!" he suddenly yelled, turning to face me. "You think he'll marry you off to someone else for another business deal‽"

"Ah, you've got it." Smiling humorlessly at his revelation, I buckled my seatbelt. "My father, Jiao, and Quon are the ones who have benefited from this. You and I, on the other hand, have made no progress at all. In fact, our situation is even worse than it was before. Without my engagement to Jiao, my father will see no point in my living with her family. I'll have to go back home, assuming he agrees to this, which I'm positive that he will. Also, given that he creepily seems to know everything I do, he most likely knows I've been seeing you behind his back, so he will probably keep a closer watch on me than before, which means no more _Second Life_…and no more meetings between you and I unless we're very clever."

Agreeing to Jiao and Quon's relationship had just taken away everything precious that I had gained since last July. I was back to being my father's tool, a little clockwork man waiting to be wound up and set off on the course he'd chosen for me.

Over the span of a few seconds, Heng's face went from normal-colored, to very pale, to very red. His fist came crashing down on the steering wheel while he swore several times at the top of his lungs. Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward and buried his face in his arms.

Several things I could have said passed through my mind, but I stayed silent. I doubted anything would have been any use in easing his frustration and anger. I certainly didn't think that hearing anything positive at the moment would lift my own mood.

"One hopeful step forward and we immediately get dragged back to the start line," Heng sighed, flopping backward in the seat and tiredly staring at me. "We're like that one guy in your mythology book. What's his name? Aeolus' son…the guy who has to roll a rock up a hill over and over forever."

"Sisyphus," I supplied. Our situation did seem like his. So much struggling to go through, only to end up right back where we began.

"This is getting really annoying. In fact, it passed 'really annoying' a long, long time ago."

I inhaled and opened my mouth to say, "I'm sorry," but I knew that would probably agitate him further, so before I could say anything I closed my mouth and nodded once in agreement.

He gave me a half-smile. "You were about to apologize, weren't you?" he asked and I glanced at him in slight remorse, wordlessly apologizing for apologizing. "If there's one part of you that I can predict, it's when you're going to say sorry. Then again, it's not hard, seeing as how you think everything's always your fault. Do you even know what it is that you were gonna say sorry for?"

Feeling a bit silly, I slowly shook my head. "Maybe, maybe not."

Extending one of his hands, he played with a lock of my hair for a moment and clarified, "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at all of the people who think they can take advantage of you just 'cause you're so tolerant. I hate it when I see people use you and there's nothing I can do to stop them. That's why you don't have to say you're sorry. You didn't do anything wrong. Except for being so passive."

"It's a conditioned response, I suppose, apologizing whenever anything…goes wrong…Stop that, we're in public," I scolded, face reddening when his hand dropped to my neck and his warm fingers pressed against my skin. Why could he never keep his hands to himself? It was so bothersome.

Mostly because I liked it so much.

"Why? Jiao already said she doesn't care," he reminded softly. "How come you let everyone but me do whatever they want?"

"Because whatever you do usually involves me," I grumbled, pushing his hand away and shrinking against the car door in a futile attempt to remain out of reach. "And just because Jiao said she doesn't care doesn't mean that I don't care. I'm still engaged to her, thus I have no plans whatsoever on getting involved with you."

"We're already _involved_, stupid," he huffed, then turned to finally buckle his seat belt and start the car. "I dunno whether I want to be impressed by your dedication, or to be irritated by how this all sounds like it's about protecting your integrity."

He pulled the car out of the parking lot and I fixed my eyes on the road, biting back all of the explanations I wanted to give him. It really wasn't about my integrity, although I supposed the reason was just as selfish. I honestly did want to give in and just be with him for as long as I could, but I knew I would only miss him a million times more once I had to leave—_if_ I could leave him at that point. I didn't want to start anything with him unless I could be his completely. Being in a half-hearted relationship like that wasn't fair to him. But all of that would only spark more debates, so I let him keep to his own assumptions.

After a short drive, we arrived at the Lin house, parked outside the enormous garage, and got out. Setting my box of salad on top of the car, I stretched and leaned back, gazing blankly at the maple trees nearby. How many more times would I be able to stand out here and stare at that beautiful garden? If my father knew about Heng's visits, he would undoubtedly blame the Lin family as well as me for allowing Heng to be here. Who knew if my father would let me come back here after everything got settled. Of course, he'd let me spend time with the Lins still in order to keep up the good affiliation, just not here. After all, this place would give Heng and I a loophole for seeing one another.

Heng placed himself in front of me, gave a look around to make sure we were alone, then leaned forward. Rather than kissing me, as he had so often ever since that dinner party, he wrapped me up in his arms and hugged me. Feeling thoroughly depressed, I leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, wishing he and I could run away to someplace where my father didn't exist. But that was a selfish thought I didn't seriously pursue, since Heng had his brothers to take care of. I wasn't about to ruin their lives just so I could have what I wanted.

Heng's warm hand touched the side of my face, then dragged through my hair. Heart rate accelerating, I stood as still as I could when he placed a string of kisses across my cheek and temple, his mouth coming to a rest beside my ear. My eyes went wide as he whispered, "I love you," in an earnest tone. Embarrassment quickly took place of my depression, and I buried my face in his shoulder and squeezed my eyes shut again. I thought no one would ever say that to me.

"You're blushing," Heng quietly teased, hugging me a bit tighter.

"Of course I am," I snapped, glaring at him out of the corner of my eye. "S-saying that…it's the first time anyone's…and coming from you…"

With a little smile, he murmured, "I'll say it as many times as you like, then. I love you. I love you. I love you! I love yo-o-ou!" Laughing when I started to struggle in his grip, he repeated himself over and over.

"Once was more than enough! Stop!" I pleaded. When he ignored me and kept saying it, I threatened him with the first thing I could think of. "I'll hit you!"

He finally paused and gave me an irritatingly superior smirk that just screamed, "Oh, yeah? I'd like to see you try," without him having to make one sound. Feeling very sulky at that point, I drew back my left hand. However, he grabbed it and held it tight, eyes narrowing as he leaned forward. "Don't think that I'm going to hold back anymore. Now that Jiao gave us permission, my restraints all went in the garbage."

"But–!" I started to protest.

"Date me!" he requested—or maybe ordered—as he gave me a small shake.

Face burning all the hotter, I stared in utter shock at him. A part of me had been expecting him to ask, but actually hearing it spoken aloud was entirely different. And although I'd heard those words many times before, never had they actually had any effect on me. Now I felt like running around screaming and jumping until I exploded in a huge ball of ecstatic euphoria. Having never felt like this before, I had no idea what to do with the ridiculous amounts of happiness smothering me.

Heng, probably getting impatient at the fact that I wasn't saying anything, added a "Please?" after a long stretch of silence. Taking a shaky breath, I opened my mouth to reply. However, he interrupted me. "Wait! No, don't tell me right now. You're probably gonna turn me down, and I really don't want my good mood ruined by something so horrible…Think about it for a while, okay? And tell me later."

"Heng, I can't stay–" I began, shaking my head.

"I know," he interrupted again in a whisper, a half-smile briefly flickering onto his mouth. "I'm not expecting you to be here forever, but…until then…let me be selfish a little longer."

I attempted to come up with something to say, but my mind was thrown further into the confusion whooshing through my brain when he closed the small gap between us with a kiss that was far more passionate than I'd been expecting. Every hormone in my body was screaming at me to drag him to my bedroom, but I somehow managed to force myself to stay in one spot.

Heng finally ended the torture and stepped away from me, smiling. "Think about it. Alright? I'll see you later."

"Yeah," I muttered, watching in aggravated silence while he turned, hurried back to the driver's side of the car, and climbed in. Sighing deeply and attempting to calm myself down, I grabbed my salad box and walked around the edge of the garage, waving when Heng drove past and down the driveway. Going to the front door, I slipped inside, traded my shoes for my slippers and sighed again, taking a moment to let my face cool. Once I'd sort of managed to calm down, I stepped out of the doorway and smiled into the sitting room, where Chen and Shuang were on one of the couches, reading a picture book together. "Hello."

"Hi!" they both chirped. "How did the cooking go?" Chen continued.

"It was…illuminating," I hesitantly replied, belatedly wondering if Jiao's siblings knew about Quon. I had a feeling that Chen and Mei Rong did, but Delun was another matter. I probably should have asked before Heng and I had left the café.

"That must have been some dessert you guys made," she remarked.

"Mm…yeah." Glancing behind myself, I gave a small smile to Delun when he stomped into the room, looking rather angry about something, as usual. Without any warning, he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the hall. "Wait! My lunch!" I exclaimed, looking back at the take-out box I had dropped, but he didn't stop and pulled me up the stairs. My confusion over what he was doing didn't last long, and he yanked me into his room, slamming the door shut by throwing me against it.

"You fucking bastard," he hissed, furiously glaring as he held me in place. "You…had better have a _very_ good explanation for what you were just doing outside with Heng."

Several seconds went by in silence as I mentally swore over and over, then I took a deep breath and fought to keep my eyes locked with his. "It's self-explanatory," I whispered. I was thoroughly terrified admitting it, and I was nowhere near ready for anyone else to find out, but it would have been pointless to try to convince him otherwise.

The rage on his face took a turn for the worst as he pulled me forward, then slammed me against the door again. "All the times you said you weren't having an affair," he continued murderously, "all the times Jiao-mèi assured me you weren't…I was finally starting to believe you both, but now…" He fell silent momentarily, then shook me, the anger on his face mixing slightly with desperation. "WHY AREN'T YOU DENYING IT LIKE BEFORE‽"

"I can't deny it."

"YOU DAMN, TWO-FACED LIAR! IS MY SISTER SO UNSATISFYING THAT YOU'VE GOT A FEW MEN AND WOMEN TO PLAY AROUND WITH ON THE SIDE‽ EVEN LONG ZHUO XIA WASN'T ENOUGH, HUH‽ EVERY TIME YOU WENT TO HENG'S HOUSE, SAYING YOU WERE JUST GOING TO HANG OUT, WHAT WERE YOU TWO DOING‽ FUCKING ONE ANOTHER‽"

Shaking my head, I grabbed his wrists and attempted to pry them off my coat front. "Delun, no–"

"SHUT UP‼" Baring his teeth, he tightened his grip on me. "I swear…I will pay you back a million times over for doing this to her."

"I am not hurting her," I quietly denied. "She knows about Heng and I…and she gave her consent."

"Oh? And I suppose you had your homo boyfriend there to gang up on her and make her agree, right? You can't possibly expect me to believe that she would be okay with this, so don't even bother trying to convince me."

My eyebrows drawing together, I stared at him in bewilderment. "Just how the hell do you see Jiao?" I questioned. "She's not a helpless little girl who needs you to protect her and lead her around by the hand! She's a twenty-year-old woman who can make her own decisions! If she disagreed with my relationship with Heng, she would have told us!"

Looking extremely offended, he slammed me against the door a third time, and the beginnings of a headache began to thud through the back of my skull. "Don't lecture me on Jiao-mèi's personality. Unlike you, I have known her for her whole life. As such, I know her far better than you ever will."

"You obviously know very little when it comes to her intimate relationships."

"What relationships?" he snapped. "She doesn't have any! Even you don't count, since your actions tell me you couldn't care less about her!"

"I do care," I retorted hotly. "And my relationship with her, while it might not be one of husband and wife, does in fact exist, and also is none of your business."

"SHE'S MY SISTER! OF COURSE IT'S MY BUSINESS IF YOU CHEAT ON HER!"

Glaring at him, I roughly shoved him backward. "What makes you think you're allowed to interfere with Jiao and I? Whatever happens between us does not involve you! Not once have I thought about coming between you and Chen-mèi when you two were having a squabble!"

"Of course not. An outsider like you has no right to involve yourself in my family's personal affairs. Don't think that you're automatically my older brother just because your father forced you on us…Can't believe my parents agreed to letting a prick like you stay here. And after they hear about how you've repaid us for being so hospitable…I can't say I'll be sorry to see you go."

His icily delivered words hit me like a punch to the gut, rendering me incapable of replying. His blatant hostility was nearly as painful as Gui Wen's had been. I knew he didn't trust me—it was obvious, and always had been—but I'd had no idea that he still thought of me as a complete stranger. All of my naïve hopes that this family was eventually going to accept me vanished, and I felt stupid for ever having thought I could have fit in here.

Slowly swallowing, I took a few deep breaths and leaned back against the door. "Well," I whispered, "be relieved, then. You will not have to put up with me for much longer, as Jiao and I have already come to the mutual agreement to break off our engagement."

"Don't you dare tell me you're breaking up with her, so you can be with a _man_." Delun's face was covered in disgust, which hurt me just as much as his alienating words. I had never really taken Heng's gender into consideration. I loved him for who he was, not because he had something in his pants that a woman didn't. And those feelings felt natural to me. However, I suddenly realized the harsh truth that not everyone was as tolerant and understanding as the people who had discovered Heng and I already.

I shook my head once. "Jiao was the one who wanted this, and it is not because of Heng and I."

"Then why‽"

"It is not my place to say. You will have to ask her directly." Turning, I opened the door and glanced back at him. "By the way, as I have told you many, many times, Long Zhou Xia and I are not involved, nor have we ever been, so stop groundlessly suspecting her of adultery."

"Right," he harshly agreed, "since gays aren't interested in women. No wonder you've never made a pass at Jiao-mèi…Damned pervert, get the hell out."

Anger and shame colored my face as I stepped into the hallway and whispered, "I apologize for intruding on your family's hospitality for so long. Please excuse me." Looking away, I shut the door behind myself and quickly walked toward my room—no, the _guest_ room. Thankfully, Delun didn't chase after me to argue some more, and I reached my destination without running into anyone else. I began to undress, messily dropping my bag and clothes on the floor as I went into the bathroom.

I screwed up my face to keep myself in control, and blindly stumbled into the shower. When the hot water was spraying down on me, I leaned against the wall and tried my hardest to suppress the sobs shaking me. Although I wanted to scream, I held it inside, not wanting anyone to hear me. I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath, feeling every bit as weak and useless as my father had always told me I was.


	56. Bastion

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p><em>Yu Lian sighed, tiredly staring at me from behind her desk. "So, you're leaving for good this time?"<em>

_"Yes," I quietly replied._

_"That's unfortunate."_

_"I will continue to work until then, of course. The decision was only made earlier this afternoon, so I have not yet informed everyone, much less started to pack."_

_She shook her head. "Unless you aren't quitting for a while yet, don't bother with work."_

_"It will be around a week. Perhaps more, perhaps less. I am not sure."_

_"Spend the time with your family and teammates instead. We have enough people now to pick up the slack." There was a brief pause, then she smiled faintly. "And it's a good thing; with as hard as you worked, we will probably need several workers to replace you."_

_Not knowing how to respond, I simply smiled back._

Weaving through the crowds of players, I strode down one of Infinite City's four main roads, heading for the northern gate, where Jiū had asked me to meet her. Her tone over the team chat had been rather angry, and I wondered if Wei Bo's actions from earlier had reached her ears. I had locked myself in the guest room's bathroom, refusing to come out for the remainder of the day, so I hadn't any idea what had happened in the rest of the house during that time.

Side-stepping a wooden cart, I gave a half-hearted smile to Jiū as she came into view around the edge of the city wall. No one else was online yet, so she was alone with the horses. I gave a slightly confused glance at the creamy stallion standing between Jiū and Avila's white mares, then came to a halt beside the magician. "Why do we have a fifth horse?"

"I'll explain when everyone else logs in," she snappishly told me, a frown creasing her pale face. "I spoke to Dàgē for a few minutes when I got home. Why are you moving out‽"

"My father will not think it necessary for me to live with your family any longer," I cautiously explained.

"That doesn't mean you have to leave! Just ask him to let you stay!"

I shook my head. "Once he has arranged a new fiancée for me, it would not reflect well on him if his son is living with another woman."

"It's not like we're living together alone! My whole family is with us!"

"That will not matter to him."

She took a deep breath, her anger fading somewhat. "You knew this already, didn't you?" she whispered. "When you gave Quon and I your permission…You knew what you were doing?"

"Yes, I knew."

"Why didn't you tell me‽"

"…I didn't want to spoil your day, I guess."

"WELL, IT'S BEEN SPOILED ANYWAY!" she yelled, smacking me with the end of the reins she was holding. Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again as she inhaled deeply. "I am very flattered that you would do this for my sake, and I am very relieved that Quon and I don't have to hide anymore, but…I never meant to ask you to sacrifice so much. I don't want you to go back to that house, and I'm sure everyone else would agree with me. Especially Dib! We all worked so hard trying to convince you not to go back to your father's house, so don't think we'll let you leave so easily!"

Feeling annoyed, I frowned. "It's unavoidable."

"It is _not_!" she huffed, hitting me with the reins again. "You're the one who said we have other options to choose from, so stop thinking the outcome of this is so obvious! I hate when you talk like you think you can predict the future."

"Then what do you propose we should do?" I irritably challenged.

Falling silent momentarily, she crossed her arms and frowned in a thoughtful way as she watched people walk past us, in and out of the gate. Her gray eyes snapped back to me. "Don't cancel the engagement. Then you won't have to go back to your father's house, and you can still see Dib all you want, too!"

Giving her a glare, I shook my head. "Don't you dare."

"But–"

"No! If you're thinking about changing your mind, save whatever you want to say until Quon is available for discussion. This involves him just as much as it involves us." Sighing deeply, I shook my head again. "And even when we discuss it…I refuse to risk a scandal, so you can't have things both ways. Either break up with him or break up with me. You chose him a long time ago, and you have your reasons. Don't go back on what you said so readily just because you pity me."

Jiū bit her lip, looking extremely confused. Several minutes passed, then she nodded. "Fine, we won't talk about it while Quon isn't here. And Dib, too. But until the four of us can sort all this, don't go to your father. The wedding date has been set now, hasn't it?"

"Late April," I murmured, nodding. My father had spread it around during that dinner party.

"We still have a couple months to figure something out, then. Don't be so hasty, okay?" She smiled warmly. "You'll have more time to be with Dib if we put it off."

"Fine," I grumbled, sitting down in the grass to wait for the others to arrive. I hated the idea of leaving things unsettled. I just wanted to get it over and done with, even if it meant having less time to spend with Dib. After all, the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to stay. If we delayed for too long, I didn't know if I'd still be able to leave.

Jiū sat beside me and let out a long sigh, twisting the reins in her hands. "So…you and Dib…Dàgē is very angry. That's all he could talk about. I could hardly get a word in, he was yelling so much. You must have really surprised him."

"'Very angry' and 'really surprised' are understatements."

She and I were silent for a while longer, then she sent me a small, curious smile. "My sisters and I have known about you two for a while…I have no idea why Dàgē didn't notice."

Feeling ashamed of myself, I stared down at the ground. "Is it really so obvious?"

"It is," she answered, laughing. "Way, way, way obvious. You two are together all the time in-game and out. You're always carrying him, and holding his hand, and letting him touch you. Dib expresses it more openly, but you don't get angry with him for all the advances, so I figured the feelings are mutual. Ever since you introduced Dib to us I've been suspicious…Especially when Lolidragon PMed me after she found out I'm your fiancée and remarked in that flippant tone of hers 'Wow, Jiū! And here I'd been thinking this whole time that Aeolus was dating Dib!'"

…That stupid thief.

"I'm not dating him now, nor was I then," I denied at once, my face on fire with embarrassment. "We…we have…kissed, I admit…but…other than that, we haven't done anything normal friends wouldn't." I was still very reluctant to talk about it with other people, but somehow telling Jiū was far less humiliating and scary than telling her brother. Maybe because she didn't look disgusted, and didn't seem like she was going to murder me.

Jiū's face was suddenly smothered in surprise. "Kissed‽" she exclaimed, eyes very wide.

"I'm sorry," I blurted on reflex, hating myself for being so unrestrained whenever Heng and I were alone.

"You've only kissed‽" she repeated, and I slowly nodded. Much to my confusion, a teasing smile settled on her mouth. "All those times you went over to his house to watch a movie, or play games, or have dinner…you two were actually doing those things?" I nodded again, and she started giggling and continued in a whisper. "I'd been thinking that was code for something else. I thought you were sleeping with him every time you went over to his house."

Mouth dropping open, I vigorously shook my head. "No! Of course not! We haven't!"

"Wow, you two sure have a lot of self-control. Don't torture yourselves on my behalf," she mumbled.

"Alright! We won't!" a high voice behind us suddenly cut in, and Jiū and I both jumped in surprise. Dib grabbed me around the neck and chortled victoriously, pulling and pushing me back and forth.

Gasping, I yanked him off and tossed him to the grass. "Since when have you been back there‽" I demanded, glaring at the sneaky halfling, who barely ever logged in so early.

"Since a lo-o-o-ong time ago." He gave me a cheeky grin and got to his feet, face darkening when he stared up at the cream-colored horse. "Why's there another one‽ Four was bad enough…" He jumped onto my lap and mistrustfully glowered at the beast. After his hand had been bitten at the stables last December, he had kept his distance from all of the horses, as if he thought they would try to eat him if he got close, regardless of the fact that the horses weren't mean in the slightest to any of us.

"I'll explain when—Oh." Jiū stood up. Automatically tensing, I watched guardedly as Wei Bo, Xiu Chen, and Avila marched out of the city gate and headed our way. Dib didn't seem to notice Wei Bo's murderous expression, and hugged me again, letting out little humming noises. As I tried to make myself look smaller in a hope that Wei Bo wouldn't bother me, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be frightened of the impending doom storming toward us, or relieved that I had Dib and Jiū there for backup.

"Quit it, you two," the man ordered as he stopped beside us, ruining my wishes of being overlooked.

"Quit what?" Dib returned, staring innocently up at him. Wei Bo reached down and grabbed Dib under the arms, but Dib stubbornly kept himself wrapped around my neck. "What're you doing‽ Let go of me!"

"YOU LET GO OF HIM!" Wei Bo began to tug harder, and Dib held on tighter, strangling me in the process of trying to escape from the other warrior. Choking, I wrapped one arm around the screaming Dib and used the other one to hit Wei Bo.

"NO-O-O-O! HE-E-ELP! THERE'S A WEIRDO TRYING TO KIDNAP ME! SOMEBODY STOP HIM! MY CHASTITY IS IN DANGER OF BEING VIOLATED! A-A-A-AH!"

Wei Bo's face flushed with embarrassment when many people walking past us on the dirt road stopped and looked in our direction, their faces alight with worry that apparently a little boy was about to be abducted and molested. Thankfully, the three women finally decided to help Dib and I, and tried their hardest to yank Wei Bo away from us. Once he lost his grip and stumbled backward, I stood up, taking several steps to one side and putting a horse in between us as I gasped for air and rubbed my aching neck.

**"When did he find out?"** Dib anxiously asked me in a PM.

**"He saw us from a window when we were in the driveway."**

**"…Oops. I thought no one was looking."**

"Dàgē," Jiū called in an irritated tone. "I already told you I don't mind."

"_I_ mind!" he snapped, pointing at Dib and I. "I don't want to see the gays all over each other!"

"I'm not gay!" Dib huffed, frowning briefly. "I've had lotsa girlfriends before!…And a boyfriend or two," he added in a mumble, "but that's beside the point! We're not doing any harm, so leave us alone! If you don't wanna see, don't look!"

"What the hell are you expecting‽ Am I supposed to go around with my eyes shut‽"

"What the hell are _you_ expecting‽ It's not like we're gonna get it on when you're watching! Perv!"

Wei Bo looked outraged at Dib's name-calling. "YOU'RE THE–"

"Delun," Xiu Chen interrupted, speaking in an uncharacteristically harsh tone, which probably meant he'd already been ranting about this for quite a while before he had logged in. "Leave them be. They've been 'all over each other' since the beginning anyway. How is this any different?"

"But…But Jiao-mèi," he continued, looking annoyed that he was getting ganged up on, "how could you possibly be okay that your fiancée is _cheating_ on you? WITH A GUY!" he added as if no one had noticed Dib's gender yet.

"I've been cheating on him for years!" she snapped, roughly shoving him backwards. Much as I was expecting, Wei Bo's face became stunned while Xiu Chen and Avila's expressions didn't change at all.

After a long moment of silence, Wei Bo demanded, "WHAT‽ With who‽ And why didn't you ever tell me‽"

Inhaling deeply, Jiū crossed her arms and settled into a proud stance. "Hou Quon. And I don't tell you a lot of things, you idiot."

Confusion twisted at Wei Bo's face as he repeated the name to himself. "Hou…Hou…Hou…Isn't that the flower-obsessed guy who came over for study groups when you were in high school?"

"Uh-huh."

"I DON'T APPROVE!" he immediately roared, then pointed at Dib and I again. "AND I DON'T APPROVE OF THAT, EITHER!"

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T APPROVE!" Jiū roared right back. "ZIAN IS _MY_ FIANCÉE, NOT _YOURS_! I'M THE ONE WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO SAY IF HE'S ALLOWED TO DATE DIB OR NOT! AND I'M AN ADULT, SO I CAN ALSO DATE WHOEVER I WANT! STOP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING!"

He looked flabbergasted that Jiū was talking back, as if Jiū didn't talk back to him every single day already. "I'm older than you; I've got more life experience. This is obviously a bad idea!"

"Only two years older! Just how much more experience does that give you‽"

"WELL, I'M YOUR OLDER BROTHER!" That seemed to be his default reason for everything.

"RIGHT! YOU'RE MY _BROTHER_, NOT MY _DAD_!"

"I'LL TELL HIM ABOUT THIS! AND MOM!"

"YOU IMMATURE TATTLETALE, GO AHEAD!" Jiū suddenly pulled out her wand and, without any warning, blasted Wei Bo at point-blank range with one of her few offensive spells, a gush of sparkling white magical energy shooting through the air. He flew backward and landed with a gusty "Oof!" several meters away. The crowd of people that had stopped earlier when Dib was yelling suddenly began to cheer.

"Jiū, calm down!" Xiu Chen exclaimed, looking horrified as she ran over to Wei Bo, her green robes billowing out behind her as she yanked her healing book out of its holder on her belt. Avila sat quietly on her horse, looking bored over the whole ordeal.

The magician, huffing, stabbed her wand in Wei Bo's direction, but no magic came out this time. "Dàgē, I'm going north to the newbie villages. Quon bought _Second Life_, and I want to play with him. If you don't like that, I'm quitting the Socks and taking Aeolus and Dib with me!…If they don't mind," she added.

"I don't," Dib immediately agreed. I gave a wordless nod, feeling a bit relieved that I might not have to be screamed at every five seconds by Wei Bo. Plus I had nothing to do here in Infinite City, as Yu Lian had informed me during our meeting earlier that Windy's archery lessons had been canceled. It was one less thing to stress out over.

"What about me?" Avila asked, looking a bit worried.

"You can go with whoever you want." Jiū put away her wand and crossed her arms again, glaring at her brother as he sat up, looking dazed.

Avila frowned irritably as she glanced between us all. "Whoever I go with, I'll just be a third wheel! And I don't want to stay here by myself, that'd be boring!"

"Why not ask your boyfriend to start playing?" Jiū suggested, swinging herself up onto her mare.

"He's not interested in RPGs, the lame blockhead. He thinks _Second Life_ will drain his energy and mess up his club activities at school, though I've told him over and over you play while you're asleep."

"O-O-OH!" Dib suddenly squealed in excitement, startling me quite a bit. "I could ask my little brothers to come to this continent! They're on Western right now, but they could sail over here!"

"Do they have enough money?" I asked. "That would be fifteen thousand crystal coins."

"Oh, um…I dunno." Dib shrugged.

"I want someone to hang out with, not someone to babysit!" Avila huffed discontentedly.

"They're only four years younger than you!" Dib huffed right back. "Your and my age difference is twice that, but you don't see me complaining that I've gotta babysit you! If they needed a babysitter, I would have made sure to start on the same continent they did! They're very mature for their age. A lot more mature than I was."

Avila let out a sigh, nodding. "Alright. I can have the tickets arranged."

Dib hesitated, but eventually agreed. "I'll ask them in the morning."

With that plan in place, the girls urged their horses forward, the extra one—it was for Quon, I assumed—hurrying along at their side as they all trotted down the side of the crowded road. I gave a cautious glance back at Xiu Chen and Wei Bo. They were yelling at each other; it seemed I had unintentionally started a feud. Feeling extremely guilty, I extended my wings and took off into the air, following Avila and Jiū as we headed north. The relaxing feeling of flying did little to calm the storm of confusion raging in my mind as I tried to sort out my newest pile of problems, feeling like I was never going to get everything fixed.

After three nights of nothing but traveling, we were entering the newbie territory of the dark elves, where Quon had started his _Second_ _Life_ account. The journey had been tense—Wei Bo and Xiu Chen had decided to come along, and Wei Bo hadn't stopped fighting with everyone the whole way—but I tried very hard to keep out of the line of fire, both to protect myself and Dib, and also to keep the flames lower than they would have been if I tried to calm the man. Halfway through the trip he had seemed to settle down a tiny bit, if only because everything that was happening finally had a chance to sink in, but he was still very irritable. Then again, when was he not?

I landed next to the dirt path, pulled in my wings, and stood still while Dib clambered upward to sit on my shoulders. The other four dismounted and began to lead their horses on foot as we continued forward toward the tiny village's southern gate. Curiosity washed over me as I looked about myself. The layout of the dark elf newbie village seemed to be relatively the same as the celestial newbie village where I'd started, but the appearance of everything was very different. Instead of open, blue skies, pretty fields of springy grass, and a few majestic birch trees, the sky was cloudy, the grass was thick and dark, and there were no flowers in sight. The land was cluttered with oak trees, and the nearby lake I could see through the countless tree trunks had a somewhat menacing feel to it.

Although it all looked so different from the celestial newbie village, I felt tiny nostalgic pricks of that childish excitement I'd had playing a game for the first time last summer.

Trying to ignore the curious stares coming from all of the dark elf newbies we were passing, we entered the village and made our way to the small tavern. After picketing the horses outside, we went in and Jiū stepped forward, eagerly looking for her boyfriend. He was very easy to spot. In fact, it was difficult to look anywhere else. The man was wearing a white headband, belt, and boots, which matched his short and spiky white hair and contrasted with his dark skin. He was also wearing snug-fitting, bright yellow newbie clothes, which seemed to glow in the somewhat dim room.

It looked like his avatar was made out of partially burnt scrambled eggs.

Egg Man stood up, beckoning energetically to us. I was somewhat reluctant to walk forward, but did when Dib kicked me. "Hello, Jiao," the man greeted once we had reached his table, giving her a hug before giving the rest of us a wave. "And hello everyone else."

"Hello yourself, you cheese stick," Wei Bo snapped, eyes narrowing into a bewildered look. Dib barely stifled a snort. It seemed I wasn't the only one who thought Egg Man's clothes were strange.

He quirked one eyebrow and was silent, but then smiled again. "Cheesy colors to make cheesy jokes about. Just use it in moderation, please…I wouldn't want you to get constipated, Dàgē."

Wei Bo's mouth dropped open. "Don't call me Dàgē!"

"I'll be marrying your younger sister, if everything goes to plan." His cat-like yellowish green eyes darted to me briefly, then went back to the outraged Wei Bo. "That makes you my older brother. _Dàgē_. I assure you she will be in good hands, so please treat me well." He gave a small, respectful bow, much like the one he'd given me at the café.

"SURE, I'LL TREAT YOU GREAT!" Wei Bo roared, unsheathing his longsword and scaring the nearest table of newbies. "COME HERE, CORN BREAD, SO I CAN LOP OFF YOUR HEAD FOR DATING MY SISTER BEHIND MY BACK!"

"I would rather keep my head attached to the rest of me, thank you, so how about we sit down? I've already ordered drinks for all of us." Turning away, the man pulled out a chair for Jiū before sitting beside her. "How was the trip?"

Wei Bo looked very annoyed that his threat was being ignored, but Xiu Chen quickly shoved him toward the other end of the table. I wasn't sure where to sit—I wanted to leave, really—so I let Dib decide. He put me next to Egg Man, and sat on my lap. "It was fine," Jiū replied.

"It was _boring_," Avila corrected, flopping down beside her sister and snatching up the lone menu. "All we did was ride, ride, ride, and ride some more. My butt hurts."

"I would have been fine if you all had taken your time," he remarked, propping up his chin on one hand. "There's a lot to do here."

"I suggested taking breaks," she huffed, then poked Jiū's shoulder, "but Jiĕjie was in a huge hurry to get here, as if she doesn't see you every single day in class."

"Well, a person can't leave a cheese stick laying around for long," Jiū replied, taking the menu away and looking it over.

After a brief meal and an even more brief introduction session—Egg Man informed us all that he was a level nineteen magician focusing on dark magic, and that his in-game name was simply his real name with a bunch of numbers after it—understandably, it was probably difficult to get an original username, since the game had been out for so long—we left the village and he hurried us all to the ominous lake, where the flesh-eating slimes were bouncing about. All of the newbies there gave us angry looks when we approached, then they left, as if they thought we were there to train and they didn't want to compete with us for the slimes.

Feeling all of my old disgust rise upon seeing the bulbous, green monsters, I settled myself and Dib in a nearby tree as Quon enthusiastically declared he was going to show us one of his spells. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and extended his hands, whispering something I couldn't hear. His fingertips began to glow as he swished his hands about, creating a spider web-like pattern of purple light hovering and shimmering in midair in front of himself.

After a few moments of spell-casting, Quon said something else and opened his eyes. A huge, circular patch of the ground, encompassing the whole area of the slimes, began to glow purple with the same web pattern as he'd just been drawing with his fingers. With a loud, laser-like zapping noise, the glowing threads suddenly got brighter and beams of magical purple energy shot upward, each one stabbing through a slime and making it explode. Green goop flew everywhere, and I was very happy I had decided not to stand on the ground.

"Whoa!" Dib exclaimed, slapping my arm. "Did you see that‽"

"Unfortunately," I queasily replied, glancing down at the slimy tree trunk underneath us.

"Looks like he can adjust his AoE depending on how many enemies he's aiming at," Dib quickly continued, eyes wide with glee. "Now we'll be able to handle a lot more monsters at a time, though I s'pose he's got a target limit."

Jealousy made me frown as I glanced between Dib's happy face and the five on the messy ground. Even Wei Bo looked slightly less huffy than before as he talked to Quon. "Well, it's wonderful that you've all found a replacement for me so quickly," I grumpily commented, then stood up and walked out to the end of the branch, jumping off and landing in the dark grass.

"Wait!" Dib called, and I turned around just in time to catch him as he fell out of the tree. "I didn't mean it like that, stupid!" he snapped, glaring up at me. "You really think I'm happy just because we've got him on the team now‽"

Sighing, I glanced over my shoulder, watching as Quon said something and everyone started laughing. He seemed to be fitting in just fine, which made me even more jealous. Wei Bo had always been so cold and critical toward me, especially the other day, yet he was already warming up to the new guy. Perhaps he was simply forcing himself to be amiable due to the fact that Jiū was obviously enjoying the man's company, but it made me increasingly mad and depressed.

Gripping Dib tighter, I started off through the dense trees, wandering away from the lake. "No…I'm sorry." It made me feel a tiny bit cheerier that at least Dib wasn't going to be content with Quon.

"Chen told me about the things Wei Bo said," Dib murmured, comfortingly patting a hand on my chest. "I'm sure he didn't mean them…he's just really mad about the cheating stuff. And he already looks a lot calmer."

"He may have said those things out of anger," I skeptically replied, "but such hateful discrimination doesn't come out of nowhere. I highly doubt he meant nothing by it."

"If you're talking about all the mean remarks about the gay stuff, you can't blame him for being grossed-out, you know. I've had people react like that to me a lot of times. When some straight guys I've known found out I swing both ways, they backed off 'cause they didn't feel comfortable around me. Even the straight guys among my friends were kinda distant at first, but they came around. I bet Wei Bo'll be the same. He's okay with Gui, after all."

"Gui Wen doesn't live with him," I pointed out, although I could see what Dib was trying to say.

"But they see one another pretty often here in-game," Dib retorted.

"Gui Wen isn't engaged to his sister."

"Neither are you. Sort of. Just let him have some time to process all this stuff." Giving me a light smack, Dib frowned up at me, then laid his head back down on my shoulder. "You'd probably be shocked, too, if you saw…Jiū and Chen kissing each other, or Wei Bo kissing some guy, or whatever."

My mouth twisting at the thought, I awkwardly mumbled, "Yes, I suppose I would be."

"It's the same thing, so just give him some time. He'll sort himself out soon enough."

I gave a small nod and we fell silent as I walked along through the dimly-lit trees, then flew us up into the branches of a particularly large one and settled us in a comfortable dip in the forked trunk. Since Dib had gone through this before, perhaps he was right and it really would clear up soon. I hoped that was the case, anyway. I was tired of feeling uneasy underneath Wei Bo's judgmental stares, which made me feel as though I was doing something horribly wrong by being attracted to a man. Ever since he and the others had found out, I had caught myself many times forcing myself to act or speak a certain way, trying to find my way back to that normalcy I'd lost with the abrupt and unwanted exposure.

"Have you thought about my question from the other day?" Dib quietly asked, shifting slightly in my arms, so he could stare up at me. "Not that I'm trying to pressure you or anything, but…"

Feeling my face heat up, I nodded again, watching an ant crawl around on the tree bark. "I've thought about it a lot…but I…I don't know what to say." Shifting onto my side, I curled up inside the indentation we were in and draped a wing over Dib, letting my other wing flop over the side of the tree. "Now that Jiū said okay, it…I suppose it doesn't bother me as much as it did before, but…even if she thinks it's okay…"

Letting out a long sigh, I frowned. "This wouldn't be nearly as confusing if one of us was female." Dib, looking extremely worried, opened his mouth, but I put a hand over it and stopped his interruption. "I don't personally have a problem with us both being men, and I don't pay much attention to how other people see me—except for in professional situations, of course—but just…Even if some people accept us, it still makes me really uncomfortable that they know…and I'm terrified of…getting found out by people who'll react like Wei Bo…I'm already hated so much by my father, I can't imagine what he would do…

"And…and even if he never finds out…when I go home…what about my next fiancée…? I'll be hung up on you for who knows how long, and she'll be stuck with me for life, in a loveless marriage…I have no idea who she is, but I feel awful at the thought of trapping anyone like that. And I'm not sure if I'll even be able to…have…have children with her, or…if I'll not…Y-you're the only person I've ever been attracted to before, so I have no idea if I'm really gay, or if I'll eventually manage to be romantically involved with whoever she is.

"Then there's…the whole moving out thing…Even if I date you now, I'll just be breaking up with you soon after, and that's so cruel…It's not fair to you if I agree to this and then take it all away again. I don't want to hurt you like that…I'd never forgive myself…And if we kept dating even after I left, I can't stand the thought of making you sneak around just to have a relationship with me. Breaking off everything now seems so much cleaner. Not easier, of course…it could never be easy.

"But still, regardless of all that I still want to say yes. I…I think I'll regret it a bit after I'm gone, but…I know I'd regret it so much more if I really did end everything before it even starts. I love you so much and I want to spend as much time with you as possible before that privilege is gone, and now we can, but…I'm so confused about everything." Never before had I imagined that I would be in such a terrifyingly complicated situation.

Pausing my rambling, I blinked rapidly, trying to fight back the frustrated tears that were misting up my eyes. Dib shoved my hand off his mouth and smiled, scooting himself forward. "You think wa-a-ay too much. I'm surprised your head isn't exploding, though it's got all that stuff crammed in there."

Huffing, I glanced away from him. "I can't help it. My brain does it all on its own. It never listens to me when I tell it to stop worrying."

Dib patted one of his little hands on my face. "Well…I don't really have anything helpful to tell you about how other people will see us. Being different is tough. I can't control how others think and feel, so discrimination is unavoidable. I've had to deal with it a lot. There was one time I told a guy I liked him back when I first started high school, and he never spoke to me again. His face even got a 'I smell something stinky,' look on it if I stood too close. He was a nice guy—even if he was scared of me, he didn't spread rumors or gossip about me afterward—but…in hindsight I feel like an idiot for expecting anything positive, since a lot of kids that age are probably overwhelmed by the thought of trying to handle the problems that come with a homosexual relationship. And who knows what sorts of prejudices had rubbed off on him from his parents, or if he'd had a bad experience with a guy before, or whatever.

"So, well, my point is you don't have to be open about this to the whole world. Keep it to yourself, and just confide in a few select people who you know won't reject you if you tell them something so personal.

"I'll always be here for you to lean on," he murmured, his smile never fading. "Even if I have to hide, and even if it's hard, and even if it's not fair to me or you or whoever your next fiancée is…I'm going to keep on doing what I've always done, no matter what other people think, because you're most important to me and that's all I care about. I'm really persistent, you know!"

Giving a small laugh, I nodded and hugged him to myself. "Yes, I know." Looping his curls around my fingers, I fell silent for several seconds, wishing I could be as decisive as he was. Perhaps the choice hadn't been easy for him either, but he made it all seem so straight-forward, regardless of everything I was concerned about.

"D'you need more time?" he quietly asked.

"No. I doubt my thoughts will change." Even if I had years to ponder it.

Dib's face fell. "So you're turning me down? Your list of reasons not to date me was…really long."

I took a moment to think, then scraped together the measly amount of courage I had, and sat up, pulling Dib with me. Staring down at him, I smiled. "I already told you my answer, didn't I?" I murmured, putting my hands on either side of his face and cupping his fat cheeks.

"When?" He gave me a bewildered look.

"'I'd regret it so much more if I really did end everything before it even starts,'" I repeated. "I'm terrified of what other people will think, and I'm terrified of the thought of leaving you…and I'm still very confused—I doubt I'll ever sort out everything, really. But…I don't want to throw away this opportunity just because I'm afraid. All my life I've been making my choices based on what my father would want, afraid of what would happen if I went against him, and I'm very, very tired of it." Drawing him into another hug, I gave the top of his head a kiss. "For as long as it can last I want to stay with you."

Dib was quiet for a long moment, then lunged forward with so much strength I fell over and crashed into the tree trunk as he fiercely hugged me back, looking happier than I'd ever seen him before. His laughs filled the quiet air, and dulled the gloom of our surroundings. Squealing incoherent words, he flailed around for a few seconds, gave me a sloppy kiss, then suddenly froze, staring intently at me. "Say it again!"

"Say what?"

"What you said earlier!"

"Be more specific."

His face went red as he smiled and kissed me again. "You said you love me, stupid!"

My face heated up, too, as embarrassment rose upon remembrance. I hadn't really meant to say it. It had just slipped out, and I didn't want to say it a second time. I had used up all my courage on agreeing to date him. Who knew saying a few short words could be so difficult?

But since he wanted me to…and since we were alone…

Taking a deep breath, my face flushing even more, I unwillingly met his expectant gaze and said, "I love you," as steadily and clearly as I could, although my voice quavered a bit.

"Say it again!" he ordered.

Frowning at him, I laid down on the rough tree bark and mumbled, "No."

"Aw, come on, Al!" he pleaded, yanking on my left wing. "Say it! SAY IT! I said it tons of times! You have to say it tons of times, too! It's the rules!"

"There's no such rule."

"YOU JERK! SAY IT OR ELSE I'LL FORCE-FEED YOU THE COOKED VEGGIES YOU HATE THE MOST! I'LL MESS UP YOUR POUCH EVERY TIME WE FLY! I'LL DRINK ALL YOUR POTIONS! I'LL USE YOUR BOWSTRINGS AS FLOSS! I'LL—WHOOMPH!" His threats were cut short as I pulled him underneath myself and shut him up with a kiss, pouring every bit of skill I had learned from him into it. By the time I finished, he was blushing again and looked very sulky. "Not fair," he mumbled.

"Once a day at most," I bartered. "Separating _Second Life_ and real life doesn't count. And only if we're alone. And only if you haven't been bratty."

"That's so strict!" he complained, crossing his arms.

"If you get to make up rules, so do I," I replied and snuggled against him, my little bastion.

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><p><em>Passed the 300,000 word mark with this chapter. :D I never imagined this would become as long as a novel…And of course, the thanks all goes to you awesome readers and all of the encouragement and input you've given me!<em>


	57. Another Careless Night

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>Cold, salty, and damp ocean wind gusted past and blew my hair around—and, with my secret help, also hit Dib's face repeatedly no matter how hard he tried to gather it all up and keep it out of his way as he sat on my shoulders—while my team and I watched the large full-rigged ship coming from Western Continent dock at the sea port near Sun City. The calls of the sea birds were joined by the shouts of the sailors as the anchor was dropped and ropes were thrown to NPCs on the dock. The ship was quickly secured and a thick plank was extended for the ship's passengers to depart. As expected of the high price of the tickets, only five people, excluding the numerous sailors, were disembarking the vessel.<p>

Two of the players headed toward the city, but the other three walked in our direction and sent us little waves. Rather than the twelve-year-olds I'd been expecting, surprisingly they were Heng-sized. Judging by their attire, the triplets had balanced themselves on each side of the basic combat triangle; a magician, an archer, and a warrior.

Dib startled me when he launched off my shoulders, throwing himself over my head, and he landed on the ground several meters in front of us. He scampered forward, stretching his short arms out and yelling chirpy greetings. The three arrivals all side-stepped him when he leapt into the air, and they continued walking, leaving the wailing Dib behind as he fell to his face on the dock. With the usual huffy expression he gained when someone did something he didn't like, Dib jumped to his feet and raced after the triplets, who all looked rather embarrassed at their brother's ridiculously enthusiastic welcome. Once Dib caught up with them, he latched himself onto the right leg of the warrior, indignantly screaming that they were all in big trouble for not catching him.

As they came to a halt beside the rest of us, they stared down at the red-faced halfling. "Of all of the awesome races you could have picked," the captured warrior critically began, frowning as he took in his older brother's appearance, "you chose to be a _halfling_…? You're so lame."

For a split second Dib looked absolutely devastated. But then he just looked mad again. "WHAT‽" he yelled, chomping down on the leg he was wrapped around. The boy let out a squeaky, pained noise and tried to pry Dib off. "I'M NOT LAME! I'M ADORABLE, YOU JERK! AND I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU! I'M NEVER GONNA SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN!"

"WHO CARES‽ LET GO, SHRIMP!"

"S-SHRIMP‽ I'M STILL BIGGER THAN YOU IN REAL LIFE, TWERP!"

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER! IN _SECOND LIFE_ YOU'RE A SHRIMP!"

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF HOW CUTE I AM! TWE-E-E-ERP!"

"NO WAY! WHO WOULD BE JEALOUS OF A SHRIMP‽" The nearby NPC sailors and dock workers sent irritated glances in our direction as Dib and his "little" brother—they were all more like bigger brothers, no matter how you looked at them, but whatever—fell down and began rolling and scrambling around on the weathered planks, each trying his hardest to beat up the other.

"Those two are so embarrassing," the archer dryly observed, looking somewhat exasperated. Giving a heavy sigh, he turned to the rest of us and smiled. "The loudmouthed idiot over there is Yi, I'm Er, and that's San," he introduced in turn. "I'm Oli in game, though. Elven archer, level eighty-eight."

"I'm Hai," the magician quickly piped in, giving us polite nods from under the black cloak in which he was covered. "Also level eighty-eight–"

"All three of us are," Oli interrupted, puffing up his chest and brushing a bit of his dark blue hair out of his face.

Hai nodded, was silent for a few seconds, then lifted his stone staff and continued. "I'm, um, a human magician. Water spells and absorption spells are my specialty."

Both brothers turned to look at the screaming pair still rolling around, then Oli looked back to the rest of us. "That's Cay, a demon warrior who likes to punch things." His pale green eyes flickered back to his older brothers. "…What level is Dàgē? He's getting murdered."

"Dib is sixty-one," I slowly admitted, my attention momentarily getting captured when Dib let out an especially ear-splitting shriek, which, in my opinion, sounded more like he was having fun, regardless of the fact that his chubby face was bruised and bloodied by the spiked gloves on Cay's fists.

Oli's brow furrowed. "What? He started playing at the same time we did. Is it hard to train as a halfling?"

"It's not his race that's the problem," Wei Bo grumbled, shooting me an annoyed glance, as if it was all my fault that Dib was so lazy. Admittedly, I'd never pushed Dib to train with the other warriors—he preferred to sit with me on my perches, watching the fights instead of participating—and in the past it had sort of been partially my fault that he'd run away from everything, but still…it was at least ninety-nine percent Dib's fault.

Oli frowned and glanced at Wei Bo, probably waiting for an explanation, but then looked toward Dib, sighed and shifted his weight to one side, as if deciding that he didn't need an answer after all. We all took our time introducing ourselves in the hope that Dib and Cay would be finished by the time we were done, but the duel went on. Hai leaned toward Oli and whispered, "Should we stop them?"

With a shrug, Oli turned away, running his eyes over the city behind us. "Go ahead if you want, but I'm not getting in the middle of the idiots' fight. I need to go to the market and buy more bolts and some food for Brushy. She ate the last of her walnuts earlier. Left sticky shells all over the inside of my pouch…"

"Who's Brushy?" Quon curiously asked.

"My level eighty-two pet, a giant squirrel," he shortly replied. "Brushy Butt. She's a girl—kinda sucks that I found that out _after_ I named her—so she prefers Brushy. She says it's cuter." A series of muffled snorting noises came from several of my teammates.

"How giant is she?" Jiū inquired, also looking somewhat amused.

Oli opened his pouch. "Brushy, c'mere." A gray fuzzy mass suddenly sprouted out of the top of his pouch, and a rather fat squirrel more than twice the size of Wei Bo's enormous stallion squeezed herself out of the pouch and hopped onto the ground beside the archer. He patted a hand on the squirrel's fuzzy left elbow—he couldn't reach her shoulder—and smiled in a proud, show-offish way. "This giant. The three of us can ride on her back all at once, so you guys don't have to buy us horses or anything. I had to put her away during the boat ride, 'cause she got in the way of the sailors. They didn't like it much when their crows nest was filled with squirrel fur and spit-covered, chewed-up nut shells. And she kept bouncing around and rocking the boat."

Brushy's bulgy and watery black eyes widened as she shoved her head at Oli's middle, nearly knocking him over as she sniffled and snuffled, grabbing at his clothes and squeakily rambling, "NUTS‽ Do you have more? I'm hungry! I'm so glad we're off the boat! I got sick in your pouch, by the way! Too many waves going up, and down, and up, and down, and up, and down! And–!" Her head suddenly turned as she looked down at her fluffy, twitching tail. "MY FUR IS A MESS! How embarrassing! Master, you meanie, you should have told me we're around other people! Oh, how embarrassing, how embarrassing…" She self-consciously covered her face with her front paws.

"Don't worry, you look great. And we'll brush you down really good and buy you lots of food once we get to the city," Oli assured, agilely hopping onto her back before sending a look back to the still-fighting Dib and Cay. Sighing, he shook his head and turned back to the city, Brushy energetically bouncing up and down in place.

Wei Bo began leading away his brown horse. "Let's just leave them."

Feeling somewhat anxious, I watched while everyone, except Hai, agreed and began to walk or ride away. Turning back to the pair of brothers rolling around on the dock, I gave an alarmed glance to Hai, wondering what we were supposed to do. Dib definitely wouldn't stop if I asked him to, and I knew already through real-life interaction with the triplets that Cay, unfortunately, shared that trait.

Taking a deep breath, Hai narrowed his brown eyes, gripped his staff a bit tighter, then gave me a nod. "I—I'll try and stop them!" he declared, obviously pretending to look brave. Slowly he tip-toed forward as the two continued to scream and cause large amounts of damage to each other and to the wooden planks. "Dàgē…Cay…? Um…We should go to the city now."

They ignored him.

"Hey, come on, guys. We'll be left behind!"

They still ignored him.

Hai's shoulders sagged a bit under his black cloak. "If you don't quit, I'll stop you!" he warned, but still they fought on. There was a brief pause, then he mumbled something I couldn't understand and lifted his staff. Much to my surprise, a large explosion of water at least thirty meters high erupted where Dib and Cay were. Large pieces of splintered wood and a great deal of sea water flew through the air, spraying me, as sailors and dock workers screamed in anger and shock, many falling into the ocean as half of the dock collapsed, others escaping onto the now-damaged and rocking boats.

"S-San…" I breathed faintly, eyes wide as I watched the wreckage fall to the ground, "That was a little…much." Letting them fight probably would have resulted in less of a mess. I wouldn't have been surprised if we'd be banned from the city after this.

The magician, perhaps not hearing me, rushed forward without a word and jumped onto one of the few pieces of the dock that were still intact. With another murmured spell, he aimed his staff at the choppy water. A yellow light began to glow under the surface of the sea, and soon two familiar figures floated into sight, slipped out of the water, and were brusquely dropped on the ground nearby. With quite a bit of grumbling and coughing, Dib and Cay glared up at their youngest brother.

"Using magic in a warrior's fight isn't fair!" Cay snapped, unsteadily getting to his feet as he raised his fists. "C'mere, so I can punch you!"

Dib stood up, fell over, and then stood up again, scimitars unsheathed and pointed at Hai.

Seeing the imminent threat of two agitated warriors heading toward him, Hai swiftly cast another spell and a white light shimmered around Dib and Cay. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but soon the pair's movements slowed. Within fifteen seconds, they were both sprawled on the ground, chests heaving but otherwise not moving anymore.

"Give back my energy!" Cay weakly ordered.

"I told you I'd stop you!" Hai huffed, twirling around and striding back in my direction. "I'm going to catch up with the others." With that declaration, he quickened his pace and ran past me, probably not wanting to be here when his brothers recovered.

"I can't move!" Dib wailed, feebly wiggling his arms and legs around in the air, like an upside-down turtle that couldn't right itself. "Al! Help!"

Forcing away a sigh, I glanced up at the numerous furious glowers I was receiving from all of the NPCs, who were slowly emerging from the places in which they had hidden themselves during Hai's abrupt and unexpectedly explosive intervention. Quickly hurrying forward before they could bombard me with demands for compensation—or attack me—I crouched down by Dib, picking him up. He looked very sleepy, was limp and floppy like his bones were all gone, and couldn't even summon up enough energy to hold on to me like he usually did. Plus he was covered in countless injuries. Trying very hard not to laugh at him, I pulled a stamina potion and a health potion out of my pouch and gave them to the very surly Cay—he declared in as firm a voice as he could muster that he did _not_ need my help, though it was obvious that he needed all of the help he could get—then turned and hastily followed after our long-gone teammates, gently rubbing Dib's soggy back as he continued to whine pitifully.

Several fast-paced, argumentative hours later we were heading out the southern gate after having bought supplies, repaired our armor, and ate dinner. Pointing myself in a south-eastern direction, I pulled out my wings and ran my eyes over the flat and flowery carpet of green grass surrounding us, then glanced at my teammates. Most of them were mounting their horses and squirrel, but Jiū made no move to get on her white mare, instead giving a look back toward the city.

"I think I want to stay here," she announced, drawing all attention to herself. She gave a small smile as she continued. "We've been traveling so much, and it would be nice to settle rest a bit before we go back to Infinite City. Yu Lian will undoubtedly find work for us if we go back. A little vacation couldn't hurt."

There was a pause, then Wei Bo nodded. "I don't mind. It'd be nice to get some uninterrupted training for once. There's no battles we're needed for…and Yu Lian fired Twig."

I inwardly sighed when he shot me yet another annoyed look, as if getting relieved of my duties was a bad thing. Pulling in my wings, I relaxed as everyone else gave their agreement to Jiū's suggestion and started discussing what to do next. I didn't particularly want to go train, but if I was going to be overruled by everyone else then I wouldn't raise an objection. Really, I wanted to get back to Infinite City as soon as possible and discuss what I was supposed to do about breaking off the engagement—although I wasn't sure what the complication was—as Jiū had been avoiding me ever since we'd left and had been putting it off for when we got back.

…In fact, this was probably another way for her to avoid me.

Looking back to the group I'd been tuning out, I gave a suspicious glance to Jiū. Her silver eyes met mine briefly before she looked elsewhere in a twitchy manner and turned to Quon, smiling and murmuring something. Stepping forward, I inhaled and started to call her name, but stopped when she suddenly whirled about and, with a horrified expression, looked at something behind me. Feeling a bit alarmed, I turned to look and see what she was looking at, but…there was nothing there aside from a lot of empty land and the city wall. Nothing at all that would make her look so frightened.

Confused, I turned around again, only to see Jiū hastily galloping away on her horse, Quon following along behind. "I can't believe you just fell for that," Dib snorted, patting his hands on my forehead and shaking with chuckles. Attempting to fight away the embarrassment burning at my face, I shot forward and jumped into the air, extending my wings and angrily flapping them before I could fall.

**"Come back here!"** I snapped over the team chat as I began my pursuit of the runaways. She didn't answer me. I focused on speeding up as much as I could, slicing through the warm air as the gap between us closed more and more with every flap of my wings.

Abruptly lifting Dib and I higher, I flipped myself vertical and dropped feet-first toward the white mare's rear, landing right behind Jiū's saddle. At least, that was what I had intended to do. Instead of landing on the horse, however, my feet alarmingly sank right through the animal. Eyebrows knitting in realization, I lifted myself up again as the illusion Jiū had cast wavered and vanished. I felt extremely foolish for having fallen for another one of the magician's tricks, but tried to keep my mind off that as I once again shot off toward the two horses galloping over the thick grass quite a ways away to the west.

Rather than trying to land this time, I flew straight at Jiū and grabbed at her arms, trying to drown out Dib's annoying laughs. In one swing, my hands passed right through her, so I lifted Dib and I higher again, gritting my teeth to hold in all of the frustrated roaring I wanted to let loose. Despite my efforts, the noise still leaked out as a strangled growl. The second illusion vanished, but I didn't go following the third pair of horses that had appeared further south. Rather, I slowed my wings to a steady beat, keeping myself in one spot as I scanned the grass, looking for any odd movement in the green blades swaying gently to and fro in the light breeze.

A rippling motion to the east, too forceful to be work of the soft wind, caught my eye. So I could fly faster, I took a short moment to throw Dib at our teammates—Brushy caught him in her paws, hugged him tightly, and let out a happy-sounding squeal, not seeming to notice Dib's horrified scream—then I resumed the chase, flying low to the ground and locking my eyes on the disturbance in the grass.

Meter by meter I closed the gap between myself and the invisible horses, then, abruptly, as if Jiū's illusion had popped like a bubble, they appeared directly in front of me. Veering to the right, I zipped toward Jiū and narrowed my eyes when she gave me an annoyed look over her shoulder.

"Stop running away and just talk to me!" I yelled at her, landing on the back of her horse as I had originally planned.

"We'll talk when I want to talk! We're on holiday, so we have plenty of time for it _later_!" She started leading her horse in a weaving, zig-zag pattern, nearly making me fall as I tipped from side to side. Anger taking over, I grabbed her under the arms and launched myself off her horse, yanking her sandaled feet out of the stirrups as we flew backward. Quon gave an incoherent, alarmed call and leaned far over to grab the riderless mare's reigns. After the horses had galloped away a bit, I dropped Jiū and I to the ground.

Immediately, she furiously turned toward me, balled her right hand into a fist, and punched me with what I assumed was all of her strength, much like she did all the time in real life, although the effect here in-game was much different. A second later, she held the fist to herself and irritably snapped, "Ow!"

"Serves you right," I huffed, crossing my arms. "Why are you being so disagreeable‽"

"Why are you being so persistent‽" she returned. "I said 'later!' The wedding isn't until April!"

"I don't want to leave it until the last minute!"

"I never said we had to do that! I just want to give you more time with Dib!"

"I've had time with him! It's been over a week!"

"Oh, a _week_ is enough time for you‽ You're done with him now that you've had a WEEK‽"

"What if everything is ready early and my father decides there's no reason to wait‽ He'll be angry with me for breaking off the engagement, but he'll be even angrier if I break it off after everything has already been arranged! He'll think he's been humiliated if he sends out invitations to an event that won't even happen! And _of_ _course_ it will all be my fault to him!"

"SO, YOU'RE JUST SCARED OF GETTING IN TROUBLE‽ ISN'T DIB WORTH IT‽"

"I'M GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE WHICHEVER WAY IT GOES, BUT THE SOONER I SPEAK WITH MY FATHER, THE CLEANER IT WILL HAPPEN! HOW LONG DO I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU'LL THINK IT'S _OKAY_ FOR ME TO LEAVE DIB‽"

My last shouted sentence left her silent, the fury in her silver eyes fading away. With a short inhalation, she shook her head and gave me an upset frown. "Never…It's never going to be okay."

Completely exasperated with her, I snapped, "Well, I'm not going to wait for 'never' to come. And I'm tired of waiting for you to stop stalling with your indecisiveness." I looked past her momentarily to watch Quon ride up to us, then I smiled at Jiū. "Don't worry about me and my problems anymore," I murmured, taking her by the shoulders and turning her around. "I'll handle them from now on, so don't involve yourself." Ignoring her when she started to disagree, I gave her a push in Quon's direction and raised my voice. "Quon, whenever you and Jiū feel ready to face her parents, tell me."

He quirked an eyebrow and came to a stop. "You finally agreed?"

"No!" Jiū denied.

"And I doubt we ever will," I added and took a step back, "at least, not within a reasonable amount of time, which is why there's no point in waiting. So, as I said, let me know whenever you two prepare yourselves, and I'll get ready, too."

"Stop making everything one-sided! This–"

"Jiao, stop," Quon quietly interrupted, dropping her horse's reigns. With a fuming look, she snatched up the reigns and began to stomp away from both of us. Quon let out a sigh, then turned his horse to follow her. "I'll let you know when she starts to cooperate," he called back to me, waving one hand.

Feeling satisfied that I'd taken care of that obstacle, I watched them for a moment, then started back toward Sun City's southern gate where the rest of my teammates were, as usual, being rather loud and noisy, drawing a lot of attention from the people on the heavily-populated road leading away from the city. Slightly embarrassed that they were causing a spectacle for the millionth time that night, my eyes followed Dib as he raced in a circle around the others. Brushy was merrily skipping along behind him, her tail flicking back and forth every time she hopped into the air.

Although I had assumed they were playing, I eventually noticed that Dib was crying and screaming "MAKE HER STOP!" as he ran around, weaving this way and that. Regardless of his efforts to escape, Brushy kept following him, looking like she didn't notice—or maybe just didn't care—how scared he was. Everyone else, rather than helping him, was watching and laughing as the chase continued around and around in a circle.

Once I'd gotten closer, Dib spotted me and, with a pitiful wail of "A-A-A-AL, SAVE ME!" ran at me, arms outstretched, and the squirrel still happily bouncing along behind him.

The problem became apparent when Dib got to me and hid behind my legs.

"Aww, come here, you cute wittle baby!" Brushy cooed in one of the babyish voices Dib hated so much, giggling as she walked past me and hurried after him. "Don't be sca-a-ared!"

Dib let out a scream and ran around me, frantically jumping up and down. "PICK ME UP! PICK ME U-U-U-UP!"

Frowning, I shook my head and lifted my hands out of his reach. I would have obeyed, except he looked slimy and smelled like peanuts. Maybe Brushy had been licking him.

"PICK ME UP!" he repeated, jumping up and latching onto my quiver strap, trying to climb to safety, regardless of the fact that Brushy towered over me, was a much higher level, and thus could easily take him away from me if she tried.

"Let go." Grabbing the back of his top, I yanked him off and held him out at arm's length. Brushy let out an excited noise and lifted her front paws as if she thought I was going to hand him over, but I swung the sobbing boy away from her. "Why are you chasing him?"

"He was running away," she answered promptly, puffing out her fuzzy cheeks.

"And why was he running?"

"SHE TRIED TO EAT ME!" Dib accused, pointing a tiny finger at the fat squirrel.

Feeling confused—she didn't seem like a vicious sort of animal—I looked at Brushy and waited for an explanation. She grabbed her tail and twisted the long fur around her toes, staring down at the ground and shifting her back feet through the grass. "I…I wasn't trying to _eat_ him," she denied, sounding a bit embarrassed, then started staring at Dib again. "I wanted to see if he'd fit in my cheek pouches! And he did! But I guess he didn't like it, and squirmed around so much that he fell out of my mouth! I was trying to cheer him up with hugs and kisses, but he kept running away!"

Sighing slightly, I gave Dib an annoyed look for being so dramatic, then used my free hand to reach into my pouch. Pulling out a box of almond cookies, I held them out to Brushy. "Here," I said, smiling warmly at the air-headed rodent. "Why don't you take these cookies and share them with the others? I'll try to calm down Dib."

Her face immediately lit up as she sniffed at the box, then gave me a jerky nod and jumped away, already opening the box and stuffing cookies into her mouth. Once she was gone, Dib let out another pathetic sob and rubbed at his red cheeks. Giving a look to his messy hair and slobbery clothes, I wrinkled my nose, took hold of him with both hands and jumped into the air, flying toward the nearby river, which ran close to the city, flowing west into the sea.

Ignoring Dib's inquiries about where we were going, I quickly ran my gaze up and down the bank of the large river, looking for a spot to land. There were lots of other people, both NPCs and players, fishing and swimming and sailing in little boats, although, thankfully, it wasn't too crowded. Dropping us to an empty spot well away from the water on the northern bank, I put Dib on the ground and started yanking off the pieces of his armor. He let out a surprised noise and started trying to swat me away. **"What are you doing‽ People are around! Don't take off my clothes! Stop!"**

Still ignoring him—and all of the confused looks nearby people were giving us—I continued to undress him and stuffed everything into his pouch. When he only had his red pants on, I picked him up and threw him at the river, not wanting to carry him while he was covered in squirrel drool. His shocked yell was cut short when he fell into the water a quarter of the way across the river, limbs wildly flailing. Looping his belt around mine, I laid down on the grass and stared up at the bright blue sky and puffy white clouds, waiting for him to come back and start screaming at me.

It took a minute for him to swim to shore, but soon my prediction came true and he was back, fists clenched and face still just as red as it was earlier as he glared down at me. "If you wanted me to wash off, you coulda just asked!" he snapped, wringing the water out of his pant legs. "Geeze! I coulda drowned, you jerk! Or a fish coulda eaten me! But you'd just be sunbathing on the bank!"

I blankly stared at him for a few seconds, then abruptly sat up, grabbed him and threw him at the river again, lazily falling back onto the grass afterward. **"Wash, please," **I requested, smiling to myself as I pulled my fletching supplies out of my pouch.

**"I WAS ALREADY WASHED AFTER THE FIRST TIME, STUPID!"** he indignantly yelled back. Not bothering to reply, I started whittling away at a piece of wood. He sent me a growling noise. **"I'll get you for this! Just wait 'til I get ba—OH NO!"**

A wall of gray abruptly blocked my view of the sky when a familiar-looking fuzzy stomach and bushy tail passed by overhead, but then was gone less than a second later. Feeling surprised, I sat up and watched Brushy leap toward the river, the triplets—all stripped of their armor, like Dib—seated on her back. Dib started bellowing in a terrified way at me through the messaging system, and I could see that, although he had reached the bank, he was running back into the water, trying to escape from the incoming rodent.

Smiling in amusement, I watched while Brushy gave one last jump and landed right next to Dib in the river. The wave of water knocked Dib off his feet and briefly caused him to go under, but Brushy grabbed him, threw him high into the air—he was once again screaming like he was getting murdered—and caught him, squishing him into her furry chest as she happily hugged him. The triplets slid off her back and started swimming around, laughing and splashing water at their panicky older brother as Brushy giggled and cheered, "I finally got him!"

Drawing my legs up to my chest, I crossed my arms on top of my knees and sighed faintly, feeling a bit lonely as I watched them play together. All of those careless nights that Dib and I had spent alone were long-gone now that we had so many teammates. I wasn't miserable now that we weren't alone, of course, but it made me a bit jealous to have lost Dib's undivided attention. However, regardless of that, I was relieved to know that Dib would have his family around him once I left. He wouldn't be alone, so perhaps my absence would be a little more bearable. Perhaps he'd still be happy, even without me.

Feeling even lonelier with that addition, I sighed again and stood up as Brushy called to me to come play, too. Walking across the thick grass, I slowly peeled off my leather archer's armor as I headed for the water's edge, hiding myself behind the facade of a smile and trying to settle for simply treasuring these last few careless nights.

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><em>The three new Socks:<em>

_Yi/Cay (one/warrior), a demon warrior focused on defense and strength, and wielding spiked gloves. Short black hair, red eyes, heavy black and gray armor._

_Er/Oli (two/elf army), an elven archer using a crossbow. Somewhat long dark blue hair and pale green eyes, blue cloth and leather armor._

_San/Hai (three/sea), a human magician specializing in water-based attack spells and absorption spells. Short brown hair and eyes, gray robes and a black cloak._


	58. I'm Yours

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** Due to the request I got last July from My Ultimate Answer…this chapter contains lemon number one. (I'm so embarrassed.)  
><em>

_**_*** This is not the complete chapter! __FanFiction is getting stricter about adult content sneaking its way into stories, so I have edited this to avoid the wrath of the moderators. However, you can find the complete, unedited version on my LiveJournal, Blogger or Archive. _**_

_**_ spishie dot livejournal dot com  
>tiggipi dot blogspot dot com<br>_****archiveofourown dot org / users / tiggipi****_  
><em>**_

_**_They are set to public, so anyone can view them. If anyone can't view them for some reason, please tell me and I'll repost it somewhere else. ***_**  
><em>

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><p>"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked cautiously.<p>

"For the millionth time, _yes_, I'm sure." Heng's tone implied that he was rolling his eyes at me behind my back. "Tons of people, young and old, do this every day without getting hurt. You can, too."

"I'm not so sure," I mumbled skeptically, glancing down at the bicycle I was sitting on. It looked simple enough to operate, but I knew that I'd immediately fall over, or run into something, or get my leg caught in the chain, or some other horrible accident that would result in my untimely demise.

"It's super easy, once you get the hang of it. And I'll be right behind you, just in case you start to fall." He gave a light shove to the back of the bike seat, but I kept my feet planted firmly and safely on the ground, where they belonged. "Come on, put your feet on the pedals."

"Why do I have to learn how to ride this, anyway?" I huffed, trying to buy myself some more time. "I could just walk or drive. This is pointless. I don't even own a bike."

"It's not pointless! It's fun _and_ good exercise! Besides, it's silly for an adult not to know how to ride a bike! I learned when I was like four!"

"And how would I have learned? My father would have thrown a tantrum if I'd ridden a bike around in the house and scuffed up his precious floors!"

"You've had six years out of the house to learn!"

"There was no one to teach me!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing? Stop stalling and put your feet on the pedals!" he ordered, slapping the back of my head.

Frowning in annoyance, I put my right foot on the right pedal, then looked behind myself. "Don't you dare let go." At his nod, I slowly, carefully, fearfully put my left foot on the left pedal and tightened my grip on the handlebars, wishing I hadn't agreed to this. He could have at least picked a place with grass, so it wouldn't hurt as much if I fell. Instead, we were on the road in front of his house, with plenty of asphalt on which I could kill myself.

"Ready?" he asked, but didn't bother to wait for an answer before he started shoving me forward.

Gasping, I hastily put my feet back on the ground and squeezed the brakes. "No! Not yet!"

Heaving a sigh, Heng let go of the seat and walked over to lean on the handlebars, grumpily staring up at me. "First swing sets, now bikes. You're such a wimp."

I leaned back and crossed my arms, feeling embarrassed. "Says the person who's afraid of a harmless, friendly squirrel."

"She's not harmless!" Heng denied, the look on his face switching to irritation. "She's always trying to smash me!"

"Hug you," I corrected.

"It might look that way, but she's got it in for me…That monster never holds back her strength." At my laughter, Heng lightly smacked my head again. "It's easy for _you_ to think it's stupid; you're not snack-sized. Doubt you'd laugh long if a monster with teeth as big as your entire body started bothering you nonstop. Playing with you like you're a toy…She tried to put bright pink ribbons in my hair last night while you were inside the archery shop, you know. Those jerks we call teammates wouldn't even help me fight her off."

"How terrible." I didn't bother to keep the unconcerned sarcasm out of my voice. "You're the one who made yourself snack-sized, however." I was feeling thoroughly unsympathetic, given his perpetually rough treatment of me in-game, including, of course, all of the times that he had tried—and sometimes succeeded—to dress up my hair with things just as ridiculous as bright pink ribbons. I usually did help Dib escape from the enormous rodent who seemed to never run out of smothering love for the halfling, but letting Brushy do as she pleased was my method of getting revenge on him, hopefully without him noticing.

He sighed again and moved to stand behind the bike. "I wasn't planning on becoming a squirrel's pet when I made Dib. But never mind all that. Time to ride. Pick up your feet."

I tensed, still not feeling prepared at all, when he grabbed the bike seat and leaned over me. Trying not to look scared, I slowly put my feet on the pedals again, hands tightly grasping the handles as I mentally told myself over and over that I wasn't about to die. After all, Heng was right; billions of people of all ages rode bikes and didn't get hurt, therefore I would be fine, too.

Perhaps, then, it was a want to redeem myself—an adult who didn't know how to do something so many other people did—rather than courage that kept my feet off the ground when Heng started pushing, enthusiastically telling me to pedal faster.

Eyes locked on the front wheel, I obediently pedaled as hard as I could. A while went by in which nothing much happened, then I looked up, feeling very proud of myself as I watched the cramped houses roll past on either side of the skinny road. "This isn't so hard," I remarked, giving a very brief glance over my shoulder. Horror filled me when I noticed that Heng, who I had thought was still right behind me, was far, far away and getting farther away, although he'd agreed not to let go.

He smiled and waved, calling after me, "Keep pedaling! You're doing great!"

Panicking now that I didn't have Heng supporting me, the bike started wobbling and going in the wrong direction. Heng yelled something, but couldn't hear him because I was too busy yelling at him to make the bike stop, although the very small part of my brain which was still rational was reminding me that he was too far away to be of any help at all. However, the bike did stop soon after that—when I pedaled head-on into a utility pole and fell over, my right side skidding painfully across the ground.

Indignant that I had crashed, I glared at Heng when he ran up to me, eyes wide. "Are you okay?"

"You ass!" I snapped. "Why'd you let go‽"

"Sounds like you're fine," he huffed while I shoved the bike off myself and sat up, brushing the dirt off my hands. Standing as steadily as I could, I glared at him again when he started chuckling and set the bike upright. "How d'you expect to learn how to balance if I'm holding on? But you coulda just put your feet down when you started to fall, you know."

"You told me to keep pedaling!"

He kept laughing and carefully put a hand on my shoulder, using his other to brush off my shirt. "Well, other than the part where you decided to introduce your face to that pole, you did pretty good for your first time," he told me in an amused tone, tilting my head to one side so he could inspect it for injuries. I winced and pushed his hand away when he rubbed his fingers over where the ground had clobbered me. "Sorry. I guess I shoulda run alongside you. I'll do that next time."

"Next time?" I repeated, trying not to limp as I headed back to his house, pain growing in my right knee as my pants scraped against it. "What 'next time'?"

"You can't give up!" he exclaimed, turning the bike around and hurrying after me.

"Yes, I can."

"No! You can't!"

"I _can_."

"Al, come on!" he whined. "We can go on rides together if you learn! I know where there's a really nice trail just outside town! Riding a bike is tons more fun than walking! You have to learn! I won't let you quit!" Sighing heavily, I silently listened as he continued to pester me all the way back up the road. When I turned to go into his house, he grabbed my uninjured arm and let out an obnoxiously loud yell of "WAIT!"

Shoving him away, I stumbled inside and kicked off my shoes. "At least let me bandage my knee! I'm bleeding!"

His eyes widened a little in surprise, then he walked out of sight, pushing his bike toward the garage. After a moment, he came back and hurried inside, shutting the door and dragging me down the hallway. Soon he had me seated on the couch and was gently rolling up the leg of my jeans, which had gotten torn a little, making me even more mad.

"So? You've probably got a gazillion holeless pairs and the money to buy a gazillion more," he dismissively replied when I agitatedly pointed out the ragged tear. "Anyway, a little rip in the leg doesn't mean they're ruined. I've had pants that were way more torn-up than this, and I still wore them."

Feeling slightly offended that it seemed he was implying I was being snobby, I crossed my arms and leaned back when he opened his first aid box and started rummaging through it. I locked my gaze on the wall above the television, keeping my face blank when Heng started cleaning the scrape on my knee. I had already lost my dignity getting scared of a bike and crashing into a utility pole; I wasn't about to lose more by whining about such a small wound.

After cleaning and disinfecting my knee, Heng gently put a bright yellow bandage on top, gave it a light kiss with an exaggerated "mwah" noise, then stood up and yanked me to my feet, pulling my shirt collar away from my neck. "Your skin is a little scraped on your shoulder, but you're not bleeding," he observed, then rubbed his hand all over my head again. "And no blood here. Good." With a rough smack to my left arm, he smiled and picked up his first aid box. "Time to get back on that bike."

I frowned at him, mentally groaning.

For nearly three hours he forced me to ride the bike up and down the street, over and over and over. I fell down quite a few times, earning myself more battle wounds, but I eventually managed to find my balance and stayed upright. I still didn't think it was much fun, especially because one of Heng's neighbors—a plump elderly woman—came outside at one point and gave me a cookie and a glass of juice as a reward for managing to ride for a whole two minutes without falling over. Although I felt completely humiliated to hear that she'd been watching us for a long time from her kitchen window while she'd been cooking dinner, Heng didn't seem to mind at all and just kept nagging me.

After Heng finally dubbed me ready to go on the bike trail he'd mentioned, we went back inside, ate a light dinner, and then started watching one of his favorite movies—some fluffy romantic drama about a man and a woman who met and fell in love at a secluded mountain inn. It was boring. Heng was always more entertaining than whatever was on the television screen, whether we were watching an action movie and he was sitting on the edge of the couch and staring wide-eyed at the screen, like a child, or a horror movie where he'd be hugging me and looking scared, or in the case of girly romance movies, such as the one we were currently watching, he'd be teary-eyed and blubbering about how lovely it all was.

He wiped his hand over his wet eyes and sniffed, staring anxiously at the screen, where the movie's male lead was running gallantly through the second floor of the inn, which had caught fire somehow—I hadn't been paying it enough attention to remember much of what had happened to cause this. As the man raced from burning room to burning room, frantically calling for his beloved, Heng let out a small noise and leaned his head on my shoulder. Inwardly laughing, I put my arm around him and gave him a hug.

When the man finally found the woman trapped in a room, they shared a passionate kiss and Heng broke into a smile. He hugged me back, mumbling something about how cute he thought it was, although I was wondering why the morons were wasting time smooching instead of getting out of the burning building.

Of course, the movie ended happily, and once the end credits were rolling Heng tilted his head back to stare up at me. "If I was trapped in a burning building, would you come save me?"

"Not if there were firefighters," I answered, stifling a yawn. "I'd just get in the way."

"What if there wasn't any? Would you come save me?"

"Sure. Though I doubt I'd be much help. Anyway, I trust that you're not stupid, like that woman, and won't get yourself trapped in a burning building."

"Oh. Thanks…" Heng's eyes narrowed. "Didn't like this movie, either, huh?"

I smiled faintly and glanced down at him. "You thought I would?"

With a slow exhale, he shook his head. "I dunno. Maybe. It's cute at the end." He picked up the remote and turned off the TV, then leaned against me again and grinned, running a hand through my hair. "If you were trapped in a burning building, I'd definitely come save you."

"I'd rather you kept yourself out of danger."

"I can deal with a few burns," he mumbled, pulling my head down to kiss him. Warmth seeping through me from his body pressed against mine, I leaned forward into the slow kisses, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders to pull him closer. My bruises and scrapes and the stupid movie quickly faded from my mind as I ran my hands over his neck, shoulders, arms, chest, and started questioningly pulling at his t-shirt.

Heng suddenly broke off the kiss, leaning back and crossing his arms. "You should…You should go. Work tomorrow, right? As always."

Feeling confused and hurt at his unexpected, abrupt rejection, I stared at his frowning profile for a moment, then glanced at the clock on the table nearby. "It's not even ten yet."

It took him a while to answer, but he finally gave me an awkward glance and mumbled, "It's…I don't want you to leave, but if you stay, I might…do something. Just trying to draw the line, like you wanted. So, you'd better escape while you still can."

The hurt quickly ebbed away and was replaced with amusement upon hearing his reason. He was such an obnoxious brat most of the time, but moments like this reminded me over and over why I loved him so much.

Smiling, I leaned over and lightly kissed him. He gave me a grumpy look. "Quit!"

"Why should I?" I gave him another kiss, not letting him retreat.

"I just said why!" he huffed, squirming around but not really trying to get me off. "T-this…I can't hold out forever, stupid!"

"You don't have to."

"But last month you said you weren't ready, so–!"

"That was last month," I quietly interrupted. "And just so you know, I _don't_ have work tomorrow; this afternoon I informed my secretary that I'll be taking the weekend off for personal reasons."

For a few seconds his eyes darted between mine, as if he didn't know what to do and had to think about it. Then, in a flash, he'd pushed me over and was on top of me. Through my surprise at his abrupt forcefulness, I laughed and wrapped my arms around him as he restarted the kissing, this time with a hungry eagerness. Really, I'd also been wanting to do this for a long time, especially now that I'd met Quon and knew Jiao wasn't going to mind, but I hadn't been sure if it was a good idea to sleep with Heng, given that I'd be leaving him soon. It seemed cruel to give in to him, and then push him away again directly after.

But it would hurt either way, therefore I might as well do it—as much as possible—while I still had the chance, and this seemed as good a chance as any. We'd been going out several times a week during the evenings, sometimes alone, sometimes with his friends, sometimes with his brothers. Every time never seemed like the opportune moment to initiate something. But now that we had the house to ourselves and the weekend to waste…

"You really sure?" he asked, still sounding a bit uncertain.

Chuckling again, I nodded and tangled my left hand in his thick hair. "Yes."

"No changing your mind."

"I won't." At my softly spoken promise, he smiled and stared down at me with a look radiating so much love it was somewhat painful to see. I drew myself up to kiss him, hoping that I could express how much I loved him, too. I'd grown up barely allowing myself to wish that someday I'd be able to have this sort of relationship with someone—although, I'd used to think that would be with the wife my father had chosen for me, not with my former employee—but I hadn't expected that wish to actually become reality. After being hated for so long, I'd thought I was thoroughly unlovable. But meeting Heng had changed everything.

He was a miracle.

We went upstairs and bathed quickly together, then relocated ourselves to his bedroom and spent the whole night making love to each other, taking our time exploring and memorizing each other's bodies. Given my inexperience, I was awkward and clumsy with him, sometimes more rough than I should have been, but in complete contrast he was extremely gentle and patient, moving slowly and carefully and skillfully, stopping whenever I asked. Although while it had been my turn I had repeatedly forgotten to pay attention to all of him, instead of just his butt, his hands continued to roam everywhere as he kissed me.

As I touched him and he touched me I felt whole for the first time, and suddenly the title of "my other half" that I'd heard other people use didn't seem as mushy and silly anymore now that I had found mine.

When he finally ran out of energy and we laid down to go to sleep, I fitted myself against his side and pressed my mouth to his damp shoulder, deeply inhaling the smells of sweat and sex that covered us both. I felt unspeakably happy, content, and loved when he put his arms around me and gave me one last kiss.

There was a part of me that wished I would never wake up again.

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><p><em>Writing this chapter was like reading the Neverending Story. I got an awkward feeling, like I was spying on real people…<em>

_***** Again, this is not the complete chapter.  
>Please follow the links up at the top if you want to read it in full. ***<strong>_


	59. The End of the Dream

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>I woke up pinned underneath Heng's left side and wrapped up in all of the blankets and sheets. Blinking groggily at his hairy armpit, which was right in front of my face, I slowly started unearthing myself, trying hard not to disturb him. Once I had managed to mostly break free from the bedding, I gave a glance to the clock on his bedside table—it was almost one in the afternoon, which was shocking at first, as I'd never stayed in bed past seven before—given that we'd had sex until four in the morning, sleeping in so late wasn't so strange after all—then I yawned and laid back down next to Heng, staring in amusement at his stupid-looking, open-mouthed sleeping face. He was snoring in the same squeaky way that Dib did.<p>

So cute.

Inwardly chuckling, I gave a pat to his scruffy cheek and kissed the end of his nose, settling back down again afterward to stare at him some more. A sort of grown-up, accomplished feeling filled me as I ran the amazing events of last night though my mind, lingering on the more notable parts. Not only had I learned how to ride a bike, I had learned how to ride…other things. And the latter was much more fun than a bike. I was tempted to wake up Heng, so we could spend the remainder of the day doing it all over again, but decided to be nice and let him keep sleeping.

Creeping to the edge of the bed, I slowly stood up, my legs trembling underneath me and threatening to collapse after all of the strenuous activities of the previous day. Sighing in discomfort, I stretched out my back and gave a look about the small, cluttered room. There was so much red everywhere—the walls, the curtains, the bedding, the rug, the stuffed monster toy thing his friend had gotten for him at the amusement park on his birthday…

Yawning again and squinting, I started shuffling across the floor, laboriously bending down to pick up a red sweatshirt of Heng's that was laying near the foot of his bed. I gave a sniff to it. It didn't stink, so I pulled it over my head and looked down at myself in a slightly annoyed way. It was far too big for me. I kept wearing it anyway—not because I was cold, as I had taken one of my cold-be-gone pills before going to sleep, but because I didn't feel comfortable wandering around naked in someone else's house—and left his bedroom, closing the door softly behind myself.

After a quick shower, I gathered up all of the clothes I had left in the bath and went downstairs, stuffing them all into my bag and getting a clean pair of boxers and pants out. Feeling better now that I was clean and fully clothed, I made myself a pot of tea and flopped sleepily down on the couch. Stretching out on my stomach, I pulled Heng's shirt over my nose—it smelled like him—got my cellphone and headphones out of my bag and turned on some music, reading the news to pass the time until Heng got out of bed.

Nearly an hour passed before my news-reading was rudely interrupted when something extremely heavy smashed me into the couch cushions and I let out a yelp of pain and surprise. Yanking off my headphones, I twisted my head around in irritated bewilderment to, of course, find Heng, dressed in nothing but his underpants, sprawled on top of me. Wasn't there an easier way to get my attention?

"Get off!" I snappishly ordered, elbowing him sharply and trying to squirm my way out from underneath the huge man. However, he refused to let me up, instead grabbing me around the middle and hugging me with what felt like all of his strength. Convinced that my spine was about to snap, I struggled harder. "Heng! That hurts!" He seemed to have forgotten all about my countless bike-riding injuries from yesterday.

He still didn't answer, but I froze in renewed confusion when he let out a sob. Twisting around again, I stared at him. He had his face pressed to my back and I could feel wetness starting to soak through the thick, red fabric of the sweatshirt. "Heng?" I called quietly, bending my right arm behind myself to be able to touch him. "What's the matter?"

A moment of silence passed while the big crybaby—really, it took so little to open wide the floodgates of Heng's constantly overflowing lacrimal glands—either shook his head or wiped his face on me, then he let out another shuddering sob and turned to stare at the back of the couch. "I thought you weren't here," he mumbled, sounding extremely distressed.

"Of course I'm here." I tried very hard to keep the agitation out of my voice, since he was so upset for whatever reason. "No work, remember?"

"That's not what I mean!" he nearly yelled, roughly smashing his face into my back again. "I thought you weren't here! You weren't upstairs, you didn't answer when I called, your clothes were gone! Even _my_ clothes had been picked up!" He fell silent again, leaving me waiting for an explanation as to why that stuff would lead him to believe that I had left without telling him first. Almost a minute went by, then he softly repeated, "I thought you weren't here, Al…I don't know how many times I've dreamed you'd slept over, then woke up all alone the next morning and realized you were never here in the first place. Jerk. Why didn't you wake me up?"

Sighing when I finally realized what he was talking about, I managed to turn around and give him a hug, comfortingly rubbing his back as he rested his head on my chest. "I wanted to let you sleep."

"I wouldn't have cared."

"Why didn't you simply check your trash?" I tiredly questioned. Although I had picked up his clothes while I'd been gathering my own, everything we'd dumped in the bin last night was still in there—a clear sign that what had happened last night had indeed happened.

"…Oh. Forgot about that." He let out a quiet noise and gave me a squeeze. Another fat tear dripped across the bridge of his nose and disappeared as it soaked into the shirt I had on. "It was like when my parents had just died…I would wake up every morning hoping they'd be here. Looking for them in their empty room. Waiting for them to come home in the evenings, though I knew they were never coming back."

Annoyed with myself that I'd reminded him of that yet again, I hugged him tighter and pressed my chin to the top of his messy-haired head, wishing I knew what to say to make him feel better. It was just one more thing to add to my mountain of things to feel guilty about.

"Next time," he huffily added, finally turning his head to look at me, "wake me up. And the time after that, and the time after that, and the time after that!"

I smiled faintly, but didn't nod or agree in any way, unsure of how many "next times" there would be. I had been telling myself "Just one more day," every day over and over during the past few weeks, reluctant to go to Jiao's father and officially break off the engagement. But, with only a little over a month until the wedding, I was running out of time before our parents would send out the invitations, and running out of time I could spend with Heng.

Wanting to change the subject, I gave him a light push. "Go shower. You smell."

"Come shower with me," he ordered, not moving.

"I already showered before you woke up."

"So? Shower aga-a-a-ain."

"I don't want to." I shoved him harder and managed to escape from underneath him. Standing up, I gave a look to his kitchen door. "You shower, and I'll make breakfast." Regardless of the fact that it was more around lunch time.

A glance down at Heng's skeptical face told me clearly what he was thinking, but then he affirmed it all verbally. "No way. You'll destroy my kitchen. Don't you dare go in there when I'm not around to keep an eye on you."

"I won't destroy it!" I denied huffily, mentally adding "completely" as I stomped around the coffee table, turning to face him again once I got to the doorway. "I've watched the cooks at the Lin house make breakfast plenty of times."

"Al, don't. I'll make something when I'm done showering."

"I can handle _toast_, at least!" I insisted, feeling extremely insulted. He probably thought I couldn't even pour a bowl of cereal properly.

Heng let out a long sigh and stared at me for a while, then nodded in reluctant way. "Just toast—and not anything fancy, like French toast. Bread and butter is enough. Don't get any more adventurous than that. Want me to show you how to work the–"

"I know how," I quickly interrupted, whirling around and striding into the kitchen.

"Alright, be careful," he called, heading for the stairs. "I'll be down soon. Don't set my kitchen on fire or anything! I don't want a reenactment of the movie we watched!"

"Oh, shut up," I mumbled under my breath when his footsteps started to fade, scowling as I sat down at the table. I waited for nearly ten minutes—I didn't want the food to get cold before he could eat it—then stood up and retrieved a loaf of bread from his refrigerator. Removing four slices from the bag, I gingerly slid them into his toaster oven, and then inspected the dial. After a moment, I turned it to the number I assumed was correct—okay, so I _didn't_ know how to work it exactly—and put the remainder of the bread away as the toaster started to heat up.

Doubting the black hole Heng called his stomach would be satisfied with a few pieces of toast, I glanced around the other contents of his fridge, my eyes snagging on his egg carton.

Eggs weren't "adventurous."

Right?

"Right," I agreed with myself, confidently getting two eggs out, then shutting the refrigerator door. Since Heng would probably throw a fit if he saw me using the stove, I got a microwavable bowl and set the eggs in it. Putting the bowl in the microwave, I pushed the one minute button, then went to stare at the toast, to make sure it wasn't getting burnt. This was easy. Stupid Heng, underestimating me…I'd make the perfect toast, golden and crispy and without too much butter, and then he'd have to apologize for being so skeptical.

However, my fantasies about the wonderful toast I was going to make came to an abrupt end. Before the minute had ticked down, my focus was interrupted by a very loud noise from the microwave. Confused, I hurried over to see what had happened. Much to my surprise, the bowl now contained only one egg.

The other egg was in tiny pieces all over the inside of the microwave.

I jumped when, with another loud bang, the second egg exploded, its sloppy guts spattering everywhere just like its deceased companion. Feeling absolutely horrified at what had happened, I stood still, simply staring as the microwave continued to cook the mutilated egg bits, until it beeped and turned off when the minute was up.

Heng was definitely not going to like this.

"O-o-o-oh…Oh no…Oh crap." My hand shaking a little, I carefully opened the microwave and inspected the stinky carnage, wondering if I'd be able to get it cleaned before Heng came downstairs. Fear filling me when I imagined how angry he'd be, I quickly got a spatula and the trash bin, then started scraping away at the egg bits, determined to hide the evidence of my latest failure. What the hell had gone wrong to make the eggs explode?

Just as I was cleaning off the last of the goop on the inside of the microwave door, the smell of something burning stopped me in mid-scrape, and I turned to look in renewed horror at the toaster oven, which I'd forgotten all about. Dropping the spatula on the counter, I ran over to the toaster, twisted the dial to the "off" position, and yanked it open. Rather than the perfect toast I'd been hoping for, inedible-looking black squares were sitting inside.

"Dammit," I whispered, then froze when I heard footsteps. Inhaling sharply, I wildly looked around myself, wondering what to do. Heng was going to be so mad that I'd messed up his precious kitchen.

My hands started shaking even harder as I removed the crumbling, blackened bread from the toaster oven. Not bothering to try and hide them—even if I threw them in the trash, the smell would still remain—I stacked them on top of the cupboard, heart pounding furiously as Heng reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Al, where'd you put your clothes from yesterday?" His head popped through the doorway. "I'm–" He abruptly stopped talking, eyes widening as he took in the chaos. Embarrassment set my whole body on fire and I looked away from him, instead staring at the charcoal I had made. I was so useless, I couldn't even toast bread without making a huge mistake. Why did I always do everything wrong?

I wasn't sure how long we stood there like that—it felt like a very long time—but he finally entered the room and took one of my hands. "Are you okay?" he softly asked, inspecting my palm. "Did you burn yourself?"

Wordlessly shaking my head, I continued to stare downward, not wanting to see what kind of expression he was wearing. He didn't sound mad, but I didn't want to check and make sure he really wasn't.

Quite a bit more time went by in silence, then he surprised me by laughing. Feeling even more embarrassed that he thought my failure was funny, I glared down at the floor and willed myself not to punch him. "I g-guess you found…Ha-ha-ha…Found out that microwaving eggs is a really ba-bad idea…Geeze, Al."

While he continued to laugh at me, I angrily walked away from him and sat myself down at the table. Leaning forward, I crossed my arms and buried my face in them, wishing I could disappear. I hadn't wanted Heng to be angry, of course, but having him think it was funny made me feel even worse. It was all that stupid microwave's fault. I'd pushed the one minute button, not the self-destruct button. If it hadn't done whatever it did and turned the eggs into miniature bombs, none of this would have happened.

Still laughing, Heng sat in the chair next to mine and let out a long, broken sigh. "This is why I told you to let me do it. I knew something like this would happen." When he touched my back, I agitatedly shook him off and moved as far away from him as I could without falling off my chair. "Hey, come on, Al," he continued, the humor fading from his voice. "It's okay. You've always had someone else cook for you, so of course you're gonna make mistakes. But you don't have to be so down about it. Cheer up. We can just clean this and make something else."

"I don't want to cook anymore," I grumpily mumbled into my arms, still too embarrassed to look at him.

"Well, either way it still has to be cleaned," he replied as he stood up, amusement seeping back into his tone. Once he had turned away from me, I ventured a peek at him over the top of my arm, watching as he took up the spatula I'd dropped and started scraping away at the drying globs of egg. "As I was about to say earlier, I have to do laundry after this," he announced in a casual tone, as if I hadn't just completely ruined breakfast. "I can put your clothes from yesterday into the load, if you want. My washer has a big capacity, so a few extra things won't be a problem."

"Alright." I sighed and stared admiringly at his bare back, wishing I was as independent as he was, always so hard working taking care of a whole house on his own. I doubted I'd last long on my own after having other people do everything for me my whole life. But I supposed it wouldn't be too difficult if I had someone like Heng—or, even better, Heng himself—with me…Living with me…Me, living with Heng…

Suddenly, a whole new world sprouted to life in my mind, and the appeal of it nearly made me drool.

"And after that," he continued, interrupting all of my newly-spawned fantasies, "we could go out to eat with my brothers. Er sent me a warning text while I was in the shower, telling me they're headed back and that we better not be doing anything 'gross' when they get here."

"Alright," I repeated, trying to push all of those enticing thoughts out of mind, knowing that living with Heng was a dream that would never come true. It was hard enough sneaking around while we were living separately. Living together, we might as well come out to the whole world.

Continuing to stare at his back, I suddenly felt extremely lonely, wondering if this was as close to one another as we were ever going to get. Nighttime rendezvous at each other's houses, leaving the next morning before anyone noticed. Always hiding, always lying to other people, always afraid of getting discovered, always keeping a certain distance from one another, all so we didn't shatter the fragile relationship we were trying to sustain. With things as they were, he and I would never be able to completely acknowledge each other as a "significant other," and I hated that.

Before I really knew what I was doing, I found myself standing right behind Heng, hugging him. "I love you," I blurted, holding onto him as tightly as I could, my forehead pressed to his neck. Resentment roiled up toward my father, toward Gui Wen, toward Jiao, toward her family, toward whoever was going to be my next fiancée, toward _her_ family, toward anyone and everyone who had played a part in putting me in the position I was in that was keeping me from being able to spend the rest of my pitiful life with Heng.

Just when I'd finally found somewhere I felt like I belonged, with someone who wanted and needed me…why the fuck did I have to leave him? It was so unfair.

Heng's hands, which had continued to clean regardless of how I was glued to his back, stopped moving when I spoke. His heartbeat, wildly thudding away, nearly drowned out his whispered reply. "I love you, too."

Three days later I went to Jiao's father and asked him to speak with me. Initially after hearing my request to cancel the engagement he was utterly terrified, looking far worse than he had after I'd fallen in his koi pond on the day we had met, afraid that Jiao had done something horrible to offend me and cause this seemingly abrupt decision. Trying to calm the poor man, I explained myself as soothingly as I could, assuring him that in no way was I offended. Once I was certain he wasn't going to pass out, I called in Jiao and Quon, who had been waiting outside the door to his office. Although I stayed in the room, I didn't speak, letting them finish what I had started.

The day after that I went home for the first time in almost five months.

Pocketing my car keys, I stood at the bottom of the wide stone steps leading up to the open front doors, feeling small and insignificant as I looked up at the mansion towering over me, the gray brick walls looking just as unfriendly and unwelcoming as they always had. Trying to keep air in my lungs, I slowly made my way up the steps, running my eyes over all of the unfamiliar people who had come to welcome me. I knew the names and background of nearly everyone who worked at the Lin estate, yet I couldn't remember the faces of any of my own staff. Perhaps these people had worked here for years. Perhaps they had been hired while I'd been gone. It sickened me that I couldn't tell the difference.

I stopped several steps inside, my stomach clenching uncomfortably when I heard the door shut behind me. I felt a moment of panic when I wondered if they would open again later when I wanted to leave, or if they were shut forever, just like before. Trying to shake off my fear, I turned to the nearest man and asked, "Where is my father?"

"In his office, Zhu Ren." His voice was crisp and business-like. It grated on my nerves just as much as the ridiculous title he had used.

Before he could pointlessly offer to escort me, I gave him a bow and murmured a thank-you—I previously would have thought such behavior toward a lowly servant was unthinkable—then turned away from his extremely surprised face to walk toward the stairs leading to the northern wing, where the family's rooms were located. Alone, I strode quickly but quietly over the thick, dark red carpets stretching down the center of every long hall, my feet remembering, with painful clarity, every step it took to get to his rooms.

I arrived sooner than I would have liked, halting outside his door. Somehow, the thought of seeing him again didn't scare me as much as it would have in the past. Certainly, I was still frightened, but being away from him for so long had given me a bit more confidence toward dealing with him. He'd only hurt me so much because I'd let him. I wasn't going to be so passive this time. Or so I hoped.

It was much easier to visualize such things ahead of time, than really act them out.

Slowly opening the door, I walked inside, forcing down my fear. He looked as he ever had while he sat properly behind his overly large desk, blandly staring at me when I stopped a meter away and gave him a bow. "Whatever it is you have come to discuss with me," he began quietly, "make it brief. I have a meeting in an hour."

There was no way to really prepare myself for whatever his reaction was going to be, so I didn't bother hesitating and simply got right to my point, just like he wanted. "I want to break off my engagement to Lin Jiao."

His face immediately turned an alarming shade of red. "What have you done?" Given that I had been expecting him to scream, the whisper that came out of him caught me off-guard. However, he screamed directly after that, fulfilling all of my expectations. "YOU IDIOT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH EFFORT AND TIME I HAVE PUT INTO PLANNING AND SECURING THIS PARTNERSHIP‽"

"Please, Father, let me explain," I swiftly requested when he took a breath. I was slightly surprised when he actually quieted down instead of continuing on with his usual furious ramblings about how stupid I was. "This is not due to anything I have done wrong or because of a disagreement," I countered, "but is a mutual decision made by Lin Jiao and I. I have spoken of this to her father already, and he has agreed that it would be best for both our families only to dissolve the engagement, not the business partnership."

"His family will still uphold their end of the agreement?" my father asked sharply, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes." I nodded quickly. "Everything will remain as you wanted."

The color of his face returned to normal, almost, as he leaned back in his chair and thoughtfully pressed his lips together, eyes staring up toward the high ceiling. "You are certain these are his intentions?"

"Yes, Father. He was quite clear."

Silence fell over us for a few nervous heartbeats, then he looked at me again. "I will speak to him myself. Tomorrow. If what you are telling me is the truth, I shall allow you to cancel the engagement. I will send my decision back with him. If I agree, pack your things—you shall return here on Sunday."

My breath caught in my throat at that last bit, and I swallowed hard. Opening my mouth, I took a desperate breath. "Father, if…at all possible…" I paused to take another breath, doing my best to fight away the blinding terror that came with the thought of living here again. "Would you allow me to continue to live at the Lin estate? Or, perhaps, on my own?"

"No," he answered promptly, an irritated look settling over his face.

"May I ask why not?"

"Why not?" he echoed, smirking. "Let you live elsewhere, so you can invite over certain ex-employees?" I felt the blood drain out of my face as he spoke, and my reaction seemed only to amuse him. "Did you think that because you lived in another house that I have not been aware of your actions? I have been quite tolerant over the past few months, but will not allow you to embarrass me any longer by spending time with unsavory people such as Shi Heng. Speak to me no more of this; my answer will not change."

"Yes, Father." Fighting back the urge to strangle him, I clenched my jaw and tried to hide my devastation. A part of me was simply grateful that, although he knew I'd been seeing Heng, he didn't seem to know what it was we had been doing together. He would have been far angrier if that had been the case.

He suddenly stood up and I flinched, although he wasn't holding anything to throw and was too far away to hit me. However, he simply went to one of his filing cabinets and started rifling through a drawer. He pulled out quite a few manila folders, then sat down again and slipped everything he'd gathered into a larger, expanding folder. After closing it, he put it on top of his desk and slid it in my direction.

I glanced down at it in surprise, then looked back up at him, wondering what he was doing. He made no effort to explain himself. Several silent seconds passed, and then I took two steps forward, grabbed the package, and retreated back to my spot of safety out of his reach.

"If tomorrow you receive the message that I have agreed to cancel your engagement, look through those documents and memorize their contents. They contain information on some of the young ladies whose families I had considered approaching with a marriage proposal for you, before I had decided on Lin Jiao. To my knowledge, these ones are still available. Give me your opinion on Sunday."

My mouth almost dropped open. He was actually going to listen to my opinion? Impossible.

Gathering myself back together, I nodded. "Yes, Father. I will read them all very carefully." And very reluctantly…if at all.

"You may leave," he abruptly dismissed, busying himself with a tea set on the corner of his desk. Although I wanted to plead with him some more to let me live on my own, to let me remain single, to just leave me the hell alone, I already knew that he wouldn't listen to me at all. He would never _really_ listen. He never had.

So, with the folder full of strangers clutched in my somewhat sweaty hands, I bowed at him, then left, daring to give a polite smile to the robot maids standing at the door, as always. I angrily threw the folder on the passenger seat once I'd gotten into my car, then rubbed hard at my eyes and fought back the urge to cry, glaring at the bundle of paper laying beside me. I wanted to toss it out the window, burn it, shred it, utterly destroy it. It wouldn't help in the slightest, but I could hardly stand to look at it. It was just another chain for my father to wrap around my neck, to replace the one called Jiao.

Violently stabbing my key into the ignition, I stomped on the accelerator and shot away from the house.

Jiao was waiting for me on the front steps when I arrived, both of her bare feet anxiously tapping the ground. I parked my car outside the garage, got out and slowly walked around the side of the house, nearly knocking her over when she unexpectedly came around the corner and ran into me. She brushed away the strands of her hair that had come free from her messy bun, then lowered her hand to her mouth and crossed her other arm over her stomach, her fingers nervously picking at her lips. "How did it go?"

"We'll know tomorrow," I quietly answered, walking around her. "My father is going to meet with yours and discuss things. He seemed fairly agreeable about it all, however, so you needn't worry."

Some sort of sigh-gasp-laugh sound whooshed out of her as she hurried forward to walk beside me, a complicated expression on her face. "That's so relieving." With a deep breath, she quieted until we had gone inside. "Did you ask if you could stay here?" she pressed when I slipped out of my shoes.

I started toward the stairs. "He said no."

"Oh. Oh, that's…awful." Chewing on her lower lip, she crossed her arms. "My family could ask. Maybe he would agree if–"

"You could," I impatiently interrupted, "but I don't know if it would do any good. He said he wasn't going to change his mind."

"He might, though."

"…He might." I had no doubt in my mind that he was definitely not going to change his mind, but decided to simply humor her. Before she could continue to nag me, I sighed and waved a hand at the stairs. "I'm tired…I think I'll lay down for a while." In other words, hide in my room, so I could wallow in my self-pity where no one could see.

I turned and hurried up the stairs before she could make any sort of reply. My throat tightened painfully when I walked through the guest room's open door and found Heng sprawled stomach-down on my bed, asleep. I was both extremely happy yet extremely horrified to find that he'd been waiting for me to come back. I turned, softly shutting the door behind myself. After putting the folder away in my desk, out of sight—I sure as hell wasn't going to read through it while Heng was here—I walked across the room and sat down on the window seat, silently watching his back rhythmically rising and falling as he breathed deeply, peacefully sleeping like nothing at all was the matter. It made me feel isolated.

I was so tired of feeling guilty whenever I looked at him. So tired of hurting him. So tired of everything.

I didn't know what to do anymore.

Abruptly, my vision blurred, then cleared again when all of the tears that I'd been holding back started pouring down my face. Leaning forward and squeezing my eyes shut, I drew my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on them, firmly pressing my hands to my mouth and crying as quietly as I could. Although I was screaming in my head, I didn't make a sound, unwilling to break the silence and wake Heng.

Not yet.


	60. Gifts and Promises

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>"Geeze," Heng breathed, sounding a bit disbelieving, "how the heck do you fit into these‽"<p>

Giving him a bewildered glance over my shoulder, my eyes widened in surprise and annoyance when I saw what he was doing. Stepping out of the closet, I smacked him across the arm with one of my neckties. "Take that off right now!" I ordered, lightly tugging on the brown suit vest he was, for whatever bizarre reason, attempting to squish his bulk into. "You're going to stretch the fabric! I asked you to help me pack, not ruin my clothing!"

Heng oh-so-maturely stuck his tongue out, then turned around and took several steps away. "As if I'd help you pack to go back _there_."

Shooting a glare at his back—it wasn't like I wanted to pack, either—I rolled up the green tie and placed it by the others in their little wooden box on the bed. "Fine, don't help me," I huffed, twirling around to go fetch more clothes from the closet. "But still, take the vest off."

"No," he immediately denied, laughing under his breath.

Stomping out of the closet, I twisted my poor tie around my hand and approached Heng. He gasped and hurried across the room when he saw me coming. "Take it off!" I repeated angrily when he backed into a corner. He shook his head, a smile spreading over his face. Before I could get close, he sidestepped me and dashed to the door. "HENG!" I yelled after him, watching as he disappeared around the edge of the jamb. A loud "WHOA!" and a thud immediately followed. Like he had so many times already—socks and smooth wooden floors simply didn't mix when attempting to run away from something—he probably had fallen down.

"I'm not going to chase you, if that's what you're aiming for!" I ended, carefully rolling up the dark blue tie and placing it in the box before returning to the closet. No reply came, nor did I hear any sounds that told me he was getting up, so, feeling a bit concerned, I leaned out the guest room's door to see what had happened. Much to my surprise, a meter to the right of the door Heng was face down, sprawled on top of someone. "Heng, you idiot. Who did you run over?"

"It's me, Jingli," the person announced in a strained voice while Heng lifted himself up, whining, "Ow!" My eyes widened when Fu Han came into view. Before Heng could get off of him, Fu Han stopped him by grabbing his right shoulder, a remorseful, concerned look suddenly spreading over his face. "Shi Heng," he murmured hesitantly, giving the captured shoulder a squeeze, "from the one conversation we've shared, I think you're a really great guy, and I'm very flattered, but…" He shook his head. "I'm married and you're dating my boss. It simply wouldn't work out. I'm sorry."

There was a long moment of silence, then Heng sat back on his heels and turned his head around to look at me. His face was blank. "Oh no. My secret feelings for your secretary have been discovered." Letting out a strangled yell of anguish, Heng abruptly hugged Fu Han, who looked somewhat surprised. "OH, CRUEL FATE! TEARING US APART BEFORE WE'VE EVEN HAD A CHANCE TO SHARE OUR LOVE! WHY MUST THIS BE‽"

Heaving a sigh, I went back into my room, half-listening as a third voice asking "What the hell are you two doing?" joined Heng's continued dramatics and Fu Han's somewhat strangled-sounding pleas for him to let go.

"WEI BO! COMFORT ME!"

Delun let out a horrified scream. I was surprised he could hit such a high note—he'd probably deny it later, if we mentioned it—but didn't go see what had caused it. "LET GO OF ME!" he bellowed amongst the sounds of a struggle. After yesterday, when Delun's father had delivered my father's acceptance of Jiao and my decision not to get married, Heng had started having random outbursts of insanity, and although I wasn't exactly used to this new behavior, I had learned not to be frightened when it happened. It seemed he was coping with everything that was going on by suddenly exploding into fits of extreme goofiness.

I had yet to decide if this was better or worse than if he would simply be depressed, like a normal person.

I wandered out of the closet after collecting another pair of neck ties, giving a small smile to Fu Han, who had at some point relocated himself to my office chair and was now looking thoroughly relaxed. "To what or whom do I owe the pleasure of your visit? I am moving back home and my father gave me until Monday off work, if you had not heard from him already."

"TWIG! GET YOUR BOYFRIEND OFF ME!"

"WOE IS ME-E-E!"

"SHUT UP, YOU MORON! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU‽"

Fu Han turned the chair to follow my movement from the bed to the door, which I shut, partially muffling the chaos, then went back to the closet. "Yes, I heard. But I'm not here about work. Your father sent me, actually."

"Again? Sometimes I feel as though you are his secretary instead of mine. What does he want now?" I glanced at him as I placed the last neck tie in the box, closed the lid, and flipped down the silver latch.

Extending his left hand, he pointed a finger at my bookshelves. "He wants you to return the medicine, rather than packing it with the rest of your things. Of course, I'll leave you enough for the next few days. Both kinds, if you want."

Taking a slow breath, I stared at him in bewilderment and sat down on the corner of my bed. "My father kept the existence of that medicine a secret from me until I moved here…Why would he tell you about it?"

Fu Han shook his head. "I didn't ask."

"Why does he want it back? I will not fight him for it, but I _am_ capable of handling it on my own."

"Because he's a control freak," he replied simply, but that simple answer was all I needed, really.

Sighing, I looked toward the two bottles sitting beside one another on my shelves, then returned my gaze to Fu Han. "The red pills, too?"

"Yes." He gave a nod.

"He told me to dispose of those." I didn't particularly want to know what would happen if my father discovered I hadn't gotten rid of them when he'd told me to.

"I'm aware Zoncai said that. But you didn't, obviously, so your father wants them back, too, now that he's taking you home. Doesn't want to leave them laying around. However, Zongcai doesn't need to know you didn't get rid of them…" His voice trailed off as he smiled faintly in a conspiratorial way.

"That would be helpful." I sighed again and waved a hand toward the shelves. "Take them." It was somewhat annoying that my father seemed to think me incapable of doing something as simple as remember to take my medicine every day, but I supposed I didn't really care who was distributing it as long as I was receiving the proper dose.

Fu Han stood up, strode to my shelves and plucked the larger jar off its perch, took out the top, and dumped a few of the white capsules onto his palm. Mumbling the days of the week, he set down several pills before capping the bottle and picking up the smaller one. The triangular red pills made a jingling sound as he shook them around. "Will you be using any of these, do you think?"

"Probably not."

He took one bottle in each hand, went back to my desk and set them down. Turning to me, he gave a sweeping look around the messy room. "Want me to stick around? I don't have anywhere I need to be until this evening."

I winced when a loud shriek erupted on the other side of the door, where the sounds of Heng and Delun's fight still raged on. "I already have so many hard-working helpers."

He grinned. "I'm sure I can find some way to make myself useful."

Several hours passed while the four of us—Heng and Delun, both looking very disheveled, eventually stopped fighting and joined us after getting told off by a maid—packed away my things into the empty boxes. At least, that was what we pretended to do while in reality we were mostly simply lazing around, talking to one another and eating the snacks and tea Delun brought up from the kitchen. I still had several days until I had to leave, and given that I barely owned anything, I knew it would only take a few hours on my own to finish, so I let the relaxed atmosphere continue. Besides, packing made me feel even more depressed than I already was. It was a bit of a relief to be able to ignore it for a while.

It wasn't until dinnertime was approaching that our idleness was interrupted by a knock at the open door and a servant's chirpy announcement that I had guests. "Send them in," I called, picking up my cup to take a drink of tea as I took a piece of paper off the top of my head, where Heng had deposited it after doodling weird things all over it.

"Well, aren't you slumming it?" came a mildly amused voice from the door, and I turned, alarm shooting through me as Gui Wen stepped through the doorway and made a show of examining the airy room. "A very nice house, but it certainly can't compare in size to Father's fortress, can it?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hotly demanded, quickly jumping to my feet and glaring at him.

Quirking one eyebrow, his smile widened slightly in a bewildered way. "It's wonderful to see you, too."

"Hi, Gui," Heng replied, waving one hand merrily from where he was stretched out stomach-down on my bed.

"Hi," Delun and Fu Han both echoed.

I continued to glare at him until he let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging a bit. "Would you stop looking at me like that? You're about to move back to the Castle of Doom, and I'll probably get very few chances to see you after this, so I've come to stay in P City for the weekend, and say goodbye in person."

"You could have said goodbye in person in _Second Life_," I pointed out snappishly, "instead of traveling all this way and wasting an entire weekend."

"No, I can't see you in _Second Life_—we're all away invading the other cities. You would know that if you paid any attention to current events in-game." He ignored my deepening frown and continued. "The flight from T City to here only took half an hour; it's not like I came from the moon. Besides, I don't have any classes over the weekend and I've brought my work with me. I can get plenty of grading done at a hotel. Nothing is wasted."

"You both can stay here," Delun offered, much to my annoyance. "Unless you've already booked someplace?"

"We haven't yet, so thank you." I was somewhat startled to find that there was a very bulky and scruffy-looking man, who I hadn't noticed somehow, standing beside Gui Wen.

"We can have guest rooms done up. Or, um, one room…" Delun's voice faded out as he looked from my brother to the man, and back again.

The new arrivals both took a deep breath and glanced at one another. "Separate rooms, please," Gui Wen clarified, smiling awkwardly. "If possible. I doubt Yu Lian would be happy if he and I shared."

"What does the maniac have to do with anything?" I asked, frowning in confusion as I sank back to where I'd been sitting on the floor.

Gui Wen's companion cleared his throat and smiled in a friendly manner. "Sorry for the late introduction. Li Tian Lang, the physician at the university where Gui teaches. I'm Ugly Wolf in _Second Life_. Nice to meet you in person, Aeolus. And Wei Bo and Dib, of course. And…"

Fu Han gestured toward me when Tian Lang questioningly halted in his greetings. "Wang Fu Han, his secretary. Not a _Second_ _Life_ player, I'm afraid."

"I see. Nice to meet you anyway."

Gui Wen laughed faintly. "I remember you from that bizarre phone call…You must be very dedicated, going so far as helping your boss move."

"Yes, sometimes too dedicated," Fu Han remarked, smiling in his usual passive way. "The overtime pay is great, though."

While they chatted, I felt extremely stupid as I continued to stare at Tian Lang, wondering why I had needed to be told who he was. Although he was a lot less hairy, he was nearly as huge as he was in-game. There was another pause, then I looked at Gui Wen again and repeated myself. "So, what does the maniac have to do with anything? She can't possibly think you would make a move on her husband."

Heaving a sigh, Gui Wen stepped over to my desk and sat himself down on top of it, running his eyes over the selection of cookies and tea cakes that were on the tray beside him. "You would think that, but once or twice I've…accidentally toed the line between Wolf and I and she's gotten a bit…Well, I sort of jokingly snuggled up to him once in front of her—a completely innocent act, I might add—and she gave me one of _those_ smiles. And then there was another time Wolf and I were alone in the infirmary, and he was giving me a massage because I hurt my back, and we were, um, misunderstood."

"That's an understatement," Tian Lang mumbled, giving him an annoyed glance.

With a shrug and a slightly flushed face, Gui Wen looked away from him. "Anyway…His Highness, Prince, is the only one for me, of course, and I think I've made that quite clear to everyone, but Yu Lian is still very possessive of Wolf."

"Separate rooms, then," Delun concluded, coughing awkwardly. "No problem. We have lots of room. And my parents definitely won't mind; they love guests." The maid that had led Gui Wen and Tian Lang into the room hurried away, probably to prepare everything.

"Great. Everything is settled." Tian Lang smiled in a relieved way while Gui Wen casually snatched a mint cookie off the tea tray and bit into it.

"Everything is most certainly _not_ settled," I growled, feeling annoyed that he was getting all comfortable. He gave me a tired look. "Gui Wen, with as eager as you were to leave, I cannot imagine why you would be so willing to come back. Father may not live here in this house, but he does live in this city."

"I'm not here to 'claim my rightful place,' if that's what you're insinuating," he huffed. "I'm simply here to see you."

"You have seen me, so leave." I made my tone as cold as I could in a want to make him go away before anything bad happened. Hopefully, I'd be able to get them on a flight back to T City before my father even knew he'd been here.

"Why the hell are you so unhappy to see me?" he asked, laughing humorlessly. "I thought we were over this whole competition thing. I sure as hell don't want to inherit that damned airline from Father."

Inhaling deeply, I shook my head and leaned against my bed. "I am not unhappy."

He snorted in obvious disbelief. "Right."

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. "Okay, I am unhappy. If Father sees you, you will interfere whether you mean to or not. He still hopes for you to come home, and if he finds out you are here…he would unhesitatingly take everything from me and give it back to you." The bitter jealousy I'd felt for him all my life started to show itself again, and I looked away from his annoyingly sympathetic face, instead looking down at the remainder of the tea I had clutched in my shaking hands.

Gui Wen's voice was much gentler when he spoke again. "If Father really wanted me as his heir, that's what I would be. Ever since I came back to Taiwan I knew Father would know about it. I'm not using a fake identity or anything, after all, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's an acquaintance of the university dean. But he hasn't made any efforts to contact me." Everything was quiet for a few heartbeats, then he took a slow breath and softly asked, "Could you guys give us a minute?"

A few awkward glances were passed around, then everyone else stood up. "Guess I'll go check on how your rooms are coming along," Delun murmured, quickly heading for the door, Tian Lang on his heels with an addition of "I'll come with you to get the bags."

Fu Han turned around. "I should be going anyway, or else my wife will start nagging me about coming home late again," he grumbled, picking up the medicine jars off the desk and bowing at me. "Goodbye, Jingli. I hope the move goes well. Your father will arrive Sunday afternoon."

"Have a nice weekend," I replied, watching the three of them exit the room.

Heng hesitantly slid himself to the edge of the bed, but Gui Wen waved a hand at him. "You can stay if you want."

With a brief, curious glance in my direction, Heng nodded and sat himself next to me. We watched while Gui Wen stood, went to close the door, then came to sit down in the chair Fu Han had vacated. Rubbing his forehead, he frowned faintly. "Do you really want to inherit, Zian?" he asked quietly. I opened my mouth to answer, but he rolled the chair forward a few centimeters and leaned toward me. "I'm not talking about Father's expectations. Do _you_ want to? Because if you really do then I'm not going to try to talk you out of it; I know perfectly well how frustrating it can be to have someone interfere with your life. But if inheriting is not what _you_ really want then you shouldn't do it."

A small smile broke out on his mouth. "You could always do what I did—just leave. Leave Father, leave P City, leave Taiwan…Leave Asia completely and go somewhere else until he gives up on you. With the resources you have at your disposal it would be far easier for you to disappear than it was for me. Plus you're already packing your things, so no one would think it's weird. And I could help you if you want. That was my other reason for coming here, really. I figured helping you escape was worth the risk of getting spotted."

A longing ache filled me as I contemplated his extremely tempting offer, but it all seemed impossible no matter how I looked at it. I took a moment to set down my teacup, then shook my head at my brother. "I…appreciate the offer quite a bit, Gui Wen, and I would love to accept, but…"

"But no," he finished for me, exhaling heavily when I nodded.

"I really do want this," I answered. "Partially because Father expects it, but also for myself. It's a great opportunity. I'm not going to run away and waste all the years of work I've gone through to get to this point."

He made a frustrated noise as he stood up and strode toward the closet, then turned around and aimlessly walked back. "So, you like office work…There are companies other than the airline," he snapped. "Plenty of places anywhere that would hire you based on your experience and schooling. And with as many languages Father's tutors crammed into our heads, you wouldn't have to stay in China." He paced back and forth for a bit, then frowned irritably at me. "You're not even going to inherit the airline. At least, not for any significant amount of time. What's the point?"

My mouth dropped open slightly and I glared up at him, once again feeling groundlessly suspicious. "Why would I not inherit?" I demanded sharply.

"Because," Gui Wen continued, his steps becoming more forceful, "Father won't be willing to relinquish control of his precious company until he's on his deathbed. He's only about twenty years older than us, and still very healthy, I assume, so unless some accident happens it'll be at least a century and a half until the bastard'll finally make us all happy by going on a one-way trip across the Styx. And by that time, if you're still alive, you'll also be old!

"That is one of the many reasons I didn't want to be his heir," Gui Wen admitted sourly, pausing in his agitated stomping. "I didn't want to rot in a stuffy old office, waiting for something that would never happen. And I don't want you to, either. It might be a bit late for me to start being brotherly, but…I'm trying, at least." With an encouraging smile, he sat down on the office chair again. "We've been given two hundred years to live however we choose, Zian. Don't waste it on something you don't want. I certainly don't have as much money and influence as I would if I'd never run away, but in exchange I've got a fulfilling career, amazing friends, a person I love; I'm so much more satisfied and happy now than I ever would have been with Father." Energetically waving his hand at Heng, his smile stretched wider. "You're already part of the way there!"

The numbing feeling that had been spreading all over me the whole time he was rambling suddenly froze me, leaving me open-mouthed and suffocating with the horror of realization. Everything I'd been hoping for my whole life suddenly was out of reach entirely, and I felt like an utter moron for ever thinking I'd have the opportunity to take my father's place at the head of the airline.

No wonder he'd been okay with naming me, a person he despised, as his heir; he knew I'd never get the chance to actually claim the inheritance he'd promised me. And even if I did, Gui Wen was right, as usual—I'd be an old man by the time our father died. Hell, I probably wouldn't even outlive him, with as poor as my health was.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, dammit.

Trying very hard to inhale, I shook my head again, vaguely noticing that Heng had slipped off the bed and was giving me an extremely tight one-armed hug, which was not at all helpful to my sudden breathing issues. Looking up, I gave Gui Wen a helpless smile. "Be that as it may," I whispered, "you seem to forget that I am not you."

He abruptly looked cranky again.

"As amazing as running away and creating a new life for myself sounds…I can't."

"Can't or won't?" he angrily returned, crossing his arms and leaning back.

Exhaling softly, I dropped my eyes to stare at my lap. "I could run away, but it wouldn't do me or anyone else any good at all. Firstly, I wouldn't be able to take Heng with me and live happily like you seem to think; he has brothers to look after, and I'm not going to uproot them and drag them off to some foreign country, especially not when we only have a few days in which to do it.

"Secondly, I already know first-hand what it is like to be the person who knows about the runaway, and I would never let that happen to someone else. Father would turn on the Lins and Heng, tearing them to pieces trying to get information about where I've gone like he did to me when you left, regardless of the fact that you didn't actually tell me anything important.

"Thirdly…" My eyes wandered over to the empty spot on my bookshelves where my bottles had been sitting earlier, next to the rock Long Zhuo Xia had spontaneously given to me. "I'd be dead long before I even found someplace to settle down. My secretary took most of my medicine with him when he left."

Heng suddenly sat up straighter and demanded "Why‽" at the same time Gui Wen gave me a bewildered look and asked, "What‽"

"I've got a, um, condition," I vaguely explained. "I found out about it last winter, but I don't know any details other than the fact that it only takes a few days without medicine before I…" I glanced at Heng's angry profile, wondering how he had missed Fu Han marching out the door with the bottles plainly in his hands. "And Wang Fu Han took the pills because Father told him to, although he did leave me some for the weekend. I might be able to get more, perhaps, if I asked my doctor, but he's always sent the bottles directly to Father rather than me, and I don't know if either of them would agree to hand it over."

Heng anxiously leaned forward and looked toward the door. "Do you think he already left? Maybe I could catch him and get him to give it back, then–"

"It would make very little difference. It's only about seven months' worth; I'd still run out eventually."

"But that's seven months you could spend living on your own while we try to get you more," Gui Wen pointed out. He took a deep, slow breath and stared hard at me. "I had no idea that you're ill. When did this happen?"

"Conception, according to my doctor."

He looked even more confused. "Why didn't you die long before birth, then, if you have to take medicine every day?"

"I have no idea. He won't tell me anything."

"I wonder if Mother was…doing drugs or something while she was pregnant with you," he murmured. "Not that I want to think of our mother as a drug addict." After a moment of silence, he stood up and walked to the shelves, picking up one of the capsules and closely inspecting it. "What happens if you don't take them? Other than _death_, I mean."

I slowly shook my head when he sat back down, still holding the pill. "I can only recall one instance when I didn't take them for several days in a row. I was coughing up quite a bit of blood."

"Sounds like a horrible ulcer had formed," he remarked, then held up the capsule. "Since you apparently won't die if you skip one day's dose, may I have this one? Wolf probably knows someone in pharmaceutical research. If we send this to a lab, they might be able to analyze it and make more for you. You wouldn't need to rely on Father or that crazy-haired doctor, then."

My eyes widened with unexpected hope as I looked from him to the pill, wondering why I hadn't ever thought to get it analyzed; Gui Wen always seemed to unintentionally find ways to make me feel stupid. "If there's a chance I might be able to live on my own and not die, yes, by all means take it." I had nothing left to lose, so why not?

Looking very determined, he stood up again and hurried toward the door. "I'm going to talk to Wolf." With that declaration, he left the room, shutting the door behind himself and leaving me feeling a lot better. At least, until I remembered my inheritance problem. Of course, I would be more than willing to give up my spot at the airline, if it meant I had a chance to be with Heng, but I still felt disappointed that my father had lied to me about something so huge.

Tiredly staring at the wall, I slowly got to my feet, and then fell backward onto my bed. I rolled onto my right side when Heng flopped down beside me and scooted close. "Do you believe in past lives?" I asked, scrunching up my eyebrows.

Heng's eyes widened a little and he nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I can't remember mine, though."

"I must have been a horrible person," I continued darkly. "A person who did so many awful things that all of the bad karma couldn't be contained in one lifetime. Everything was going so well, but now it's all falling apart." I miserably looked away from him, but leaned into his warm touch as he caressed my face. "Every choice I've made feels like it's the wrong one."

His face fell and he took his hand back, curling it up against his chest. "Do you regret choosing to date me?"

Guilt stabbed at me when I took in his distressed appearance, but I didn't shake my head. "In a way," I whispered, causing the look on his face to become even worse. "I love being with you, of course," I hastily amended, "but if I had turned you down, you…you could have avoided getting involved in this whole disaster."

"I don't regret getting involved," he huffed, but he seemed to have lost his angry edge and started patting my face again. "You're worth the trouble."

Although I didn't really believe him, I inadvertently smiled anyway. We fell silent for several minutes, simply taking comfort in each other's presence, then I quickly sat up and hung myself over the edge of the bed, pulling the covers away from the floor. Grabbing the red gift bag I'd hidden under there earlier that morning, I sat back down and put the bag next to Heng. "This is for you."

Looking surprised, he sat up as well and pulled the bag onto his lap, smiling eagerly as he put in both hands. Pulling out the first object, his eyebrows drew together as he ran a finger over the smooth, red-stained cherry wood surface. "A…big block of wood…Just what I've always wanted."

Sighing in annoyance at his apparent sarcasm, I shook my head. "It's not a block of wood. Look closer."

He lifted the large cube and turned it over a few times, inspecting each of the sides. It took him a few seconds, but then his eyes went wide as he pressed his fingers to one corner and slid a piece out of place. "Oh, whoa-a-a. It's a Japanese puzzle box."

Feeling happy that he seemed to be pleased now that he knew what it was, I watched as he started to slide it apart. "When I was bored and had nothing to do last December, Jiao suggested I carve something in Delun's wood-working shed. This is the result."

Staring incredulously at me, Heng shook the box around. "No way. You made this?"

"Yes. There are lots of diagrams on the internet, showing how they're put together. It's nowhere near as nice as the professionally crafted ones I've seen, of course, but I hope you like it."

With a small laugh, he nodded. "Yeah, it's really cool." He gave me a quick kiss, then went back to playing with the box. A moment later, he looked up again. "Of all the things you could have made, why this? You hadn't remembered anything in December."

"I don't know," I murmured. "It was just the first thing that came to mind. I guess bits of last summer's memories leaked out here and there." Smiling in amusement, I tapped a finger on one of the wooden pieces that was jutting out. "But however my brain came up with the idea, now you have a physical manifestation of my figurative self to keep you company."

"I'd rather have the physical manifestation of your literal self," he mumbled in reply, shaking the wooden cube again as I silently agreed with him. "Did you put anything inside?"

Looking away from him to avoid making eye contact, I shrugged. "You'll have to open it and see." Inside was a few pieces of paper, on which I had written him a very personal letter that I was extremely embarrassed about, and most definitely didn't want to be around him when he read it, and also a package of fruit-flavored gummie snacks that Shuang had forced on me and I'd never eaten.

"Aw, that'll take forever." He mournfully stared at the cube for a moment, then dropped it on the bed and looked back into the bag. He quirked an eyebrow, then reached in and pulled out the other object I'd put in there. "Aren't you afraid you're going to start to smell if you give me this?" he asked in a humorous tone as he wiggled my cologne bottle at me, the contents sloshing around inside the frosted, blue-colored glass.

"No, I have more," I assured, feeling my face flush. "I just thought you could…use it…in a way…maybe." I could certainly think of a use or two I could have for a bottle of his cologne, some lonely night when he wasn't with me…

With an exaggerated nod and an "a-a-ah" noise, he smiled and put it down by the puzzle box. "Thanks, Al."

"There's one other thing," I nervously said. I hated to completely ruin the mood with what I wanted to say to him, and I highly doubted the presents had buttered him up enough that he wouldn't get mad, but decided to just tell him while we were still alone. And while I still had the courage.

Heng gave me a surprised glance. "Oh, come on. You're spoiling me." He leaned forward to look into the bag, obviously assuming something else was in there, then questioningly looked back at me once he had seen that it was empty.

"It's a request, actually," I added quietly. I took a deep breath and carefully pieced together what I wanted to say as he quietly settled down and expectantly waited. "If it turns out that Gui Wen can't do anything to help me with my medicine…After I leave, please don't wait for me."

An incredulous look froze on his face. Laughing forcefully, as if I had just told a bad joke and he felt obligated to act humored, he briefly glanced away from me. "Shouldn't you be asking the opposite? Why the fuck wouldn't you want me to wait‽"

Trying to keep my composure, I unwillingly continued to meet his furious gaze. "My father knows I've been spending time with you. The freedom I've had until now will undoubtedly be far more restricted when I go home, so I don't know how long it will be until I'll be able to see you again. It could be days, or weeks, or months…or even longer until he'll stop keeping an eye on me."

"I don't care how long it takes!"

"Heng, please–"

"NO!" he bellowed at me, tears gathering in his eyes as he glared at me. "I won't break up with you!"

"Heng, please listen to me."

"NO! _YOU_ LISTEN TO _ME_! YOU EXPECT ME TO FORGET ALL ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE, AND FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO DATE‽ HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY _WANT_ THAT‽"

"I don't want it," I denied, trying very hard to remain calm, although I was starting to get that familiar urge to punch him. "I can't stand the thought of you being with someone else…But…I'm not saying I expect you to move on right away. I mean this in terms of years, not minutes."

Gritting his teeth, he forcefully shook his head and wiped his face off on his hands. "I don't want to break up! I'll go my whole life never dating or marrying anyone! I'll die a lonely, cranky, heart-broken old man if you never come back!"

In extreme frustration, I leaned forward and rested my head in my hand. "I just want you to be happy, Heng."

"YOU THINK BREAKING UP WITH ME WILL MAKE ME HAPPY‽ WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU‽"

"I didn't say that! I will _try_ to contact you, of course—I'll do my best find a way to see you somehow, but if I can't…If I can't, and someday…you meet someone…someone who can give you everything that I can't. If someone special comes along…I don't want to stand in the way and hold you back from living your life. I don't want you to be alone."

"What if I meet someone, and _then_ you manage to come back, huh‽ What then‽ What will you do when you come back hoping I'm still here, then find out that I'm not‽ Will you just give me your best wishes and leave again, content that, even though you're alone again, at least I'm not‽"

I didn't look up or say anything, knowing my answer of "Yes," would just make him angrier. Why wouldn't he ever listen to me?

Everything was deafeningly silent for nearly a minute, save for the ringing in my ears. Then he suddenly grabbed my chin and forced my head back. "You are not the one who decides whether or not I am happy," he hissed. "And you do not decide what I want and what I don't want. Those are _my_ choices to make. I'm fucking tired of how you always seem to think that you know what's best, then try to force everyone to do things your way. I've told you before—I'm not your servant; I'm your boyfriend. You don't give me orders; we _discuss_ things and come to a decision together, like couples are supposed to do when they've got problems."

Even though I'd been trying so hard to stay calm, I felt a tear escape and run down my cheek. "I don't want you to resent me," I whispered miserably. "There's no guarantee that your feelings for me won't fade once I'm gone. You'll meet someone new and start wishing you never said you'd wait."

Heng let out a huge sigh and did one of the biggest eye-rolls I'd ever seen. "See? There you go again, talking like you know everything." With a much smaller sigh, he moved himself closer to me and drew me into a hug. "I'm not going to resent you for making me wait, Al. I'm the one making this choice, and I'm making it very willingly. I'm not going to regret it later. And quit saying I'm going to date someone else, because I'm not. A lot of couples go through a time when they can't see each other, sometimes for years, like some couples where one person goes to school abroad. Sometimes they break up, but if they're serious about each other then they don't. And I am completely serious about you."

He paused and rubbed my back a little. "I'm not going to change my number or anything, so you can call whenever you can. And I bet you'll still be allowed to see Wei Bo and his family, so they can pass messages between us. And I'm sure there will be opportunities to actually meet face-to-face. I could put on a disguise and sneak into more parties."

As he chuckled, I plopped my forehead on his shoulder and clutched at the front of his shirt, wishing I believed him. I felt awful with myself for not trusting him, but I really couldn't understand why he would put up with so much misery for my sake. There were plenty of other people out there he could be with who were a lot more worthwhile than I was.

"Do you still want to break up?" he whispered, interrupting my doubtful thoughts. "I'm not going to force you to stay in a relationship with me, but I don't want this to end. Even…even with all of the problems that came with it, this is…You're the…Well, I don't know how to put it."

"I never _wanted_ to break up in the first place," I defensively replied.

"Whatever. You know what I mean."

Quietly, I ran my mind over everything he had said, trying over and over to reassure myself, then closed my eyes and hugged him. "If you're sure you want to do this then I'm willing, too." At my answer, Heng let out an extremely relieved-sounding noise and pulled me as close to himself as he could, swaying us both back and forth. I tried to feel happy about it, but couldn't get rid of the fear that he would forget about me.


	61. The Final Dismissal

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>I heaved a sigh as I inspected myself in the body-length mirror hanging on the inside of my closet door. Slowly buttoning my white dress shirt, I wondered morbidly how long my appearance would stay this way before I started shrinking again. It wasn't like I wanted to look like I was starving, but I lost weight ridiculously easily and knew my will to eat was going to be completely nonexistent after I went home. I had a feeling that I had already lost several kilograms over the past few weeks, simply because of the constant stress.<p>

Slipping into a black silk vest, I looped a black tie around my neck and started to knot it up, giving a faint smile to Heng when he came out of my bathroom, curly hair dripping, and temptingly wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. Quickly changing his destination from his pile of clothes on the bed to me, he placed himself behind me and wrapped his arms around me, his hands purposefully getting in the way of mine as I tried to continue to fix my tie regardless of his interference.

"Stop," I mumbled, trying not to grin at our reflection.

"Why?"

"I have to tie this."

"Tie what?" He hooked his fingers in the knot I'd made, undid it and dropped the necktie on the floor at my feet. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said mischievously, pushing my collar away from my neck so he could give it a kiss.

Sighing again, I leaned against his chest, trying to ignore the fact that my shirt and vest were getting wet, and met his eyes through the mirror. There was nothing I had ever wanted more than to stay like this, here with him. Even the want to gain my father's approval, which had once been so important to me, now seemed insignificant. I could live just fine without my father telling me I was doing something right. But could I live just fine without Heng by my side?

No way.

I had been content to live an empty life without someone like Heng for twenty-four years, but now that I knew what I was missing, the despairing, lonely hole in me was so much more prominent, and it felt like it was getting bigger with every passing second, threatening to swallow me up completely.

I turned my head to kiss him back. After a too-brief moment I crouched down to retrieve my tie, then straightened and put it on again. "I'll probably be busy for a while, so don't expect me to contact you right away," I told him.

"Doing what? Unpacking won't take up much time, right?"

I slowly shook my head as I got my black suit jacket off its hanger in the otherwise empty closet. "All of the unpacking will undoubtedly be done by the maids, not by me. What I'll be busy with is getting acquainted with my new fiancée. I don't know if my father plans to keep the wedding date he set for Jiao and I—I certainly hope he doesn't—but I assume he will force me to spend a lot of time with her and her family."

"Two days of singleness and you're already engaged again?" Heng inquired grumpily, a sour look on his face.

"No," I denied, trying to smile brightly as I said it. Pushing past him, I stepped into the bedroom again and sat down on the edge of my bed, bending over to put on my dress shoes. "At the moment I am not attached to anyone other than you. However, my father gave me a selection of six eligible and 'important' young ladies, out of whom I am supposed to pick one." Then again, I doubted I'd really be the one picking. I had a strong suspicion that he would still be the one to make the final decision, no matter what my opinion was.

"The girls helped me narrow down my choices, since they know all of them," I added, not daring to look up and see what his expression was like. "Although I think they leaned more toward which girl's personality wasn't awful, rather than the business benefits on which my father will definitely be basing his decision."

"Oh. Great." His voice was just as irritated as I assumed it would be. He flopped down face-first beside me on the bed. "Congratulations on your newest engagement. I'm so-o-o-o happy for you. When you get married I'll send you and your wife a black envelope."

"At least I'll know which one is from you, then," I remarked, wondering how my new future wife would take getting something like that. We were both quiet a moment, then I laid down beside him and played with his wet hair, squeezing out little drops of water. "Please stop acting like this is what I want." I petted him for a few seconds longer, then added, "If I had the choice, I'd much rather marry you," before I could stop myself.

The ear that was peeking out of his hair suddenly turned red, and one very round eye appeared. "May I take that as a proposal?"

"Absolutely not," I hastily denied, wishing that I hadn't said it.

Narrowing his eyes at me, he turned his head away and exhaled slowly. "All this time I was trying so hard to get myself used to the thought of you marrying Jiao. I really like her, so…in a way it was okay. But now I have to give you away to someone I don't even know. Maybe whoever she is will be nice, too, but what if she's a total bitch?"

I almost laughed, but managed to keep it to myself, since it really wasn't a laughing matter. "I'm worried about that, too. But I guess–"

The guest room's door suddenly opened, cutting off my sentence and scaring me into an upright position. "Zia-a-an," Gui Wen called, casually strolling inside. When he noticed us on the bed, Heng nearly naked, he let out a yell and covered his eyes with his hands, as if seeing another man without any clothes on was something to be embarrassed about.

While Gui Wen blurted apology after apology for not knocking first, Heng let out an exaggerated scream and flipped a blanket over himself. "MY NAKIDITY!"

There went the serious atmosphere.

"Get dressed," I growled, punching the squirming lump that was Heng. Standing and hurrying away from the bed, I grabbed Gui Wen by the elbow and pulled him out into the hall, shutting the door behind myself. "What is it?"

His hands slowly slid down until his mortified eyes were uncovered. "I'm so sorry!" he whispered for the millionth time. "It's past nine and I didn't hear anything like _that_, so I thought you had…you know…finished. I didn't mean to walk in on you two!"

Feeling my face heat up, I frowned at him. "We weren't doing anything!" A tiny flicker of skepticism came and went on his face, so I added, "Not only does that door not have a lock, your room is right next to mine! Do you really think I'd torture you like that?"

"I assumed you would unintentionally," he answered, sounding somewhat queasy. He finally lowered his hands, but continued to blush. "I would have understood; you two aren't going to see one another for who knows how long after today. So, I put headphones on before logging into _Second Life_ last night, and got up as early as possible this morning; I've been grading in the library for several hours now."

"We weren't doing anything," I repeated, crossing my arms in embarrassment. "Neither of us have…really been in the mood…Enough about my sex life. What did you need?"

"Oh, right. I was sent to tell you guys that breakfast is ready. You both were taking a long time, and no one wanted to volunteer to come get you, so everyone nominated me." He gave me a very grumpy look, like it was my fault they'd forced him into coming up here.

Feeling annoyed, I opened up the guest room door again. "We'll be down soon."

He gave me a nod, then wandered away toward the front stairs, mumbling something under his breath—the only words I caught were the usual "His Highness." Hoping he wasn't going to tell Prince he'd seen Heng almost naked—I wouldn't have been surprised if Gui Wen's devotion to the stupid elf went as far as avoiding looking at people naked, no matter who they were—I went back into the room and closed the door.

"Everything okay?" Heng inquired, his curious face peeking at me from underneath the blankets.

"Yes, he just wanted to tell us that breakfast is waiting," I heavily replied, stepping back to the mirror, to make sure my clothes were still tidy, even after rolling around on the bed. "Hurry up and get dressed," I ordered again, raking a hand through my short hair in an attempt to make it lay flat.

"C'mere."

Giving up on my hair—it was determined to stand straight up—I went to the bed and watched Heng wiggle around. An arm poked out from under the blankets, grabbed his jeans off the corner of the bed, then pulled them out of sight. His hand reappeared a few seconds later, holding a rectangular bit of paper.

Slowly taking it from him, I turned it around and automatically smiled when I saw the picture printed on the other side. It was one of the countless photographs of us that Heng had taken on his cellphone over the past few months. It was taken outdoors when we hoped no one was looking. I was leaning against Heng, who was hugging me and kissing the side of my face. We were both smiling.

"I didn't know if you had any pictures of us," Heng quietly said, finally standing up and throwing the blanket back on the bed. "Just…Just so you don't forget what I look like or anything," he ended, sounding like he had tried to make it into a joke.

"I didn't have any," I answered, patting him on the back. I didn't want to know what would happen if my father discovered any photos of Heng and I. But I supposed one wouldn't be too difficult to hide.

Taking a deep breath, I bent down, stuffed the picture into my left sock, then fixed my pant leg and stood up again. "I'll be sure to keep it safe. Get dressed, please."

After he finally traded the bath towel for his white t-shirt and jeans, we went downstairs and to the dining hall, seating ourselves with everyone else. I gave a forced smile to the maid that brought me breakfast, then picked up my chopsticks and stared in abrupt annoyance down at my dishes. In amongst the usual stuff, there was a bowl of cooked cabbage.

I had no idea how many times I'd asked the kitchen staff not to give me cooked vegetables. Perhaps they were punishing me for eating breakfast so late.

Starting with the food the farthest away from the cabbage, I gave a sneaky look to Heng, who had started up a lively conversation with Gui Wen and Tian Lang about the city invasions in _Second Life_. Choosing a moment when he was facing the other way, I quickly grabbed as much cabbage as I could out of my bowl, put it in his, then went back to my rice. Shuang, who was sitting on my other side and had seen the whole thing, gave me a wide-eyed look, but I smiled and pretended nothing had happened.

However, Heng quickly noticed. As he turned to grab another mouthful, he gave a second look to his cabbage and frowned. "Al?"

Trying my hardest to seem innocent, I kept my eyes locked on my food. "Yes?"

"I think my cabbage just had cabbage babies."

"Congratulations."

Heng stabbed his chopsticks into the cabbage and deposited a large glop of it back in my bowl. "Stop giving me your vegetables and just eat them!"

"I don't want to," I whined, pushing the bowl away.

He pushed it right back. "You're an adult! You should know better than to be so picky!"

"I'm an adult," I agreed, "therefore I have the right to choose what to eat and what not to eat. And I'm not eating that."

With a look of extreme huffiness, Heng fully turned toward me. "Are you _trying_ to make your next life horrible, too‽ You should be trying to do as much good stuff as you can!"

In bewilderment, I finally glanced at him. "Since when does the consumption of vegetables effect a person's karma?"

"Since _always_, duh! If you don't eat your veggies, you'll be reborn as a pine cone and you'll have even more problems! Squirrels will come chew on you and you'll cry little pine cone tears and think, 'Oh, how I wish I had eaten my vegetables!'"

Shuang looked horrified and suddenly started eating with more gusto, as if she really believed him.

Feeling somewhat guilty that the four-year-old was taking our debate seriously, I gave Heng a skeptical frown. "I highly doubt whatever god decides our fates will care whether or not I eat that bowl of cabbage. Divine beings have much more important things to worry about."

"If I was a god, I'd want all of my humans to be as healthy as possible!" Heng grabbed the bowl and held it up in front of my face.

"Careful," I warned, quirking an eyebrow, "the gods might take that to heart and reincarnate you as one of them. Then you'd have to spend eternity watching over the whole human race, to make sure each and every one of them always eats their vegetables. And then you'd cry little god tears and think, 'Oh, how I wish I hadn't nagged Al to eat that bowl of cabbage!'"

"At least becoming the vegetable god is better than becoming a pine cone!" he retorted.

"I'm not going to be reborn as a pine cone," I snapped, pushing the bowl away from myself when he started whacking it on my nose.

"You will!"

"I won't!"

"Eat your cabbage!"

"No!"

"Stop," Gui Wen suddenly cut in, glaring at us from his seat down the table. "You're giving me a headache."

"Not only you," Delun grumbled.

"But he–!" Heng began, pointing accusingly at me.

"Dib, quit yelling," Gui Wen ordered. "Zian, eat your vegetables. Both of you, grow up and stop being so ridiculous." After delivering that completely ironic command, he went back to his breakfast and left the table in silence.

"…Just trying to save Al from being reborn as a pine cone," Heng eventually mumbled.

Gui Wen looked up again. "If you two have to throw around theories of reincarnation, at least throw ones that are realistic. Divine beings are immortal, therefore the current god who resides over vegetables won't ever need a replacement. And if Zian got reincarnated as a pine cone, he wouldn't have the level of intelligence needed to form thoughts. Nor would he have lacrimal glands, so saying he would have the ability to cry is just stupid."

He seemed to think our argument had been serious.

"I have to agree with Dib," Tian Lang suddenly piped in. Heng let out a triumphant noise, but the physician raised a hand to silence him. "I didn't mean about becoming a pine cone," he added, looking at me, "I meant that well-balanced diets help improve your life in general. In a way, it could be related to karma."

Gui Wen nodded. "If you had grown up eating right, you'd probably be taller."

"I'm not short!" I denied hotly, my face flushing when several people started to laugh.

"You're shorter than me," he pointed out, looking a bit amused.

"I'm not _you_!" I stood up and grabbed my cup of coffee, feeling extremely annoyed at the inescapable comparisons. "If you'll excuse me, I'm done eating!" Ignoring Heng's exclamation that I still hadn't eaten my cabbage, I left the dining room and started down the hallway. However, I stopped after two steps and almost dropped my cup.

My father was standing at the end of the hall. Four suited men and several others in movers' uniforms surrounded him.

Feeling terrified, but relieved that he hadn't seen me, I raced back into the dining room and hastily shut the doors behind myself, breathing heavily.

_"Your father will arrive Sunday afternoon."_

That was what Fu Han had told me, so why the hell was he here now?

Trying to fight away the sudden wave of nausea and dizziness, I stumbled forward, dropped my cup of coffee on the table, and grabbed Gui Wen. "Get out of here! Hide somewhere!" I snapped, pushing him through the swinging doors that lead into the kitchen.

"Why? What's going on?" Gui Wen anxiously inquired, hurrying through the doorway.

"Father's here!" I hissed, dashing back to the table as I attempted to pull up Heng as well. "You, too! Go away!"

"I'm not going anywhere," Heng growled, stubbornly staying in his seat. "I don't care if he sees me."

"Please, Heng," I begged, not halting in my tugging.

"No." He carefully peeled off my hand, then crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not scared of him."

"That's not the point! Please go! Heng–" I snarled in irritation, but jumped when the doors opened. Giving a glance over my shoulder—a nervous-looking maid had entered—I looked back to Heng, fear filling me as I listened to the numerous footsteps coming down the hallway. "Say nothing," I whispered, "for _my_ sake if not for your own." I turned and walked toward the doorway, attempting to prepare myself for whatever was about to happen.

After a very short second, in strode my father and the group with whom he'd been standing in the entry. He gave a sweeping look about the dining room, then marched up to me and ignored the greetings Delun's father was shakily delivering from across the table. "Have you packed everything?"

"Yes, Father," I answered at once. "All of the boxes, my desk, and my chair are upstairs in the guest room, ready to be taken."

The movers made to leave, but my father raised a hand, stopping them. His eyes narrowed. "I trust there is nothing in the boxes that should not be there?"

"No, Father." I'd given my _Second Life_ helmet to Delun, to hide and keep for me for the time being.

"So you say, but you do not mind if I have someone check, do you?"

"No, Father," I repeated.

He gave the quiet order for the movers to go get my things, then slowly exhaled and fell silent, glancing about the group sitting behind me. His eyes, filled with dissatisfaction, lingered on Heng for longer than I was comfortable with, then darted back to me. I stepped a tiny bit closer to him and asked, "Shall we leave?" in a desperate want to go before he had a chance to terrorize Heng or find Gui Wen.

"Of course not. I must give the proper greetings to the Lin family first. But before that, give me your cellphone, keys, and wallet."

I thought about refusing, but silently stuck my hands into my suit jacket and handed everything over to him. Trying not to protest, I watched as he pocketed my cellphone, gave my keys to one of the four suits by his side and told him to take them to our driver, then opened my wallet and did a thorough search of it. He then took out my money, cards, and driver's license, put it all in his pocket, then handed my wallet back to me afterward, along with a new cellphone. "If you need to make a call, use this. And if you have to go somewhere, use the driver. No longer will I tolerate all of the distractions with which you have surrounded yourself."

Looking satisfied now that he had shortened my chain so much I was nearly strangling, he glanced about. "Now then, one more thing…Where is my son?"

Oh, damn it all.

"He's standing right in front of you," Heng coldly pointed out. Absolutely horrified at his audaciousness, I held my breath in the silence afterward. What the hell was he doing?

My father looked somewhat surprised, then smiled faintly. "Shi Heng," he murmured, sounding as if he was pretending he hadn't seen him until now, "you damnable commoner. What might you be doing here? I seem to remember telling you very clearly during our little meeting to stay away from Zian. And yet here you are, so casual and carefree."

"I seem to remember I didn't agree to that." Fearlessly, or maybe stupidly, Heng threw the challenge right back in his face.

"Disagreement was never an option."

"Looks like it was, since here I am." My father's face twisted with fury as Heng spoke, his tone oozing with rebellion and disrespect—two things my father hated most. I doubted many people had stood up to him like this, as he was obviously not used to dealing with it.

"Father, please," I cut in, heart pounding uncontrollably. "Please leave him be. He has done nothing."

With one cold look and one step forward, he angrily slapped me. I flinched, but I did my best to stay in one place, although normally I would have immediately backed away from him in terror. However, he actually hadn't hit me very hard. Definitely not as hard as he had many times in the past. Perhaps it was because we were around other people—ones that "mattered" to him, in some way or another—but I suspected that his motive had been to humiliate me rather than hurt me, and he had succeeded.

Before his hand had even connected with my face I heard several people stand up from the table. Amongst Shuang's sudden bursts of sobbing, Heng yelled something and stomped toward us. However, two of the four burly men in suits that had come inside with my father stepped forward and passed me. The sounds of Heng struggling with them filled the room, but I didn't dare turn around, afraid of getting hit again for looking away from my father. Out of the corner of my eye I watched in slight relief as Chen, holding Shuang and gripping Mei Rong by the arm, ran into the kitchen and out of sight.

"If it really was 'nothing,'" my father quietly continued, not seeming to care about the huge mess he'd just made, "then he would not be here, would he? I have told you over and over to stop seeing him, and yet you still do not listen."

I made no effort to apologize, but simply continued to unfalteringly stare at him, face burning from the embarrassment of this happening in front of everyone.

"I will speak further of this with you later," he hissed to me, then looked past me, a sneer on his face. "Shi Heng, although you do not seem to possess the mental capacity to follow simple orders, I will make myself as clear as possible. Stay away from Zian."

"No!" he refused, sounding oddly close to the floor.

Sighing slightly, my father's expression went blank. "Apparently, losing your job was not warning enough…You have three younger brothers, do you not? Triplets. They are nearly thirteen, if I am not mistaken. So youthful and innocent. It would be tragic if an _accident_ took place."

Extremely heavy silence hung over the whole room. I didn't turn to see what sort of expression Heng was making, but it was easy to picture when he spoke, his shaking voice having lost the confidence he'd had minutes ago. "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THEM!"

"I will stay away from them if you stay away from Zian," my father added, his smile back now that he had so obviously upset Heng. "It is a very simple trade, one that I assume even you can understand, stupid as you are. But if you do not stop associating with him, I will retaliate."

Heng began to yell something, but a set of firm footsteps interrupted him and approached my side. Someone behind me, near the table, made a muffled noise of fright. "Sir," Delun cut in when he'd reached me, his voice carefully controlled, "I don't know why you're so angry that Heng is here…but I must ask that you leave him alone. He is my family's friend, not only Zian's. He is a guest here. Your threats are completely unnecessary."

With another sigh, my father's smile softened slightly. "Lin Delun, your family's friends are none of my concern, nor are they relevant to this conversation. I cannot say I agree with your choice of company, but please, invite leeching paupers into your home all you wish. I applaud your disgusting levels of altruism, turning your family's lovely home into a soup kitchen. However, even if you tolerate having such scum as your house guests, Zian knows perfectly well that I do not want him associating with them, and therein lies the problem."

"Heng is not like that," I snapped, glaring at his superior expression. "He is a far better person than all of the repulsive people with whom you have forced me to befriend. You know nothing about him, so do not insult him!"

Another slap met my face, harder than the first. "Speak out of turn again and you will regret it."

"I will not apologize for defending the people I care about!"

"Nor do I have a need for your robotic, insincere apologies," he replied. "Now tell me where my son is." I didn't answer, so he responded with a full-blown punch that sent me falling backward. Gasping for air, I scrambled away from him and pressed a hand to my bleeding face. "Tell me where he is." The anger in his face started rising to an alarming level as he approached. Heng was yelling. Delun was yelling. Someone was crying. I couldn't process anything.

Then everything went silent and still when the kitchen door opened and in stepped my brother. He looked like he was about ready to kill someone. In stark contrast, our father abruptly looked very calm, perhaps even happy. "Gui Wen," he breathed, his voice sounding more gentle than I'd heard in a very, very long time. He strode forward and walked away from me like I wasn't even there.

Gui Wen, looking rather sick, evasively sidestepped him and knelt down beside me. Tearing my hand away from my cheek, he glared at me. "You moron! Why do you let him do this‽"

"He caught me by surprise," I muttered, feeling rather annoyed with myself for expecting him to hold back in front of his oh-so-important business partner.

"Shut up," he snapped, turning to look at our father. "You bastard, what'd you do that for?"

He smiled. "My, my, Gui Wen. Watch your temper. You are questioning my disciplinary methods? The stupid boy was being obstinate, and I had to punish him, much like any adult punishes a disobedient child," he explained very matter-of-factly as if punching people was completely normal.

Gui Wen shot him a murderous glare, grabbed my arm, and proceeded to pull me to my feet. He dragged me toward the door, but we were stopped by the last suited man. "Gui Wen, I wish to speak to you," our father murmured.

"I have nothing to say to you!" he yelled in reply.

"But I have things to say to you. It will only take a moment, so please listen to me." Gui Wen looked surprised through his anger, and it wasn't difficult to know why—our father never said "please." When he didn't disagree, my father's eyes briefly met mine. "Zian, go wait in the car. I shall be out soon."

Shaking off Gui Wen's hands, I nodded, although I very much wanted to stay and listen, afraid that everything I'd been dreading about Gui Wen replacing me was about to come true. Gui Wen gave me a frightened look, his breathing shallow, then went into the hallway with our father. That buff man in the suit stepped forward, but rather than letting him take me outside, I held out my hand and glared at him. "Give me an ice pack." The house staff had started carrying them around, so I assumed these men did, too.

He hesitated for a moment, but reached into his suit pocket and pulled one out. Instead of putting it on my own face, I turned and stomped toward Heng, who was still getting pinned to the floor by the other two suits. "Get off of him right now." I waited several seconds for them to obey, but they didn't move. "I said get off him!" I bellowed, grabbing the shoulder of one man and giving it a yank.

They gave each other a look, then slowly stood up and went to stand by the door with the other one. Crouching, I dropped the ice pack on Heng's beat-up face. "Next time I tell you to do something, you had better listen to me," I hissed, angrily staring down at him. "I doubt he will not lock me up again after your outburst of stupidity."

Heng's face fell into disbelief. "Are you blaming me?"

"I am _warning_ you," I corrected, then stood up and gave a sweeping look to everyone who was still in the room. Jiao and her mother were huddled together, looking like they'd been crying. Delun and his father were now on this side of the table. Tian Lang was still in his chair, a shocked, bewildered stare on his face. That all-too-familiar feeling of guilt smothered me as I looked from person to person. The happy atmosphere of breakfast had been completely erased.

"If you do not hear from me for an unusually long time," I announced to them all, "you will know why." Turning to Delun and his father, I gave them a bow. "Thank you for your generous hospitality, and I apologize for the trouble I have caused here." Straightening up, I gave one last smile to Heng. "Goodbye."

He quickly sat up when I turned around. "Al, don't let him!" he yelled after me, but I didn't look at him again. "DON'T LET HIM!"

Biting the inside of my cheek, I stepped into the hallway and gave a tiny glance to my left, wondering where Gui Wen and my father had gone, then turned to the right and started toward the front door, trying to block out Heng's voice as it rang in my ears. I definitely wasn't going to go down without a fight, but there was little I could do against my father and his four minions, who all looked strong enough to knock me unconscious using nothing but their pinkie fingers.

Once I'd gone outside, I was ushered into my father's fancy black car, sitting uncomfortably on the leather seat with two of the suited men on either side of me. It took nearly ten minutes for my father to join us. With a simple look to the driver, we slowly rolled away from the house. I stared down at my lap, not wanting to watch the pretty garden go past outside. I didn't want this to be the last time I'd see it.

The drive was quiet; my father and I didn't speak a word to one another. After a lengthy stop at the office—he went inside for over an hour while I was forced to stay in the car—we went home. It wasn't until the car had come to a halt at the end of the driveway that the silence was finally broken when my father murmured, "Take him to my office," to the suited men.

They silently nodded and got out of the car, dragging me along with them. Knowing they would probably injure me in some way if I resisted, I let them lead me up to the front door, trying to keep my mind from imagining what was going to happen to me once we got to my father's rooms. All of my fearful thoughts were suddenly pushed aside when the enormous doors didn't open automatically from the inside as had always happened in the past. My surprise was obviously shared with the suits that held me.

Slowing their steps, two continued to hold me by either arm and the other two opened the double doors, peering into the dim and deserted entryway, which had always been brightly lit and full of maids, as well as the occasional butler, whenever I had arrived before.

The two in front of me pulled small handguns out of hidden holsters and stepped inside, cautiously inspecting the room. Feeling even more frightened, I glanced back. My father was talking to the person who had driven my car, and was not paying any attention to us. A moment later, I was abruptly dragged forward again when the men apparently deemed the entryway to be safe.

However, they were wrong.

Only a few steps inside, there were four tiny whizzing sounds and all four of the men collapsed within seconds. In extreme shock, I stared down at their motionless bodies, then looked up. There was a helmeted person dressed all in black and holding a large gun standing at the top of the steps leading to the guest wing. My gaze was torn away from whoever that was when someone else appeared, stepping out of one of the doors here on the ground floor. He looked familiar, but I didn't take my time to inspect him, instead acting on reflex—I turned and ran out the door, yelling for my father.

He glanced up from the driver of my car, briefly seeming alarmed at my frantic behavior. A second later, his eyes widened. "GET DOWN!"

Without thinking, I dropped to my knees, stumbling and rolling down several of the wide, stone steps. There was a small noise of something metallic hitting the pavement. Turning around, I froze when a large number of helmeted, black-clad people piled out of the doorway. The second man I'd seen was standing at the front of the group, a cruel smile on his face as he looked to my father.

"Dàgē, how lovely to see you again!" he called, striding forward with forceful steps. I continued my retreat in a backwards crawl while he wasn't paying attention to me. "I apologize," he continued, "for dropping in so suddenly like this, but I assume you know already for whom I have come."

"Of course I know." My father's voice told me of the sneer he was wearing. "You think of nothing else, do you?"

The man, whoever he was, gained a mockingly loving expression. "Ah, you know me _so_ well. Therefore, let us not waste any more of our precious time and simply get down to business. I have come to reclaim my property." The man's eyes drifted to me. I stopped in my attempts at crawling down the stairs. "Come here, Seven. We are going home."

Before I could come up with some sort of reply, my father cut in. "I did not say I would give him back. I still have need of him."

Heart pounding, I glanced over my shoulder to look at him, but he didn't look back. "I know." The words drew my attention back to the man on the porch. "However, you have had twenty-two years to use Seven as you wanted. Do not think of demanding more time for your little plans. I told you when I first brought him to you that you were only _borrowing_ him, so also do not think of saying that you had no warning of this. I would have left him alone for a bit longer, but seeing as you have brought him back to your home and will undoubtedly injure him again, I have returned earlier than planned to stop you from further damaging my delicate specimen. Now, give him back."

They both stared at me, as if expecting me to make the choice.

Go to the maniac with a gun, or go to the maniac without a gun.

I started to retreat again. No one tried to stop me, so I finally reached the bottom of the stairs and shakily stood, doing my best not to trip while I hurried to my father's side. He may have been terrifying, but at the moment he seemed to be the lesser of two evils. He looked oddly smug that I had picked him.

Letting out a heavy sigh, the man frowned in an annoyed way. "You certainly have trained him well. I congratulate you for finally managing to brainwash someone." That smug look of my father's disappeared when the man added, "It is quite the accomplishment after you failed with me, with Liu, with Gui Wen, even with Hui Ying. All of us were so happy to rid ourselves of you at last. Especially Hui Ying. The silly woman ran away with me without a thought."

I could tell he was trying to hide his reaction, but I heard my father's breath stop for a moment and his face stiffened. The sneer found its way back onto his mouth soon, however. "I congratulate you for managing to seduce a whore."

"The whore you married and fell in love with." That time, the man had hit a nerve. My father's cheeks flushing a tiny bit, his murderous glare returned at full force. But before he could reply, the man impatiently waved a hand. "Enough. I have a very tight schedule to keep, and have no more time to waste on you, Kuo Li. Come here, Seven. _Now_."

Although he sounded very stern, I shook my head at him, wishing someone would explain what the hell was going on.

"Kuo Li!" he snapped impatiently. "If you do not want certain incriminating pieces of evidence about _that_ to be leaked to the police and the press, tell Seven to cooperate!"

Gulping, I glanced at my father's blank face. He didn't answer. But just as I was starting to feel relieved, he spoke quietly to me. "Go with him, Zian."

Eyes going wide, I shook my head again. "No, Father!"

"Go with him."

"I do not want to!"

Sighing out his nose, he turned away. "Fine. Do whatever you please. You are no longer my responsibility."

Feeling horrified at his desertion, I tried to follow him as he stepped toward his car, but I was grabbed from behind. "FATHER!" I screamed, struggling to make whoever it was let go of me.

One last glance of disinterest was all he gave me before he got in his car and disappeared from view when he shut the door.

Gritting my teeth as the car started to drive away, I bent my knees, then threw myself back, feeling my skull smash into the head of the person holding me. Twisting around when their grip loosened, I drew my leg up and kicked the person's helmet as hard as I could. I backed away from the man as he fell down, letting out a string of curse words.

I was about to turn and run toward my car, but stopped with a gasp when sharp pain suddenly shot through my chest, as if I'd just been stung by a bunch of bees. Looking down in bewilderment, I stared at my chest, which had been peppered with at least a dozen tiny, metal darts. I lifted my hand to pull them all out, but the world suddenly started tilting and I fell over, my vision going black before I even hit the ground.


	62. Home

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** Ahh. This is another one of those "I feel so mean for writing this," chapters.  
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><p>The sounds of cloth rustling, someone breathing, and something ticking slowly slipped through the thick fog that surrounded my mind and made it impossible to form even one solid thought. Vaguely I noticed someone was touching my left arm, hurting it, but I couldn't find the strength to pull away and make them stop. I opened my eyes as far as I could, but all I could see was whiteness. A quiet voice spoke. I couldn't understand what it said.<p>

Closing my eyes, I went back to sleep.

Some unknown amount of time later, I groggily woke up again, laying on something warm and comfy. I was still unable to focus on the blindingly white ceiling that was above me, but although I couldn't see very well, I turned my head from side to side, trying to inspect my surroundings. I'd barely moved, but the slight movements made a wave of nausea roil up, and I felt everything that was in my stomach come rushing through my throat. Someone grabbed me by the shirt front and lifted me upright, shoving my head forward when I threw up. A hand gently patted my back as the contents of my stomach all came out, leaving a foul taste in my mouth and an equally foul smell in the air.

Falling backward when I was done, I clumsily rubbed a hand over my watering eyes, not feeling any better than I had before my insides had all come gushing out. A cold and damp cloth was wiped over my lips, then something hard was pressed against them, but I didn't open my mouth.

"It's just water," a familiar voice murmured, sounding very far away. Shakily inhaling, I cracked open my eyes again and stared up at the blurry man holding the glass of water. It took me a moment, but I eventually recognized the person, and surprise filled my hazy mind.

Fu Han stared impatiently down at me as he held the water against my mouth. "Rinse."

Finally opening my mouth, I sucked in a bit of the cool water and swished it around, feeling the disgusting residue of vomit come free of my teeth and tongue, then I spit into a metal thing he held up in front of me. After two more rinses, I drank a fresh glass of water and sighed, looking around again. I was laying on a narrow bed in a very small, square room. The walls, ceiling and tiled floor were all white. There were no windows, but there was a single door to my left.

"I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to wake up," Fu Han remarked, using his foot to push the puke bucket toward the door before grabbing my left arm and tightly rolling a strip of gauze around near my shoulder. "They shot you with so many tranquilizers, I wouldn't have been surprised if you had died. It took quite some time to clean up the mess your father left after he dealt with the men who fired on you without his authorization."

Trying to process what he was saying, I watched as he continued to wrap up my left shoulder in the soft, white cloth. "What are you doing?"

"I had to make a small incision," he replied, carefully tugging on the ends of the gauze as he knotted them together. "Removed the old chip that had been in your arm and replaced it with a new one. But don't worry, you will heal in no time. Can't promise there won't be a scar, but I doubt anyone will notice; it'll just blend in with all your others."

"Chip?" I mumbled, blinking slowly at my shoulder as I tried to focus on it.

"Your identification chip—Min Kuo Li could track the other one, so we had to replace it," he told me, sighing as he picked up a pen and clipboard off the bedside table, then plopped himself onto a chair nearby and started writing stuff. Looking away from him, my eyes followed the path of a long, thin tube. One end had been inserted into my left forearm. The other end was attached to a full IV bag hanging near my head.

"You certainly are a secretary of many talents," I weakly observed, falling back on the pillow as I closed my eyes, not bothering to feel shocked. "If that's what you even are…"

"I _was _a secretary," he corrected. "Not anymore." He was silent for a moment, then the scratching of his pen stopped and he let out another sigh. "You have no idea how frustrated I was, stuck in that dull job." His normally mild, friendly tone had taken an angry turn. "Working for so many years to be placed at this facility, and what's my first assignment? To babysit a failed experiment." He started writing again. "But at least I can finally do the work I came here for, now that your father has brought you back."

Frowning in bewilderment, I tried to ignore how nothing he was saying was making sense, and turned onto my right side, staring at the spotless wall, mumbling, "You damn two-faced liar." I had been expecting my father to lock me up somewhere, but I certainly hadn't expected Fu Han to help him. This was what I got for trusting someone. But now that I thought about it, I should have expected this; I had known for a long time that he'd been working for both me and my father. I should have expected him to eventually take my father's side over mine and turn on me.

He let out a short laugh. "I admit I'm two-faced, but name one time I lied."

"You said my father was coming in the afternoon," I huffed at once.

"I did and he did," he replied, then paused. "Well, actually I think we collected you a few minutes before noon…But it was close enough."

"_Noon_‽ It wasn't even _ten_ when he arrived!"

He let out another sigh. "It's no use arguing with you when you don't know what you're talking about, so just hush up, would you? I need to finish this report."

I thought about saying something else just to annoy him, but couldn't think of anything clever, so I grouchily stayed silent and continued to stare at the wall, wondering what it was a report about and who it was for. I would have assumed it was for my father, but this place looked a lot like that laboratory I'd been in, and if Fu Han was one of those doctors then the report wouldn't be going to my father. If this really was that laboratory and my doctor was around, I doubted he'd tell me anything, either…Why would my doctor kidnap me, anyway? Nothing was making sense.

Eventually, Fu Han stood up and started gathering the equipment. "I'll see you tomorrow morning," he softly announced, then there was a sliding noise and his footsteps faded out. Rolling over as quickly as I could, I watched as the door automatically slid back into place, leaving me alone in the small room. Sitting up, I ran my eyes over my surroundings. Other than the bed, there was a small bedside table with a lamp on it, the cushioned chair Fu Han had been sitting on, and a dresser, all white-colored, just like the room. The only thing of a different color was the square, black analogue clock hanging on the wall and rhythmically ticking away. It was almost eight o'clock, either in the morning or evening.

Opening the drawer in the table beside me, I rummaged through its contents—pieces of blank white paper, a worn-looking box of crayons, some graphite pencils, and a small encyclopedia—then shakily stood up and rolled my IV stand over to that dresser. A search through it led to nothing—all it contained was identical sets of pale blue clothes, like the ones I was wearing—so I turned and headed for the door. However, I paused before I even took a full step, eyes going wide when I noticed something. My right hand shaking, I lifted it up and placed it on my forehead, then dragged it upward over my head.

My hair was gone.

Someone—probably that traitorous ass, Fu Han—had shaved my entire head so closely it was completely smooth. There wasn't even a little bit of prickly fuzz.

No wonder my head was getting such a generous breeze…

Feeling extremely angry that Fu Han had robbed me of my precious hair, I stomped toward the door. At first, it stayed closed and I assumed it had been locked, but then I moved closer to it and it flew sideways into the wall, revealing a hallway. Dragging the IV stand over the threshold, I stepped out of the tiny room and looked from side to side as the door quietly closed behind me. Not a person was in sight, and—aside from the noise I was making—I couldn't hear anything. Doors numbered from one to ten—odd on this side of the hall, even on the other—lined the white walls in either direction, and one unmarked door stood nearby to my right.

Walking directly across the hall, I opened up the door numbered with an "8" and nervously looked inside. It was just like the room I'd woken up in, although there were child-like drawings taped to the walls, and books and toys were scattered here and there. Backing away from that door, I went to "10" right beside it, but that door wouldn't open, nor would "9", so I turned toward the numberless door at the end, watched over by a camera built into the wall over the door frame. It was also locked, and there was no obvious way of unlocking any of the doors, so I turned and walked in the other direction. The only other doors that would open were the sixth, fifth, and third. The rooms were identical to the two I'd already seen, so I left.

It wasn't until I entered the hallway running perpendicular to the other that I finally met someone. Or, well, he ran into me, his face crashing into my legs as he let out a very surprised "Ouch!" and rubbed a tiny hand on his nose. The little boy, who looked to be around Shuang's age, tilted his bald head back to stare up at me, black eyes going wide. I wordlessly stared back, my heart pounding. What if he was going to tell someone I was wandering around? Was someone going to come and stuff me back into that room? No. If I wasn't supposed to be out of that room, the door would have been locked, or so I assumed.

A few seconds passed, then he asked, "Why are you wearing that?"

Confused, I glanced at my blue clothes, then looked back at him. "I was wearing it when I woke up." The clothes I'd been wearing when I was kidnapped were nowhere in that room. Nor was that photograph Heng had given me. So much for keeping it safe.

"But you're big," the boy retorted, eyebrows furrowing. Having no idea what to say to that, I silently continued to stare at him. Rather than explaining himself, he changed the topic. "I'm August Twenty-four Five. What's your number?"

"…My _name_ is Min Zian," I quietly replied.

My answer seemed to bewilder the boy even more. "Are you a doctor, too?" He quirked an eyebrow when I shook my head. "Why're you so big, then?"

Wishing he would stop asking questions, I tried to form my jumbled thoughts into an answer. "I…I'm an adult…?" Why the hell else would I be this size?

He let out a very large gasp and looked extremely excited. "Oh! You grew up! Do you live outside with everyone now‽ Are they having fun‽ Ten went there a few months ago! Did you meet him‽"

"No," I whispered, getting fearful goosebumps as he babbled about how he couldn't wait to go "there," too.

"Five!" We both turned at the voice and my heart sped up even more. The man who'd been arguing with my father at home was walking toward us. With a faint smile, he came to a halt at the intersection of the hallways. "Three is getting impatient. Go get your puzzle."

"Oh!" the boy exclaimed again. "I forgot." Without another word, he ran past me and went into the fifth door.

"How are you feeling, Seven?" the man quietly asked. I guardedly stared at him instead of answering, wondering how much damage my IV stand would do to his face before someone could stop me. "It is so wonderful to have you home again. I had your old room put together for you, as August Twenty-four Seven has already been disposed of and thus, well, of course he has no need of the room anymore." He laughed, as if I was supposed to be humored. "I even found your crayons in storage. You loved them so much when you were young, you would scream if anyone tried to take them from you."

When he stepped closer and raised a hand, I immediately retreated several steps backward and slid the IV stand in front of myself, prepared to clobber him with it if necessary. After Fu Han had betrayed me, there was no way I was going to trust some kidnapping maniac.

"Who are you?" I demanded, hoping my voice didn't display my terror.

The man's face fell in a disappointed way. "After so many hours spent together with your doctor…Do you not recognize me?" When I didn't answer, he stuck one hand in his white lab coat, pulled out a surgical mask, and put it on. "I did get a haircut for your homecoming, but goodness, I did not think it was _that_ much of a change. I apologize that I do not have my goggles with me at the moment. I assume this shall suffice in jogging your memory," he ended, tapping a finger on his mask.

"You're that doctor…" Inhaling shakily, I stared at him in horror and glanced back toward the numbered doors, where that boy had gone. The first day I'd met this crazed man ran through my mind, and nausea rose again upon realization. "Lab rat."

He nodded and echoed, "Lab rat," while he took the mask off. With an alarming amount of speed, he grabbed me by the arm and began to drag me down the hall, ignoring my protests. When we reached the end, he stopped us in the doorway as it opened, revealing a spacious room. There was a set of shelves covered in books and boxes, a low table surrounded by small chairs, and toys were everywhere. A pair of boys were seated at the table. Another was across the room, quietly reading a book. All three of them were identical to the boy I'd just met.

"They are wonderful, are they not?" he asked, looking very proud. "The August series was a very successful cloning experiment, unlike yours…You already met Five. Three and Six are over there at the table, and Eight is the one reading."

"_Children_ are not _lab rats_, you inhumane son of a bitch," I whispered, feeling like I was about to vomit. "August Twenty-four Ten…You killed and dissected a human just because he was _twitching_‽"

With a snort, the doctor crossed his arms. "Human? That would be like calling those low-fat vegetable spreads butter. They may have the same consistency and appearance, but they are not the same. One is simply an imitation. Ten outlived his usefulness, and so we disposed of him, as will we do with these last remaining four, once we have a new series. And that is where _you_ are needed, Seven. As I told you before, you—the last of the April series—were only allowed to live this long to breed."

Perhaps it was because I'd been shot with those tranquilizers and was still a bit foggy-minded, or perhaps it was just a want not to believe any of the horrific things he was saying, but it took me a very long time to process his words and finally make the connection between myself and this place. "What‽" I eventually choked out.

"You did not think I brought you back home on a whim, did you?" he asked, smirking. "My team is currently preparing the ova to be fused with your DNA, and we already have ten females selected for the implantation. All we need now is your sperm."

"I will have no part in your experiments!"

Chuckling, he grabbed my arm again and started leading me back the way we'd come. "That is what Kuo Li said when I asked him to let you live with him. But then, with a little persuasion and bargaining, he helped me anyway, just as you will now."

"I will _not_!"

He gave my arm a painful squeeze and smiled as Five ran past us, clutching a large, colorful box to his chest as he hurried into the room where the other boys were. His cheerful voice was cut off as the door slid shut behind him, then the doctor continued to pull me down the hall. "Seven, I warn you I am not as tolerant and patient as my brother. Kuo Li may have settled for slaps and shouts, as if he were reprimanding a child, but if I tell you to do something you will do it immediately or I will make you do it."

"Let go of me!" I ordered, trying to shove him away. There was no way I was going to willingly cooperate with anything he wanted me to do.

With a sigh, he effortlessly slammed me up against the wall and held me in place as I pointlessly struggled, yelling and kicking and hitting him with my IV stand. "Shall we do this the easy way, or the even easier way?" he coldly asked. "Either way you will help me, so there is no point in resisting the inevitable."

"LET GO!"

"The even easier way, it is, then." Smiling, he once again began to drag me down the hallway.

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><p><em>I'm sorry it's so short. I had nothing else to add.<br>_

_How many of you had already figured it out before the last chapter's preview? I know of two—Chica and Aynessa?—but I assume others did, too. I think I dropped too many hints. lol. I need to work on keeping the element of surprise. I'm bad at it._


	63. Father, Part 1

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** This chapter is completely from good ol' Kuo Li's perspective. Unlike the original _Clockwork_'s "The Life of a Father" chapter, which was about Kuo Li's life in general, this one mostly takes place in his early-to-mid twenties, when Gui Wen and Zian are young.  
><em>

_Enjoy part 1! (I know you all love him soooo much. Haha.)_

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><p>I slapped my left hand on the screaming alarm clock, leaving silence where loud shrieks once were blasting through the air. Groggily cracking open my eyes, I frowned at the brightly glowing numbers mutely telling me what time it was from the bedside table, then I sat up, burying my face in my hands and rubbing at my tired eyes, trying in vain to wake myself up, although I wanted to go back to sleep for at least a month. I hated mornings so much.<p>

A quiet mumbling noise made me straighten and turn as the lump beside me rolled over and stared at me over the edge of the comforter. "Good morning," Hui Ying whispered, slowly pushing the blankets off herself.

"Good morning," I crisply replied, trying my hardest to look alert, although my eyes kept trying to close. Shifting myself closer to her, I bent down and gently placed my hands on top of her bulging, pregnant stomach, giving it a light kiss as I smiled. "And good morning to you, Gui Wen." Hoping my baby heard me, I quickly slid to the edge of the bed and stood, glancing at Hui Ying as she yawned behind one hand. "When is the midwife coming?"

While I strode to the closet, Hui Ying gave a thoughtful hum. "Around lunchtime."

Nodding, I threw open the door and stepped inside to collect a suit and tie. "If you go into labor before I get home this evening, call me. I do not have any important appointments today."

She didn't reply until I'd come back into the bedroom, laying my clothes down on the end of the bed. Slowly sitting up, she twisted the white sheets around her hands and gave me an anxious look. "Are you sure it will be okay if we do not reserve a room at the hospital? If something goes wrong–"

"No hospitals," I immediately denied, shooting her a glare for suggesting something so stupid, something I had already rejected time and time again. "Your midwife is completely capable of handling everything here at home. I refuse to allow any doctors who might be associated with _him_ anywhere near my son."

A brief look of irritation marred her pretty face as she turned away from me. "I am just afraid that we will not be completely prepared here, like we would be at the hospital."

"Everything will be fine," I airily assured, whirling around to go to the bathroom. "Women give birth at home all the time and have no problems at all, and so shall it be with you. Go have breakfast."

"Kuo Li."

Sighing deeply, I halted and took a second to hide my agitation with her endless nagging, then turned and walked back to the bed. Placing my hands on her narrow shoulders, I pressed a kiss to her forehead and forced myself to smile. "Everything will be fine," I quietly repeated. "Stop worrying." At her slight nod, I straightened and started backing away toward the bathroom again. "I will come home early."

"Okay," she murmured as I turned to finally go take my shower. After I'd escaped into the bath, I rolled my eyes and heaved another sigh, wishing Gui Wen would hurry up and pop out, so Hui Ying would stop being so annoying. Even if the doctors at the local hospital had nothing to do with my idiot of a brother, there was no way in hell I was going to take the chance. I had spent a ridiculous amount of time researching midwives, to pick one that I was absolutely sure was safe, skilled and experienced to deliver my child, with no unsavory interference.

After a quick but thorough shower and shave, I went back into the bedroom to dress, but came to a stop and glared at the bed.

Hui Ying was still laying in it, looking like she had no plans at all to get up anytime soon.

I almost yelled at her to go downstairs and eat, like I had told her earlier, but took a deep breath, and continued forward, roughly tossing my towel onto the floor as I began to dress. "Shall I have some breakfast sent up for you?" I asked, carefully keeping my voice under control. Yelling at her would only make her even more stressed than she was already, and more stress meant more nagging, and I was going to go berserk if she nagged me even more than she already had.

Pregnant women were completely unbearable.

However, I reminded myself yet again that I would have a son when all of this was over. Putting up with nine months of her aggravating behavior would be worth it. Also, the end of it all was almost here, so that gave me a tiny bit more patience.

"Please," she softly replied, pulling the blankets over herself again as she picked up her cellphone off the bedside table and started messing with it.

Without another word, I finished dressing and left the room, firmly closing he door behind myself before striding through my office and out into the hallway, heading downstairs to the dining room. My father and mother were already seated at the table. My mother looked up and smiled at me as I sat, but as always my father kept his eyes glued to his newspaper, mumbling a vague "Good morning, Kuo Li."

Mentally tearing that stupid newspaper to pieces and shoving the bits down his throat, I ordered one of the servants to take Hui Ying some food, then started on my own meal.

"Is she not feeling well enough to come down?" my mother anxiously asked. I glanced over the table at her and wordlessly shook my head. With one of her fluttery sighs, she looked toward the doorway. "Perhaps I should go up and see how she is."

"Leave her be, Mother," I tiredly requested. "She just needs rest." I wasn't sure if it was only Hui Ying or pregnant women in general, but she hadn't been sleeping well the past few weeks. As a result, neither had I. Every night she'd been restlessly tossing and turning, and got up every two minutes to pee, and with every jostle of the bed I always woke up, too. I'd tried to convince my parents to let me sleep in a guest room until she gave birth, but my mother had refused, saying I shouldn't leave Hui Ying alone, as if sleeping apart would make a difference.

Settling back down in her chair, my mother poked at her food and sighed again, smiling hesitantly at me. "Liu called last night. She wants to come home for a weekend after the baby is born. She is so excited to see her nephew."

Inwardly snorting, I slowly chewed and swallowed, raising one eyebrow. "Where is the worth in flying all the way home simply to see a baby?" I didn't want more people around who would hog my baby. I already knew my mother and Hui Ying were most likely going to try to keep him all to themselves, but I wanted to have some time alone with him, too. My sister, Liu, would just get in the way.

"Have a video call," my father agreed, nodding. "Liu knows I do not want her wasting time on pointless visits."

That unsure smile faltered as my mother glanced between us. "A short visit would be fine, would it not? She has not been home since New Years. Even Zhong Yu said he would like to come, last I spoke to him."

Disgust filled me as I turned my full attention to her, and I was about to tell her I did _not_ want him here and if he did come to stay for a long period of time then I'd be barricading myself, my wife and my son in the nursery until he left, but my father replied before I could. "My dear, unlike Zhong Yu, Liu is still in high school. It is very important that she focus on her studies. There are other holidays when she may come and see the baby in person. But until then she stays at school."

With a quiet "Of course," my mother went back to her breakfast and left the table in somewhat awkward silence. I grumpily chewed a tasteless bite of something, wishing not for the first or last time that I was an only child and didn't have two bothersome younger siblings to deal with, although I supposed that Liu wasn't too horrible. Kind of whiny, but at least she lived in her school's dormitory and not here at home.

Zhong Yu, on the other hand, was thoroughly repulsive. He and I had hated each other for as long as I could remember, and the only somewhat good thing about him was that we rarely saw one another. Back when he'd been in high school, he had abruptly changed his mind about what career he wished to pursue—business was, naturally, what he was supposed to have picked, so he could help me run my father's airline in the future, but for whatever absurd reason he'd somehow convinced our father to let him choose some biology-related major instead, and was now constantly holing himself up in a laboratory. Whenever he came home he always had unsettling tales to tell about whatever hush-hush projects on which he was currently working. Human experimentation seemed to be a large part of his job, thus my utter refusal to let him anywhere near my family.

Unfortunately, no one else shared my caution. In fact, everyone seemed to think he was wonderful.

Morons.

Quickly finishing my breakfast, I stood up and roughly shoved my chair at the table. Although my mother flinched a bit at the loud noise, my father didn't react at all and kept staring at his newspaper, as if whatever article he was reading was the most interesting thing in the whole world.

"Kuo Li. Stop trying to break my furniture."

And yet he still somehow managed to keep his attention on the rest of the room as well.

"I apologize for trying and not succeeding." I grabbed my chair, dragged it backwards, and shoved it at the table again before stomping out of the room. I heard his satisfyingly irritated voice call after me, but I tuned him out and hurried upstairs to get my jacket and bag, all the while trying to come up with a plan to keep Zhong Yu out of the house.

All of my plans were shattered when I was once again lightly making my way down the front stairs, watching as several members of the house staff arranged themselves around the front door. For a brief second I assumed they were there for me, but then _he_ came in. Zhong Yu wordlessly tossed his gray suit jacket at the nearest footman, then smiled wide as he stepped in my direction. "Good morning, Dàgē!" he casually called.

Absolutely enraged at his arrival, I stomped down the last few stairs and tightened my grip on my bag. "Save your nauseating greetings for Father," I snapped, glowering at him as I came to a halt.

"Oh, I would not dare skip greeting you," he quietly replied in one of his falsely concerned tones. "After all, you do love to imagine yourself as the master of the house. How utterly rude it would be of me to ignore you, then!"

"Were I the master of this house, you would not be contaminating my entryway with your repulsive presence."

"Do not fret, Dàgē. My visit will be short. I will be gone within the hour," he announced, then his eyes slid past me and his smile warmed. If I didn't know my brother, I would have thought it was actually genuine. "You look lovelier every time I see you," he declared, walking a bit closer. I turned to see Hui Ying standing at the top of the stairs. Regardless of her sickened and weary appearance earlier, she had dressed herself and had even put on makeup, as if she had decided to go out.

Hui Ying's cheeks reddened at his empty compliment. "Thank you."

"Due within the next few days, are you?" She nodded, and with a chuckle he gave both of us smirk-like smiles, then started toward the hall. "I shall go greet Mother and Father."

I watched him disappear through the doorway, then looked up at my wife. "I thought you were not feeling well," I gruffly reminded her, inwardly rolling my eyes at how stupid everyone in this house was. Why couldn't anyone else see that he was just putting on an act?

With a small shake of her head, she glanced briefly at me. "Breakfast helped…Are you not late?"

I looked down at my watch. She was right—I should have already left, dammit.

Giving one last glare to her, I hissed, "Stay away from him," and turned to leave, trying to ignore the way her face had darkened at my order. She had never agreed with how hard I was on my brother, nor had I ever agreed with how gentle she was with him. But although she thought she was right, I had been the one who had grown up with him. Due to our father's negligence I'd practically raised him. I knew him far better than she ever would, and yet she seemed to think she knew better.

It was just one of the many things on which we didn't agree.

I spent the day working through everything as quickly as I could, to go home early and make sure everything was okay. I didn't receive any calls from home, so I assumed Hui Ying hadn't gone into labor, but I was still very nervous, mostly because I was suspicious that Zhong Yu might not have left when he'd said he would.

Finally, I managed to finish and go home. Quickly handing my bag and jacket to the butler mingling with the maids in the doorway, I strode past them and took the stairs two at a time in my eagerness to get to my bedroom and make sure everything was okay. "Hui Ying?" I called loudly as I burst into my office, stepped across the spacious, carefully decorated room, and went into the bedroom.

Scanning the sunny room, I searched for my wife—she was difficult to miss, given how huge she was—but didn't see her anywhere. "Hui Ying?" I repeated, checking the bathroom and the closet before leaving. After a look through the library, I went to my father's rooms. He was reading a book and sitting in one of the hideous yellow armchairs by the large picture window overlooking the north-western corner of the grounds. My mother was sitting in the other chair, her fingers nimbly sorting through an assortment of calm-colored flowers laying on her lap. The summer breeze coming through the open windows had spread the blossoms' faint scent throughout the cluttered room.

Stopping by my father's chair, I took a moment to get back my breath. Neither of them made a sign that they'd noticed me. "Where is Hui Ying?"

"Good afternoon, Kuo Li," my father mumbled in reply.

Frowning irritably at him, I huffed, "Good afternoon Father, Mother. Where is Hui Ying?"

He still didn't look up. "Not here." My temper went up another degree at his bored tone and insufficient answer, but before I could respond he continued, slowly turning a page. "She left this morning."

Glancing in disbelief between my parents, I attempted to keep my crackling anger in check. "You let her _leave_? She could go into labor at any moment! What about her appointment with the midwife‽"

"Today's appointment was canceled, as were all future appointments. The midwife's services are no longer required."

"THAT IS NOT YOUR DECISION TO MAKE!"

He closed the book on one of his fingers to mark his place, and leaned back to stare up at me. "Nor is it your decision. You are not the one giving birth. It is Hui Ying's right to decide how and where it happens, and you know perfectly well that she did not feel comfortable having the baby here. Even if you are ridiculously paranoid that something will happen to her and the baby if she leaves, none of the rest of us are."

"She is at the hospital‽" I demanded in horror. How the hell could they let her go there? We had discussed this so many times and had chosen the midwife. My parents should have stopped her, those brainless idiots.

"Possibly. She had a brief chat with Zhong Yu, and then they left together. They did not say where they were headed, however."

"WHAT‽ HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET THAT MONSTER ANYWHERE NEAR MY WIFE‽ YOU–"

"Be quiet, Kuo Li. You are far too old for childish name-calling." With a nod toward his desk, he opened his book again. "Hui Ying asked us to give that to you."

Although I wanted to knock his chair over, I stomped across the room and snatched up the manila envelope—the only thing that was on the desk, besides the lamp and numerous little glass figurines my mother had given to him over the years. The thick paper tore a little as I roughly opened it and dumped the contents on the desk. My breath momentarily left me as I realized what they were.

Trying to hide how much my hand was shaking, I snatched up the bundle of papers and turned to my father. "Divorce…papers." A slightly surprised look came and went on his face as he glanced at me, but said nothing. The papers crinkled in my hand as I tightened my grip and shook my head, staring down at them in utter disbelief. Hui Ying's face filled my mind. All of the smiles she had given me that brightened my days, the kind words she said to me whenever I delivered my awkward apologies for losing my temper, the gentle touch of her small hands that calmed me every evening. We'd had countless fights, but she would not have left me. It wasn't possible.

"…Zhong Yu must have done something to her." Taking several deep breaths, I threw the divorce papers on the desk and turned to the door. "I need to find them."

"Let them go, Kuo Li."

My fury soared to new heights as my father's calm words reached my ears. I whirled around to face him as he stood up and walked toward his desk. "You expect me to accept this?" I snarled. "YOU EXPECT ME TO QUIETLY STAY HERE AND JUST ACCEPT THAT ZHONG YU HAS KIDNAPPED MY WIFE‽"

With a tired sigh, he picked up the papers and glanced over them. "Stop jumping to conclusions."

"AND HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN IT‽ HUI YING WOULD NEVER DO THIS TO ME! ZHONG YU IS YOUR SON; YOU BOTH SHOULD KNOW WHAT HE IS LIKE! OR HAVE YOU TWO IDIOTS BEEN TOO BUSY ALL THESE YEARS READING BOOKS AND ARRANGING FLOWERS TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR OWN HOME‽"

For the first time in quite a while, anger finally broke through my father's passive countenance. "Do not insult your mother and I. Although you seem to think me blind, there is very little that happens in this house without my knowledge." He tapped a finger on the papers before setting them down on the envelope they'd been in. "I was expecting this to happen, and sooner than this, really. She has had these since February."

My eyes widened as I looked between him, my mother, and the papers, and I wordlessly shook my head at him, refusing to believe any of it.

"Try to see this divorce as a good thing," he lightly added, much to my continued rage. "She and Zhong Yu have been, ah, _involved_ for quite some time, and being married to such a promiscuous woman would bring about nothing but foul rumors."

"You knew and did nothing?" I whispered. "Zhong Yu was with my wife and you just…let it happen?"

"They are adults, not children. They can do as they please with their lives. If they ruin themselves, that is not my concern, is it? Besides, she is—was _your_ wife," he added. "Women like Hui Ying need a lot of attention and a firm hand to keep them in check, yet you think of work and little else; if you wanted to keep her, you should not have neglected her so."

Of all the awful things my father had ever said to me in the short twenty-one years I'd been alive, that was by far the most infuriating. I glanced at my mother again, pointlessly hoping that maybe she would back me up—she hadn't looked up from her flowers the whole time, although her expression had been getting increasingly upset since I had entered the room—then I looked back at my father. "You blame me for this?"

"Yes." Shaking his head slightly, he tucked the divorce papers in their envelope, then strode forward and pressed the packet to my chest. Disgust filled his black eyes. "You spend so much time blaming everyone else for everything that goes wrong around you, you never seem to notice that you and your mistakes are the cause. If you had not antagonized your siblings so much, Zhong Yu would respect you rather than hate you, and would not have touched your property. If you had handled your marriage properly, your wife would still be here. This is your mess. Clean it up."

My breath came in short bursts as he walked past me and out the door. I watched him for a few seconds, then grabbed the nearest solid object—a vase—and hurled it at his back as hard as I could. The glass shattered against his shoulder and he turned around, looking at me in surprise. "I DID NOT DO THIS!" I screamed, throwing the envelope at him, too, as I stomped forward, fully prepared to beat him to a pulp. "ZHONG YU IS ALWAYS CAUSING PROBLEMS AND YET YOU ALWAYS TURN THEM AROUND ON ME!"

I swung my fist at him, but in a matter of seconds I had been thrown against the wall and dropped to the floor, with all of the wind knocked out of me. My father's angry face stared down at me as I lay gasping amongst the bits of shattered glass, fighting to breathe again. "This divorce happened because you are too stupid to see and correct your own flaws, Kuo Li," he quietly said. "I will speak no more of this matter, and you will do the same." With one last look of distaste, he turned and began walking away, calling back, "Pick up that envelope and stop laying in the middle of the hall. You are in the servants' way."

"You are the one who put me here!" I wheezily retorted, glaring at his back, but he kept walking and didn't answer me. Trying not to make any pained noises, I slowly got to my feet, clutching the envelope in one hand, bloodied by the glass in which I'd fallen. Thoroughly humiliated, I strode past the gathered servants and went into my rooms, slamming the door shut behind myself. Unable to contain all of the anger, I threw the envelope again, as well as a few chairs, lamps, and random other objects that were in my path to the bedroom. Hatred toward my whole family, Hui Ying included, filled me completely as I sat down on the edge of my bed and buried my face in my hands, fighting to regain control of myself.

In the days that followed, all of my efforts to search for Hui Ying were stopped by my father, and everything he kept telling me was steadily sinking in and taking root in my mind. I didn't want to believe what he was telling me, all of the things that I hadn't known were happening, but I started to anyway. Perhaps I was the one who'd been blind. But that wasn't my fault; I had simply been doing what a husband was supposed to do—work hard and provide for my family. I hadn't done anything wrong at all. It was Hui Ying's fault for not telling me she hadn't been content with our marriage.

Exactly two weeks after Hui Ying left, I went home after work and without warning my father ushered me to the nursery. For a brief moment hope flared up that perhaps my wife had come back to me. I stepped through the door, eyes searching for her, but she was nowhere in sight. Instead, my mother was sitting in the armchair by the crib Hui Ying and I had chosen after a whole afternoon of wandering through countless baby stores not an hour after we had found out that she was pregnant. That had been such a happy day filled with excitement and smiles when I'd heard I was going to be a father. Looking back on it made me wonder if it had really happened.

Disappointment and anger made my eyes burn, but I quickly got ahold of myself and went to stand by my mother, my breaths shortening as I looked down at the baby she was holding. My son. "Give him to me."

She looked up at me hesitantly, as if afraid I'd hurt the child, but then stood and carefully handed the baby and a warmed bottle to me. "I was just about to feed him," she murmured, smiling down at him. After she gently ran a hand over his tiny, surprisingly hairy head, she stepped around me and whispered at the maids to leave. Silence pressed against me from all sides after everyone left and the door was shut. Slowly sitting in the chair my mother had vacated, I stared down at the baby I held. His adorable, somewhat sleepy-looking face, which, much to my annoyance, looked just like Hui Ying and very little like me, stared steadily back at me from over the edge of the soft, teddy bear-patterned blanket in which he was wrapped. Setting down the bottle, I curiously poked one of his fat, pink cheeks, then played with the soft fuzz on top of his head.

I had tried many, many times to picture this moment—the first time I would see and hold my son, the one I had once assumed would be the first of several children. I'd always imagined it to be a happy moment, a proud moment. In a way it was, I supposed, but the fond feelings I had for the infant were getting overshadowed by uncertainty and anger. I never thought I would be cheated on, divorced and left with a child whom I wasn't even sure was mine. But maybe he really was. If Hui Ying hated me so much that she would leave me for Zhong Yu, she probably didn't want my child, either. Why else would she have sent him here, instead of taking care of him herself? She had told me she'd wanted children, and had seemed happy to be pregnant…but maybe that had just been another lie.

What the hell had happened to make her think that my horrible brother was a better man for her?

A sneeze from my lap returned my attention to the wiggling bundle I was holding. Remembering the bottle, I carefully put it to his mouth. It took him a moment to latch on, but soon he was enthusiastically sucking away. Hoping he wasn't going to choke, I settled down in the chair and watched him, feeling disappointed with myself for letting Hui Ying's desertion effect me so much.

Five years passed while I slowly pieced my life back together. It felt like Gui Wen had grown up in the blink of an eye. He had turned into a wonderful boy, one I was very proud of—he was extremely intelligent, independent, charismatic, and serious, although he acted a bit silly and unruly from time to time. Then again, I assumed all children were like that to some degree. Raising him without Hui Ying was somewhat daunting at first, but eventually I got used to having another person to take care of, and he fascinated me with every little thing that he did. My anger and confusion over the unexpected divorce didn't fade much over the years, but Gui Wen helped me stay focused on the present, not the past.

I intently stared at my secretary as she listed off tomorrow's schedule from the other side of my desk at work, my mind drifting, although I was trying to keep myself focused. I was hungry, tired, cranky, and extremely distracted by the cleavage I could see peeking at me over the top of her partially unbuttoned dress shirt. Slowly inhaling, I forced my eyes to look at the wall instead as she rambled off the last few appointments and lowered her clipboard.

"Is there anything else this evening?" I asked, staring up at the ceiling as I leaned back in my chair.

"No, Jingli."

Feeling relieved, I quickly sat up straight and waved her away. "Very well. Send up some tea, then you may leave." As she bowed and turned to the door, I spun my chair around to face the sunny window. Standing up, I walked closer and leaned against the window frame, staring at all of the sky scrapers surrounding my father's. Out of habit, I mentally recited tomorrow's schedule again to myself and watched birds fly past between the buildings, just to pass the time while I waited for my tea. I was surprised less than two minutes later when my office door opened behind me. My secretary was fast, but nowhere near that fast…

Turning in annoyance to see who had come in uninvited, I was horrified when Zhong Yu, who I hadn't seen or heard from since _that_ happened five years ago, stepped in through the door, holding Gui Wen in his arms. My body turned cold as I ran around my desk and furiously returned his smirk with a glare as I snatched away my son, holding him close to myself as I stepped backward. "You dare to show your face to me after what you've done‽" I hissed, then turned my attention to Gui Wen before Zhong Yu could reply. "Are you okay? Did he do anything to you‽" I hastily demanded, looking him over. For some reason, he was wearing a too-big coat and a hat, as if it was snowing, regardless of the fact that it was the middle of summer and sweltering outside.

Confusion edged my terror as Gui Wen simply stared at me, looking extremely surprised. Something was very wrong with him. Why was he so light? Gui Wen had never been anywhere near overweight, but he certainly weighed more than a pillow.

Abruptly, he started crying and squirming around, pushing me away with both hands. "Gui Wen, tell me what he did!"

"He only drove us here," Gui Wen answered, but his voice came from the doorway. Turning in extreme bewilderment, I watched as he walked out from behind Zhong Yu. My hands started shaking as I looked down at the wiggling thing in my arms.

In my fright I threw it on the floor and grabbed the real Gui Wen instead, pulling him behind myself as I stared in revulsion down at whatever I'd been holding. The thing, which looked identical to my son, was sprawled at my feet and giving me a dirty look. "That _hurt_!" it declared in an offended tone—it sounded just like my son, too—as Zhong Yu picked it up, looking like he was trying not to laugh.

"Are you alright, Seven?" he quietly asked it, amusement coloring his voice.

It gave me another dirty look before turning away and grabbing Zhong Yu around the neck. "He's mean! I don't want to meet him anymore! He dropped me! Did you see‽"

"Oh, he is not so bad sometimes…rarely. If ever," he mumbled almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"Play over there somewhere with Gui Wen. Look—a couch! How fun! Go jump on it."

"It will not be playing with my son," I immediately cut in as he set it down. It obediently scampered toward my couch. "Get out and take that thing with you before I call securi—STOP JUMPING ON THAT!"

"No!" it yelled in reply and continued to bounce up and down. "Gui Wen, come on! It's springy!"

Gui Wen sort of looked like he wanted to go jump on my couch, too, but didn't move from my side.

"Do not bother calling security, Dàgē," Zhong Yu continued. "They will not come. I happen to be the son of the president, you know." His tone was conversational, as if I didn't know who he was. "I have already been to see Father, so do not think of going to tattle on me. Anyway, back to business. If you do not mind that I speak openly about _things_ in front of dear little Gui Wen, then by all means keep him right there."

Inhaling sharply, I glanced down at my son. If he wasn't here, I'd probably attack Zhong Yu and throw him and the thing out of my office. I'd always been stronger than him. It'd be easy, even if I was alone. I knew my idiot of a father would never help me get rid of him. In fact, he'd probably be annoyed with me. But I didn't want to scare Gui Wen; I'd been so careful all these years to keep my temper in front of him and I wasn't going to let Zhong Yu ruin that.

"GUI WEN, COME JUMP WITH ME! GUI WEN! GUI WE-E-EN! G–"

"Seven," Zhong Yu huffed, a stern look on his face. "Stop yelling."

"Sorry…" It dropped its voice to a whisper. "Gui We-e-e-en!"

Although I really didn't want Gui Wen to get near the thing, I gave him a light push toward my abused couch. "Go over there for a few minutes." Gui Wen hesitantly nodded at me, then went over to the couch, but, as I had told him many times at home not to jump on his own bed, he didn't get on the couch, although the thing was trying very hard to get him to join in.

"This is why?" I whispered furiously. "Those damned experiments are why you took Hui Ying?"

With a tiny laugh, he nodded. "Such a silly, gullible woman. A few sweet words and a bit of attention was all it took," he murmured, smirking again. It was getting increasingly difficult not to punch all of his teeth out. "On her request, I let her come home with me, where she had her baby. While she was recovering I took a DNA sample from Gui Wen, then sent him back to you, safe and sound."

It was obvious he'd done something with my son, but hearing him admit it so easily nearly made me wring his throat, regardless of the two little witnesses across the room. "And where is Hui Ying now?" I demanded.

Zhong Yu was silent for a few seconds, then replied, "Dead since three years ago. It would have been a pity to simply get rid of such a fine female, so I used her for this." He gestured toward the thing, a prideful expression settling over his cold face. "April Fourteen Seven is her son, and the last living specimen of that particular experiment. Their bodies were all disappointingly weak. Something went wrong when we fused Gui Wen's DNA with the zygotes."

I froze briefly while he continued to ramble about his experiments. Although I had been telling myself for the past five years that it didn't matter Hui Ying had left, a part of me had still faintly hoped that she would eventually change her mind and come back. My father had suggested several times that I remarry, but I had always refused. I'd loved her a lot more than I'd thought. But now that I knew she was gone forever, I didn't know what to do.

However, that brief moment passed and I hardened my face again.

Hui Ying had abandoned me. She hadn't loved me. She'd been having an affair with my brother for who knew how long. She hadn't even wanted to keep our child. She obviously wasn't worth the effort it took to feel depressed. Yet every morning I still felt the ache of loneliness whenever I woke up alone.

"The last living specimen," I quietly echoed, trying to keep my mind off of Hui Ying. "Kill that one, too, and be done with it."

"Kill him?" Zhong Yu laughed for nearly half a minute. "Oh, Dàgē. Were you not following diligently in our father's footsteps, you would be a wonderful comedian. _Kill_ him? Ridiculous. There is still quite a lot of data my team and I can collect from Seven. However, my superiors have seen the current dismal results of the April series and are ordering us to start over. On record all of the specimens are dead, but I just could not bring myself to dispose of Seven, knowing that he is still so useful. I need a place to keep him for a while, thus why we are here."

"Absolutely not," I immediately refused. "I will have nothing to do with you and your disgusting experiments."

"Father has already given me his approval," he countered, smiling triumphantly. "Seven will be quite useful to you when he is older, so I will graciously allow you to borrow him for a while. Think of it as gaining another son! Although, technically he is mine." My mouth twisted in disgust that he had involved himself so closely in these experiments. Zhong Yu, thankfully, didn't elaborate. "But regardless he certainly looks like he could be yours!"

"Even if Father gave you his approval, I refuse to allow that monstrosity to stay in the same house as Gui Wen," I snapped. "I will never agree to this. Find somewhere else to keep it."

Zhong Yu took a half-step closer to me. "Do not be so hasty. I did not come here to demand all of this without bringing something to give to you in exchange."

"You have nothing I want." Not anymore.

"Yes, I do." His smile never faltering, Zhong Yu reached into the inner pocket of his gray suit jacket and pulled out a tiny bottle half the length of his thumb and far skinnier. It was filled with a clear liquid. "This is an extremely potent but slow-working poison. Tasteless, scentless, painless, and completely undetectable in an autopsy. I made and tested it myself in my spare time."

Good god, even his hobbies were creepy…

"You and I both know," he whispered, moving closer again, "the massive benefits that you would receive were you to use this on a certain person…or pair of persons. Just one drop, then several hours later the victim goes to sleep and never wakes up again. The end. You become the master of the house, free from that idiot upstairs just like you have always wanted."

My office suddenly felt a little colder. Certainly, I had no loving feelings whatsoever for either of my parents, but killing them seemed a little drastic. Then again, the result was something I wanted desperately—to finally be able to run things the way I wanted, without any interference from the passive bastard and his spineless wife. I didn't need them anymore, now that I was an adult. They were simply hindrances. Especially since my father would definitely protect Zhong Yu's precious little clone; with my parents out of the way, I could get rid of it without anyone stopping me.

With that freedom-filled future lodged in my brain, I was already close to agreeing.

"You should know," Zhong Yu added a moment later, "I have a friend who works under an acquaintance of yours, the mayor of T City. You and father had dinner with him a few months ago, did you not? I heard you both persuaded the man to allow construction for a new airport to start on a nicely located piece of property that was already being sold to another company. It was a relatively healthy company, yet it mysteriously went out of business shortly after you met with the mayor. An interesting story—one I think the press would love to hear, along with many more colorful tales of you and Father's honorable business ventures, some of which involve your cooperation with certain high-ranking triads. If I hear that Seven has been killed, whether you did it or not, in my grief I might accidentally let something slip.

"If you meddle with my work, I will meddle with yours. But if you help me, I will help you. Understand, Dàgē?"

He finally stopped spewing threats, that terrifying grin still plastered on his face. My mind reeled as I frantically wondered just how much he knew about what Father and I had been doing. Depending on what he revealed to the public, my family's reputation wouldn't be the only thing on the line. The police would definitely get involved in some of the more serious cases. I had police and reporters in my pockets, so perhaps it would be possible to stop any leaks, but Zhong Yu was unexpectedly resourceful and sneaky and I might not get there in time.

Would Father finally help me if I told him that Zhong Yu was threatening him? Was there simply a way to get rid of Zhong Yu without anyone knowing? Lure him out of the room and go somewhere no one was, force him to take that poison he was waving around…But for all I knew he had someone on the outside ready to send incriminating evidence to the authorities, if something happened to him.

Feeling cornered, I glanced toward the couch where Gui Wen and Seven—it was still jumping on my couch—were animatedly talking to one another. Not only did I not want to wreck my own life just to gain a brief moment of satisfaction, I didn't want to wreck Gui Wen's future just because I didn't like the situation Zhong Yu was forcing on me.

"Why does it have to stay with me?" I whispered, frowning. "You must have other places where you could keep it."

"You forced me through eighteen years of misery. I must pay you back," he angrily replied, his eyes briefly glancing at me before snapping across the room when we both heard a loud crash, nearly giving me a heart attack. One look told me it wasn't Gui Wen, so I immediately calmed down and gave an annoyed frown to Seven. It was laying on its back on the floor, both hands pressed to its forehead as it rolled around. Getting to its feet, it ran to Zhong Yu, crying like it was in horrible pain. I sort of hoped it was a serious injury, but Zhong Yu looked completely unconcerned as he picked it up and tugged its hands away from its face.

"What happened?" he soothingly inquired, patting the thing's cheek as he inspected the insignificantly tiny red mark on the thing's forehead.

"I—I was bou-bouncing, and then, then the couch wasn't there, and—and then I fell, and there was a table, and it hit me right here really hard, AND IT HURTS!" It continued to yell things so mangled by its tears that I couldn't understand anything. Zhong Yu expected me to raise this idiot? I didn't even have to harm it; it was doing a great job of trying to kill itself.

"Is that so?" He started to rub its back as it sobbed and cried twice as hard as Gui Wen ever had. But within a few seconds it calmed down considerably, resting against Zhong Yu's chest, with a thumb in its mouth. Zhong Yu immediately removed the thumb and told it "No thumb-sucking," but Seven just frowned at him, turned its head to the other side and put the thumb back in, covering it up with its other hand, as if it thought we wouldn't be able to see. Rather than correcting it again, Zhong Yu returned his attention to me and held out the tiny bottle of poison. "Do we have a deal?"

My heart started pounding as I stared at the bottle. I certainly didn't want to raise that repulsive thing, both because simply looking at it made me feel furious all over again for what had happened five years ago and also because I dreaded the thought of what would happen if someone discovered it—a clone of my son, and proof that my wife had been unfaithful. But my father's house was large; it would be easy to keep Seven out of sight. No one would know about it…except the house staff, but they could easily be threatened into silence.

Before I could hesitate any longer, I took the bottle and put it in my pocket.

Zhong Yu smiled again, then shifted Seven in his arms and once again removed the thumb from its mouth. "Seven, do you remember what we talked about in the car?"

"Fish," it answered promptly, struggling to get its captured thumb back.

He looked a bit exasperated as he slowly shook his head. "Remember how you said you thought it would be nice to visit where Gui Wen lives?"

Seven's eyes widened. "Are we going to his house?"

"I am afraid I have some things to do, so you must go without me."

Quickly shaking its head, Seven wrapped its arms around Zhong Yu's neck. "No! I don't want to go by myself!"

"You will not be by yourself. My brother will be watching you."

One skeptical eye peeked at me, then disappeared as Seven hugged him again. "No. I don't want to go with him. I don't like him. He's mean."

"Do not worry. My father and Gui Wen will be with you, too, and they will stop the mean man if he tries anything."

"I don't want to go!"

Zhong Yu peeled Seven off and set the struggling thing on the floor, kneeling down and tightly holding its arms. "It is only for a little while, Seven. I will come get you soon, okay? I promise. Will you wait for me?"

"Just for a little while?" it asked, sending another glance in my direction and looking like it was very reluctant to come home with me. Inwardly hoping it would throw a fit, so Zhong Yu would take it back, I turned around to gather my things while they continued to argue. So much for relaxing with a nice pot of tea before I went home…

After several minutes, he finally managed to make Seven agree. While Gui Wen walked out of my office with it at his side, I gave Zhong Yu an irritated glance as he stopped me in the doorway. "One of my team members will come to check on him once every few months, so I will know if you have been treating him properly or not. Father already has Seven's medication; give it to the kitchen staff and ask them to mix it in with his meals every day. And be sure to keep him warm; his body temperature is unnaturally low due to an abnormality with his hypothalamus. If you have any problems, call." He handed me a small scrap of paper, on which was scrawled, in Zhong Yu's nearly-illegible handwriting, a phone number. "Good luck!" With that, he slapped my shoulder and gave one last pat to Seven's head before he disappeared into the hallway. I watched it hurry forward to forlornly wave at Zhong Yu, and a tiny part of me pitied it for thinking my brother had told the truth. I had no idea how long Zhong Yu was going to leave it with me, but, unfortunately, I highly doubted he would be back anytime soon.

"Time to leave," I tiredly announced, forcing myself to smile when Gui Wen gave me a concerned look.

"TIME TO RIDE THE ELBATOR!" Seven unexpectedly took off down the hallway and, feeling terrified at the thought of someone seeing it—there weren't many people in the building at this hour, but I couldn't be too careful—I ran after and grabbed it by the hood of its coat, lifting it off the floor, so it couldn't make anymore escape attempts. Ignoring its yells of "Let go! I can walk by myself! I've got legs, see‽ TWO OF THEM! PUT ME DO-O-O-OWN!" I continued down the hall and dumped the struggling clone in the elevator, getting more and more frustrated and angry with each passing second.

After forcing Seven to leave the floor buttons alone—we visited many floors we didn't need to, because it had pushed quite a few buttons before I'd managed to grab it—we went down to the parking garage and joined my father at our car. Feeling a bit relieved when my father took control of the hyperactive clone, I got into the car and sighed, buckling my seat belt and rubbing my eyes. I was starting to get a headache.

"Sit down."

I glanced at the pair sitting across from Gui Wen and I and sighed again. Seven was attempting to climb through the little window that led to the front seat, but my father had it by the ankles and was tugging it backwards. "I have to make sure he's buckled in! If we crash he'll fly out the window and die!"

"He will not die. He is a very responsible and safe driver. See? He has his seat belt on. Now sit down."

Satisfied that the driver wasn't going to get hurled out the windshield if we really did crash, Seven sat down and buckled itself in, looking extremely happy when my father produced a package of peppermint breath mints from his pocket and handed them to it. Leaning back, I turned to stare out the window as the car finally started and we pulled out of the garage.

Everything was going fine until ten minutes later when Seven abruptly unbuckled itself, stood up on the seat and yelled, "STOP THE CAR!"

My father shoved Seven's feet out from under it, forcing it to sit again, and frowned. "What is the matter now?"

Seven pressed its face to the window. "I saw a bear."

Looking like he was holding in a great deal of laughter, Gui Wen shook his head. "He was an overweight man, not a bear."

"Really?" Seven inquired in a worried tone. "It had hair all over. Maybe it was a bear trying to look like a man. We have to go back and make sure it doesn't attack anyone! Bears are really mean, you know! And strong, too!"

"He is not a bear, and will not attack anyone," Gui Wen corrected, his face turning stern. "You should not judge people by how they look! He is probably a very nice man!"

"Do not make such childishly optimistic assumptions, Gui Wen," my father scolded. "Such things will ruin you. Perhaps he is a decent person, but for all you know he is a cannibalistic serial killer who has just finished a dinner of human steaks and is now looking for his next victim."

"STOP THE–!" Seven began to yell again, but my father interrupted it.

"Be quiet. If he really is someone dangerous the police will deal with him. You should not involve yourself in the problems of others; they need to solve things on their own, else they will not learn from their mistakes."

"But you just said the police would get involved," Seven pointed out, looking confused.

"It is a policeman's job to interfere in other people's business."

"Oh." Seven didn't look like it quite understood, but didn't pursuit the topic and started eating my father's mints. Although I'd been hoping it would quiet down, it continued to talk non-stop about random things all the way home. I tried my hardest to tune it out.

When we finally arrived I got out of the car as fast as I could, wanting to spend as little time with it as possible, but before I could go inside to escape upstairs, my father stopped me. "You will eat in the dining hall with the rest of the family."

"Why?" I angrily demanded.

"I want to name the boy over dinner. We cannot keep calling him 'Seven,' can we? As the boy's father, you should be there to help your mother and I come up with some nice names."

"I am not that thing's father," I hissed, turning away to go through the open door, but my father grabbed my shoulder and turned me around again.

"Zhong Yu prepared all of the documents stating that you are Seven's father and legal guardian. Congratulations on having your second child—and another boy, at that! How wonderful." Before I could say anything in return to his annoyingly cheerful declaration, he strode past me and went inside with Gui Wen and Seven, which was, for whatever reason, loudly exclaiming about how lucky we were to have stairs in our house.

I gritted my teeth and attempted to keep myself under control as I went inside, threw my bag and jacket at the nearest servant, and went to the dining hall, inwardly fuming the whole way. My father let nearly everyone do whatever they wanted, and yet he was always ordering me around and forcing me to do things as if I was a child who still needed his father's guidance. I didn't give a damn about what documents Zhong Yu had given to us, or whose arm he'd twisted to have them forged; I'd never ever consider that imitation of Gui Wen to be my child. It was just a disgusting thing my brother made while playing God.

I sat myself down in my usual chair and watched irritably while my father introduced Seven to my mother across the table, and gave her a brief, vague explanation about where it had come from and why it was here. Like the idiot she was, she looked genuinely happy about the thing's arrival.

Everyone else eventually seated themselves and started on the meal. Although I wished I could ignore Seven, it was very difficult not to stare at it as it struggled to use the chopsticks that it had been given. Initially it watched everyone else to see what they were doing, but after failing miserably at properly holding the utensils, it took one chopstick in each hand and lifted a bite of food with them, leaning as far forward as it could and attempting to get its head underneath, to drop it into its wide-open mouth. But that method failed, too, and with a very grumpy noise, Seven tossed the chopsticks onto the table and flopped down onto its booster seat, crossing its arms and staring hard at the plate.

"Do we still have Gui Wen's training chopsticks?" my father asked, glancing at one of the servants standing in wait near the table.

"Yes, Zhu Ren."

"Then why are you not getting them for the boy‽ Do you find it amusing to watch him struggle‽"

Flinching under the sharp tone, the man gave a hasty apology and a bow, then hurried toward the kitchen. With a heavy sigh, my father shook his head and went back to his meal. I silently began eating, too, half-listening as my father and mother began the stupid discussion of what Seven's new name should be. They asked me for input several times, but I ignored them and continued to eat. They eventually decided on the thoroughly ironic name of "Zian," as if my parents saw the clone as a truce between Zhong Yu and I.

Like hell a truce would ever happen.

Seven seemed to like it, although it also seemed a bit confused as to why they felt the need to give it a name. Well, it would find out soon enough, and I highly doubted it would be very happy about it.

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><p><em>In case some of you forgot, as I mentioned in one of my notes in an earlier chapter, "Zian" means son of peace, hence why Kuo Li thinks it's ironic.<em>


	64. Father, Part 2

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

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><p>"Thank you for the food!"<p>

I looked up from the bowl of rice I'd been vacantly staring into, my mind far, far away from the grains that were in front of me, getting colder with each passing second that I thought about the tiny bottle of poison hidden in my pocket. I had already decided to use it, but the complications of "When?" and "Where?" were far harder to answer than I'd thought. I couldn't simply poison my parents and call it a natural death; they were both relatively healthy, only in their mid-forties, and anyone who knew them would definitely raise questions if they suddenly died. There were also the problems of which one should die first, how long I should wait until it would be "okay" to kill the other one, how I should explain their deaths to other people, who my scapegoat would be—if I needed one—and on, and on, and on…I'd had no idea murder would be so complex. But since I didn't want to get caught, of course, I supposed it _had_ to be complex.

However, Seven—Zian…? Whatever it was. Or whoever he was. He? Could I call it a he? Since it was a copy of my son, I assumed it was male, not that I'd taken a peek into its underpants to check—had interrupted my musings with "his" extremely loud announcement of thanks that had made everyone else at the table questioningly look up from their half-eaten meals.

"Those squishy things were gross," Zian continued, "but I like this green stuff, and I think your table is too tall, and you should stop using sticks to eat, because it's really hard, except when you've got ones stuck on the end, and then it's still hard anyway! And your stairs are very nice. But I think it's time for me to go home! Goodbye!" Finishing his disorganized, random speech, he slid off his booster seat and onto the floor, then marched out of the dining hall. Not bothering to stop him, I went back to staring at my rice.

A few seconds later I abruptly realized I hadn't yet told the servants not to let Zian out of the house. The idiots would probably open the door for him just like they would a family member. Leaping out of my chair, I raced out of the room, down the hall, and into the entryway. Just as I had predicted, one of the brainless maids was reaching for the doorknob as Zian came to a halt and started cheerily talking to her. "Stop!" I bellowed, glaring at her as she whipped her hand away from the door. "Zian, come back to the table."

"No! It's been 'a little while'!" He reached upward over his head to open the door himself, but I picked him up by his coat hood again and yanked him backward.

"My brother called my cellphone while we were in the car," I lied, swinging him upward to look him in the face. "He told me he has lots of work to do tonight, so you must sleep here."

"I never saw you on the phone!" he skeptically replied, squinting at me. Maybe he wasn't as stupid as I'd thought.

"You were looking out the window when he called," I lied again. He immediately looked extremely upset. No, he really was as stupid as I'd thought…

"Well," he added a moment later, smiling, "he's not the only one! Someone else will come soon!"

"Perhaps," I mumbled, feeling annoyed that my attempt at extinguishing his hope to go "home" had failed. "Either way, if someone comes for you we will be notified, so go back to the table." I dropped him on the floor and gave him a shove toward the hall, waited until he'd disappeared through the doorway, then angrily turned toward the maid. "That boy is not allowed outdoors, unless I say otherwise. Never open the door for him if he asks. If you see him outside, immediately stop whatever you are doing, go out there and bring him in again. Tell the rest of the staff to do the same."

She gave me an apology and quickly sank into a deep bow. "Prepare a room for him in the guest wing," I ordered, then walked away and began making a mental checklist of everything I had to prepare for the little annoyance with whom I was now stuck. All of the guest rooms were completely furnished, but he would need clothes and things with which he could occupy himself. I needed locks, too, for the guest room's outer door. Locks that could be concealed, so if guests walked past they wouldn't ask unwanted questions. Locks that couldn't be opened from the inside. I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of letting him wander around wherever and whenever, and if we had company I highly doubted he would agree to quietly stay in his room until the people were gone…I needed to sound-proof the walls, too. They were thick, but definitely not thick enough to contain loud noises. And I needed to install a heater and a laundry chute, and seal the windows shut—my grandfather, who had built the house, had installed bulletproof panes in all of the windows, so I had no worries that Zian would be able to break through one and escape—and who knew what else.

Sighing, I went back into the dining hall, already feeling exhausted with how much more work had been added to my load. To make matters worse, Zian made everyone's evening utterly miserable. After several hours had passed and no one came for him, he threw a tantrum and kept trying to go outside, as if he'd be able to find his way back to the laboratory all by himself. Eventually he wore himself out, and a maid managed to lure him into the bath—it turned out he was indeed a "he," and was also bald and ridiculously skinny underneath all of those thick clothes—but then he refused to get out again after washing. When he was forced out of the tub he threw another tantrum—it was obvious he'd always been allowed to do whatever he wanted under the doctors' care—and only calmed down when Gui Wen asked him to come to his room and play. I was not comfortable at all with letting that thing into my son's bedroom, but Gui Wen looked very excited about it, so I reluctantly let it pass, if only once.

However, not five minutes later Gui Wen came to my bedroom, wearing a very disappointed expression, and told me that Zian had sat down on the bed and had immediately fallen asleep.

The little brat. I was disliking him more and more.

I went back to Gui Wen's room with him and watched a maid carry Zian—he was so deeply asleep he looked like he was dead, which briefly made me panic, but then I noticed he was still breathing—out of the room and down the hall, toward the guest wing. Rubbing tiredly at my eyes, I leaned against the door frame and stared down at my son. "Do you like having him here?" I quietly asked, noting how closely he was watching the maid's back.

Gui Wen's concerned look was slowly replaced by a small smile, and he nodded. "For a while I've…sort of wanted a sibling. The house won't be so empty anymore while you and Grandfather are at work."

Things wouldn't be like this if that bitch hadn't left me.

Biting back that sour thought, I crouched down beside him and pulled him into a hug. "I am sorry," I murmured, smiling as his small arms wrapped around me and he patted me on the back. For the first time in quite a while, I felt like crying. I hadn't known he was lonely. I had made sure since before Gui Wen was even born that he would have plenty of playmates. I knew a lot of people my age—classmates from high school and university, and children of my parents' friends—and many had had children around the same time as Hui Ying and I, so it was easy to find children with whom Gui Wen could play. However, many of the children were hopelessly spoiled, and Gui Wen, who was rather shy and quiet to begin with, didn't like them very much, and usually decided to stay at home instead of going out for the group play dates that were arranged every weekend. My father and I were always so busy with work, and my mother liked to go out with her friends during the day, so it really was no wonder Gui Wen was getting bored here alone at home.

Of course, there was always the option of sending him to school, so he could be around children his own age, rather than have him tutored at home, as was the current arrangement. But, although age-wise Gui Wen was supposed to be in Kindergarten, he had already worked through several years worth of primary school curriculum. The normal pace of a school would only hold him back, unlike the tutors I had hired, who could actually help him learn, instead of whatever pointless shit he'd be wasting his time on under the guidance of a Kindergarten teacher.

So, in the end Zian was, perhaps, actually useful for something after all. If I'd had the choice I certainly would have picked someone else—nearly anyone else—to be my son's companion, but Zian was only three years old and was going to live here for who knew how long; I had a lot of time to shape him up.

But that task proved to be far more difficult than I thought.

Zian spent the next several weeks doing nothing but crying and screaming, demanding that we let him go home, regardless of how many times my parents tried to tell him that it wasn't up to us. My patience quickly fading, I finally locked him in the guest room and had someone bring him food at mealtimes. He rarely ate anything, but he always drank all of the tea that was brought, so at least I still had a way to slip him the medicine and keep him from dying without resorting to force-feeding him the capsules.

After a full month had gone by, a servant came into my office one evening and announced that an old man, claiming to be one of Zhong Yu's coworkers, had come to the door unannounced. With my brother's horrific reputation ever-fresh in my mind, I went to the entryway, full of caution, and came to a halt at the top of the stairs, quickly taking in the scene. The somewhat eccentric-looking man was short, skinny, wild-haired, and surrounded by white-clothed people rolling equipment in through the door.

"Min Kuo Li?" he called up at me, lifting one bushy eyebrow as I nodded. His voice sounded young, completely contrasting with his ancient appearance. "Well, quit posing up there and come down. I haven't got all evening to waste. Hurry up and take me to Seven."

Feeling somewhat offended that he was being so huffy with me, I started down the stairs, walking faster than normal in a want to get rid of him sooner. I tried not to let my eyes move to either side as I walked through the crowd of people cluttering the entry, and started up the other staircase. "His room is this way."

There was a loud sigh from behind me, a mumble I couldn't understand, then footsteps began to follow. "Careful with that equipment. NO! DON'T TRY TO CARRY IT BY YOURSELF, YOU BLOCKHEAD! You! Pick up the other end!"

Once I reached the top, I turned around and tried to resist the urge to impatiently tap my foot on the floor while I watched them all slowly ascend the steps, the old man in the lead, waving his arms around and yelling frantic orders at the others. Although I didn't like his blunt tone, completely lacking the respect I expected of people, it was a relief that this doctor didn't seem to be anything like Zhong Yu. But, personality differences or not, I didn't let my guard down. These people were also involved in all of those disgusting experiments, after all.

After quite a bit of struggling and yelling, they all managed to get everything to the top of the stairs and followed me to the guest room in which Zian was still locked. I quickly opened the door and let them all go inside first, then slowly went in and closed the door after myself, striding across the outer room. Stopping in the doorway, I watched as the old man hurried forward to the bed, to scoop up Zian, who was exaggeratedly crying yet again. Feeling my skin crawl and prickle, I turned and wordlessly walked away from the disgusting sight of the two hugging each other, leaving the doctors to do whatever it was they'd come to do.

Two hours later, a maid directed that old man into my office and shut the door behind him as he marched up to my desk and stared at me as he reached a hand into his brown jacket's pocket, then pulled out a small computer tablet, carefully setting it in front of me. "I thought you'd want that," he remarked, casually crossing his arms.

"What is it?" I quietly asked, glancing down at it.

"We implant all of our clones with chips. Mainly they're used for identification, but they can also be tracked. Just turn that tablet on and you can find Seven's location, if he's within a two hundred kilometer radius."

"I see," I mumbled, curiously pressing the power button on the bottom. A satellite image of my father's house appeared on the screen, with a small green dot hovering over the guest wing. Turning it off, I pushed the tablet to one side and leaned back in my chair.

"Have there been any problems?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Nothing important. Just obnoxious behavior; he refuses to eat and becomes upset every day, because Zhong Yu has not come for him," I replied.

"Well, persuade him to eat," the man huffed. "We can't have him starving to death. As for the matter with Zhong Yu, Seven won't be causing you trouble about that anymore. I just finished a bit of hypnotherapy and he's sleeping now, but when he wakes up he won't remember anything about the lab."

Frowning in annoyance, I let out a long sigh. "Why did you incompetent idiots not do that _before_ you decided to force him on me? He has not calmed down once this whole month due to my brother's absence, and it has been extremely aggravating for the whole household, having to put up with all of this nonsense."

"Zhong Yu acted on his own," the man sourly countered. "Up until this morning I was under the impression that Seven had been disposed of, like the others, but then Zhong Yu suddenly told me to come here and give him a check-up."

Why wasn't I surprised…

"The results were fine, in case you care. Underweight, but otherwise healthy. He's very clumsy and uncoordinated, though, so have your house staff keep an eye on him and keep him from climbing on things and whatnot. Wouldn't want him to try to slide down one of the banisters, fall off the edge and break his neck…I have to go soon," he abruptly announced, giving a look to the silver watch on his skinny wrist. "Lots of work to do. Any questions?"

"How long does Zhong Yu intend to leave him here?" I asked immediately.

"…He didn't say anything specific." The man scratched at his wrinkly chin for a moment, then shrugged. "He mentioned wanting Seven to hit puberty…If that's the case then you'll only have to put up with this until Seven is a teenager. But that's only a guess, so try not to expect anything; I assume you know how unpredictable he can be. Also, depending on the situation at the lab when that time comes, we might need to hide Seven a bit longer, since it would be very bad for all of us if our superiors found out about this. But maybe we'll be able to pull it off…Who knows? I'll try to have a better answer for you next time I come to examine Seven."

"When will that be?"

"Zhong Yu wants me to come once every three months, so sometime in October. It'll have to be in the evening."

Reaching across my desk, I picked up my planner and opened it to October, then slid it toward the man. "Pick a day when my evening schedule is free."

He quirked an eyebrow and glanced between me and the book. "You don't have to be here for it."

"Pick a day," I snappishly repeated. I couldn't have cared less about Zian's health check-up, but I was suspicious that Zhong Yu might decide to accompany this man, and there was no way in hell that I was going to leave Gui Wen unprotected.

"Alright, alright," he conceded, looking a little confused. "Don't burst a blood vessel…" Leaning forward, he reached into his pocket, pulled out what I assumed was a planner of his own and opened it, then gave a close look to both of them. After a brief moment, he tapped his finger on a page in mine. "Tuesday, the tenth. Is around six-ish okay?"

"Yes," I crisply replied, taking my planner back and inking in a note on the correct line.

"See you then." With a small wave, he left my office. I stared blankly at the door as it swung shut and latched with a soft clicking noise, then I leaned back and let out a burst of irritated breath. A teenager…Zian would be left here for a decade, then. At least a decade. Damn it all, this was so bothersome.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I quickly put that tablet in my desk and got out my phone, opening up the contact list and scrolling down to the name of Gui Wen's tutor. Letting out another sigh, I stood up and called the number, slowly wandering over to the window and looking outside. There was no way I was going to allow my son to associate with an uneducated moron.

The tutor readily agreed to teach both boys, and again, I stupidly expected things to go smoothly.

Since Zian was a clone of my brilliant son, I assumed he would be just as intelligent. But after the tutor had the boy complete a few tests, it became apparent that he was disappointingly average and would never be able to keep up with the pace Gui Wen set for himself. So Gui Wen's lessons wouldn't be hindered by the idiot, I quickly hired a second tutor, giving him free reign over Zian's education and discipline. Of course, Zian was completely disagreeable about it all, but was eventually forced into submission.

At last, things settled down after that and I was able to return my full attention to my job. Keeping myself busy forced my mind to stay away from everything I didn't want to think about, and a whole year passed in what felt like a few brief moments.

Quietly staring down at the bundle of papers I was holding in both hands, I tried to pretend like I was actually reading them, although I was actually thinking, yet again, about that bottle of poison. I still hadn't managed to come to any decisions at all, regardless of how much time I'd spent mulling over it. Every time I started to come up with a plan that seemed somewhat good, I started second-guessing and over-thinking everything until I had talked myself out of it, then I ended up right back at the beginning. What was holding me back? Fear? Guilt?

When my father let out a slight cough from the other side of his desk, I twitched and hastily turned the page, wondering how long I'd been looking at the first. My eyes involuntarily looked up for a second as he shifted in his position. "Well?"

Shit. "Well" what? Had he asked me something?

"What do they want?" he added immediately, and I inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

I inhaled slowly and flipped the first page back over, reading through it as fast as I could. It was from the owners of the now-bankrupt company we had shoved out of the way for that piece of land in T City. Flipping over the page, I cleared my throat and replied, "They are expecting us in court at the end of the month. Their lawyers are ones we have dealt with before and are of no threat."

With a small laugh, my father smiled and leaned back in his chair. "How pointless." He paused for a moment to write himself a note, then leaned back again. "Clear your schedule this weekend. You and I are going to pay a visit to Wan De Wei and have this sorted. I will not waste my time on those people and their silly court order."

"Yes, Father," I quietly answered. Holding my breath, I looked back down at the document in my hands. I'd thought running their company into the ground would have driven them off. The idiots should have quietly disappeared, but they hadn't, and now my father was going to involve the Wan family, who were part of one of Taiwan's largest triad groups.

Soon there would be a few extra obituaries in the news.

Oh, well. It was their own fault.

Sighing faintly, I moved to put down the papers on my father's cluttered desk, but paused and nearly smiled. The visit this weekend might prove fruitful in more ways than one. Wan De Wei had several sons, and the second oldest, Wan Xing, was a man with whom I went drinking sometimes. He and I had also gone to high school and college together. In a way, I trusted him. Perhaps he would be of some use to me in terms of my…little problem.

"Put that down," my father suddenly ordered. "It is of no importance."

Keeping my face blank, I quickly set it down and picked up something else, but, before I could see what it was, behind me the door to my father's office abruptly crashed open and a great deal of exaggerated breathing filled the room. Inwardly groaning, I gave my father a desperate Oh-god-please-get-him-out-of-here-right-now stare as a voice called "Father!" and a pair of little feet thumped across the wooden floor, stopping at my side. I didn't answer or turn around; although their voices were identical, I could tell them apart easily now. With an enormous gasp for air, Zian started slapping my elbow with a piece of paper. "Father, look. Fa-a-ather. Father, I drew a picture! Look! FATHER, LOOK AT WHAT I DREW!"

"Kuo Li, answer him," my father tiredly ordered from the other side of the desk.

"I am busy," I snapped in return, determinedly keeping my eyes glued to the papers I was holding. What the hell was going to make this stupid boy realize I wanted nothing to do with him? Over the past year I'd tried my hardest to avoid him, but somehow whenever I was at home he always managed to track me down and annoy me.

"Too busy to spend a second looking at the boy's damned picture?"

"Yes."

Thankfully, Zian seemed to realize I wasn't going to look, and ran around the desk to show my father instead. "Look!" he repeated, extending the paper.

He gave it a glance and mumbled, "Yes, it is very nice," then looked back at his notebook.

Although I'd been hoping Zian would be content with the reply, he just kept talking. As always. "It's a flower! The ones that grow outside the library windows! Gui Wen told me they're called kersplantie-mims!"

"Chrysanthemums."

"Right! Chrysmantie-mims! But, but, um, those are pink, and I made this one blue, but it's still that flower! See‽ I put on a caterpillar, too! But there wasn't a caterpillar! Just a bee! But I like caterpillars more than bees, so there's no bee! Gui Wen said bees are good for flowers, but I don't think so, because they'll sting you and it hurts! Last week, one flew into the dining room somehow during breakfast, and, and it was _thi-i-i-is_ big!"

"How dreadful."

"It started chasing me, but I got up and ran away around and around the table, and then Gui Wen, he took off his slipper and was trying to squish it and save me, but it kept following me anyway, and it stung my arm, and then my arm hurt all day long!" He inhaled deeply again, as if he'd made himself light-headed. I prayed that would be the end of his stupid story. I would have shoved him out of the room immediately, but my father always yelled at me whenever I was rough with him.

"So, that was why you two kept screaming that morning…You were so loud, I could hear you all the way from in here." He began to shift things around on his desk. "Kuo Li, where is that progress report on the new branch?"

Hoping the thing would shut up, so we could get back to work now, I picked up the report and irritably threw it at him.

"Oh. There it is."

"Wanna see where I got stung?" Zian once again interrupted. I clenched my jaw and murderously glared at the tufts of short black hair I could see sticking up over the edge of the desk. Why couldn't he just fucking leave?

"No," my father denied at once.

Rather than admitting defeat, Zian ran back around the desk and lifted the paper to me a second time. "Look at what I drew!"

"Go away," I angrily commanded.

"But I want you to see!" he insisted. "Please?"

With that, my temper snapped. "I SAID GO AWAY!" I bellowed, snatching away the paper and crumpling it up. Turning when Zian started to cry and yell at me, I threw the paper in the waste bin beside my father's desk, then looked back at Zian, eyes snagging on the thin box he was holding. I felt my temperature rise as I yanked the box out of his hand and looked at it. It was a package of drawing pencils I'd bought for Gui Wen on his birthday.

Zian possessed a talent for utterly destroying things, and after he had broke several of Gui Wen's toys I had ordered him to leave Gui Wen's belongings alone. But, of course, the stupid boy hadn't listened.

"Where did you get these‽" I furiously demanded, shaking the stolen pencils at him.

"G-Gui…Gui Wen g-gave the-them to me," he pathetically sobbed, rubbing hard at his red face.

"Liar," I snapped, abruptly throwing them at the wall. Zian gasped and started crying even harder as the pencils all fell out of their box and dropped to the floor, clattering onto the bare wood as they rolled around. "I have told you time after time not to touch any of my son's things, you idiot!"

"Kuo Li, for goodness sake, calm down," my father reprimanded, giving me an annoyed look. "Gui Wen probably _did_ give them to him. You know he loves to dote on Zian."

Ignoring him, I roughly grabbed Zian's scrawny little twig of an arm, dragged him across the room, and threw him out the door. "GET OUT!" I yelled, slamming the door shut as Zian fell to the floor across the hall. Gritting my teeth, I stomped back across the room and glared at my father. "WHEN WILL YOU LET ME SEND THAT DISGUSTING THING BACK‽"

"Zhong Yu will come for him when the time is right," he quietly replied, frowning. "Until then, I refuse to let you mistreat the boy. He is quite valuable to Zhong Yu and his team."

"YOU CLAIM HE IS MY 'SON,'" I screamed, giving a kick to the desk. "I CAN DO AS I PLEASE WITH HIM! AFTER ALL, YOU LET ZHONG YU DO WHATEVER HE WANTS, NO MATTER WHAT THE EFFECT IS ON ME!"

"Would you just calm down?"

"I AM THE ELDEST, YET YOU STILL TREAT ME AS YOU WOULD A CHILD! I AM FUCKING TIRED OF DEALING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR DAMNED FAVORITISM!"

"If you wish for me to treat you as an adult, START ACTING LIKE ONE!" he yelled back. "STOP THROWING THESE RIDICULOUS TEMPER TANTRUMS!"

My father abruptly stood, reached forward and picked up one of the glass figurines on his desk, and threw it at me. I didn't get out of the way in time and it hit the left side of my face, sending pain racing through my cheek. The glass shattered against the floor behind me, and warmth started to drip down to my chin. Pressing a hand to the cut, so the blood didn't get on my clothes, I inhaled shakily, feeling my eyes start to prickle and burn. "I hate you so much," I whispered, miserably glaring at him.

I hadn't expected my words to have any effect on him, but his face went strangely lax afterward and he took a breath, sending the room into silence. Dropping his gaze to the desk, he slowly sat down, and after nearly a minute has passed he looked up again. "Your mother and I have never played favorites, Kuo Li. I have always allowed you and Zhong Yu, once you were legally adults, to make your own decisions, and I will do the same with Liu. If you are no longer satisfied with your life here, then move out. I warn you, however, that leaving this house means forfeiting your position as heir. Regardless I will support you as much as I did Zhong Yu, and will give you a monthly allowance until you have found a new job and a place to live. But if you choose to stay then I expect you to listen to me and do as you are told, not as my child but as my employee and heir. What is your decision?"

Fighting back my fury, I silently continued to stare at him, feeling my whole body burn with hatred, embarrassment, confusion, and the childish want to cry. On the night I'd first held Gui Wen, so many questions had filled my mind. Had my father been happy about my birth, like I'd been about Gui Wen's? Was I as precious in his eyes as Gui Wen was in mine? Did he love me as much as I loved Gui Wen? What did he think about while watching me grow up? Had I become a man he could take pride in calling his son?

They were all questions, a few among many, to which I desperately wanted to know the answers, but would never be able to ask.

The answers were obvious anyway.

He probably hated me, and was hoping I'd move out. Not once had he ever given me even a tiny hint that he was proud of me, and grateful for everything I'd done for him. I didn't matter at all to him; if I left, he'd just get someone else to take my place. But I would never let that happen. The airline was going to be mine, no matter what I had to do to get it.

"I will stay," I quietly but forcefully replied.

"Very well," he said just as quietly. "Go clean your yourself, then come back. We have a lot of work to do." I wordlessly turned away from him and strode toward the door, but paused when he spoke again. "Keep your hands off of Zian from now on."

"Are you getting sentimental, Father?" I asked mockingly, giving him a sour glance over my shoulder as I opened the door. "Coming to care for that repulsive monstrosity?"

"Of course not," he huffed, turning back into his usual self as he picked up his pen. "But he is valuable to Zhong Yu's research."

"And you deny playing favorites."

"I would say this even if Zhong Yu was completely unrelated. There is quite a lot that can be done with these experiments in terms of medical advancement, no matter how unsavory people may see it all as. Therefore, refraining from harming this boy will be for the good of humanity." He let out a small chuckle and I gave him one last glare before striding out of the room. Perhaps Zian was a valuable resource for the scientists and their disgusting experiments, but did it _really_ matter what happened to him? Zhong Yu himself said he was going to make more.

After cleaning my face and calming myself down, I went back to my father's rooms and ordered a maid to clean up the broken glass and those coloring pencils, and empty the waste bin, leaving no trace of what had happened earlier. My father was probably right; there was a good chance that Gui Wen had given the pencils to Zian, and Gui Wen would definitely be annoyed with me if he knew what I'd done. But that didn't matter. He'd just never find out. The boys had come to adore one another over the past year, I knew that, but Gui Wen adored me more, so I had nothing to worry about.

I discovered not ten minutes later that Zian had tattled on me to Gui Wen, but Gui Wen, who always believed everything I told him, was easily persuaded that nothing had happened, and that the cut on Zian's forehead had come from him clobbering himself yet again. The anger Gui Wen directed at Zian afterward added to my confidence that I could keep my son and that thing separate.

That weekend my father and I went to have dinner at the Wan family's estate. After the meal, while my father was chatting with our hosts, I slipped away with Xing. He had a whole wing of the house where he lived with his wife and two sons, away from his parents and siblings, which gave us plenty of privacy to talk. Once we'd shut ourselves in his sitting room, he gestured toward his drink bar, and I nodded once, repressing a sigh. I probably shouldn't have agreed—I'd been drinking too much over the past six years—but quickly shoved that regret out of my head and followed Xing across the room.

"How is your son?" he asked, smiling at me as he opened the liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of vodka. He never wasted any time getting to the hard stuff.

"Fine," I answered faintly, feeling extremely nervous as I mentally recited what I wanted to say to him. Once I said it, there was no going back…

"'Fine' is an understatement, or so I hear," he continued in a humored tone. "Doing better in his studies than children over twice his age. And in all subjects, too. You're making the rest of us parents look bad."

"His tutor is quite good," I mumbled, watching as he poured a glass and pushed it in my direction. "And how are your sons?" I added a few seconds later, trying to sound like I was actually interested in pursuing the topic, when actually I couldn't have cared less.

With a sigh, he got some vodka for himself, capped the bottle, and sat in one of the chairs nearby. "Fine," he echoed, then took a sip. "Nothing at all to brag about, unfortunately. Quite spoiled…My wife dotes on them far too much." He sighed again and closed his eyes. I glanced at his tired face once before looking back at my drink. Through my anxiety, I felt faintly amused; he and I were the same age, yet he was already getting wrinkles. The worn-out person sitting by me was so different from the lively young man strutting about the school grounds with me when we were teenagers. I wondered if I'd changed as much as he had.

"Shall I call in a few ladies to keep us company?" he mischievously asked a moment later.

I quirked an eyebrow and glanced at him again. "After what happened last year, how could you possibly make such a stupid suggestion?"

"That was _not_ my fault!" he exclaimed in a defensive tone as I took up my glass and sat in the chair next to his. "The bitch told me she couldn't get pregnant!"

"And that is why you should never trust women, especially not ones you have only just met in a foreign country," I murmured, smirking at him. "How is baby Victor?"

"Wonderful," he answered, looking strangely happy as he said it. "Absolutely adorable." He suddenly thrust a hand into his pocket, pulled out his cellphone, and started messing with it. After a moment, he held it out and I slowly took it. On the screen was a picture of a newborn baby with pale green eyes and hair so blond it was nearly white. He looked nothing at all like the rough-faced Xing, who had "gang member" written all over him. But, for Victor's sake, I supposed the differences were a good thing.

"Quite a looker. Will he be coming to Taiwan?" I asked, handing back the phone.

"God, no!" he denied, his eyes going wide as he put his phone away. "Accident or not, I'm very fond of the brat, but if I brought him here my wife would kill me—and the baby, and his mother! It was all I could do to keep her from bombing Sweden when we received the news that the woman was pregnant."

I laughed as he took a long drink, nearly draining his glass. "Well, let the bastard child be a lesson to you. If you have the urge to spread your royal oats, spread them in your wife."

With another gulp, he finished his vodka and briefly glowered at me before standing up and going back to refill his glass. "She was already tight-legged before this happened. Now, she never lets me 'spread my royal oats.' It's awful."

"If you go to the right part of town, I think you will find that there are many fine-looking young men who would simply love to have you as their patron," I suggested half-jokingly, swirling my untouched drink around and giving Xing a conspiratorial look as he sat down again.

"Mmm…" His eyes roamed about the ceiling for a moment as he took a drink. "As nice as that sounds, my wife would definitely still kill me if she found out I had gotten myself a boy toy. She's been watching me like a hawk after Victor happened, although I've managed to sneak around a little bit."

"She refuses to make use of your crotch, and yet does not allow anyone else to use it either. How selfish."

"I know," he groaned with a strained laugh, then finished off his second glass. Taking a slow breath, he focused his eyes on me and a question settled on his face.

Frowning slightly, I leaned back and put my elbows on the chair's armrests, firmly stating "I did not come here with those intentions," before he could ask. If he wanted someone to fuck, he could go find someone else. I had slept with him a few times during college, but it had only been out of curiosity and we hadn't even spoken of it since. I didn't particularly regret it. He just wasn't my type.

"Still abstinent?" he softly inquired. "It's been six years since your wife died. Surely you've moved on by now."

Angry that he'd brought that up, I went back to staring at my vodka. "I have something important to discuss with you."

"…Very well." He sounded disappointed, but I tried not to care.

Taking a deep breath, I quickly steeled myself for the coming conversation. "I want you to help me kill my father." I felt as though I could deal with my mother on my own, but my father seemed too big of an obstacle for me to overcome without help.

Xing's reaction was exactly as I'd expected; he started laughing. "You want me to kill one of my family's closest partners?" he guffawed, his face flushing with amusement as he set his glass down on the small table next to his chair. "Why the hell would I do that? My father would put my head on a spike."

"I would be much more useful as a partner than he is," I quickly added, nervously tapping my fingers against the side of my glass.

He shook his head and stood up, going to refill his glass a third time. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

Inhaling sharply, I stood up and placed myself at his side. "I know quite a few of your members have recently been arrested for possession. I can get them out."

"So can my father," he cut in, filling his glass nearly to the brim this time.

"And keep them out permanently," I quietly continued, narrowing my eyes in annoyance that he'd interrupted. "Also, unlike my father I would be willing to give you access to my airline."

"Unrestricted?" he cut in again, giving me a quick look.

"No, idiot."

"Damn."

"But I can get you past inspections. And although right now I only have a few airports here and on the mainland, I plan on expanding to nearby countries in the next few years. That moronic father of mine is far too conservative. He would never take big risks. We recently bought a piece of land out from under the owners of a fucking _grocery_ _store_ and he has been bragging as though he slew a monstrous dragon with nothing but his fists."

After downing his third vodka in several large gulps, Xing gingerly set down the glass and let out a sigh, smiling in amusement at me out of the corner of his eye. "I might possibly consider your proposal…if–" He abruptly lunged at me and I dodged to one side, staring in annoyance down at him when he tripped and fell over.

"You damned light-weight! I already said no!" I snapped, setting down my own glass and moving to a safe spot out of his reach.

With a drunken laugh, he rolled over and smiled at me. "You never said no; you said it wasn't what you came for."

"That is the same thing."

"It is not." With a great deal of effort, he finally managed to get back on his feet, and he walked toward me. Starting to feel somewhat panicky, I glanced around myself, looking for something I could use as a weapon, but couldn't see anything useful. Edging away from him, I locked my eyes with his and frantically wondered what my chances were of getting to the door without getting caught. I was perfectly capable of defending myself, but I knew Xing was stronger and wasn't as clumsy as he was letting on, even if he was drunk. If he got serious I probably wouldn't make it to the door. Shit. Why the hell had I let him trap me like this? Stupid, stupid stupid…

We both made our move at the same time.

In a flash, he lunged at me again and I twisted to one side at the last second, grabbing him around the shoulders and kicking his legs out from under him. However, when he fell he took me down with him, and we spent several long minutes punching one another and rolling around, trying to pin the other to the floor. Finally, after giving him one last punch to the side of his head, I managed to get him under control and held him down, breathing heavily and glaring at his bruised and bloodied face. "I said _no_," I snarled, feeling tempted to break one of his arms—or maybe both—before leaving.

"You should have come here prepared to pay a bit up front," he replied, smirking. "After your little speech about how you're willing to take big risks, you go and refuse something so tiny, so obviously you don't want to do this as much as you think. How do you expect me to believe that you'll really do as you say if you'll go back on your word so fast?"

I wordlessly stared down at him and weighed my options. I had other people I could go to for help, but I knew Xing was the most capable; not only did he have a lot of power, he was also trustworthy. I could leave and come back to ask again when he was sober, but then he'd probably be an ass and demand more than I'd offered. I could go to his father or one of his brothers, but they would probably rat me out to my parents before I could explain myself. I could do everything on my own like I'd originally planned. I could drop the whole thing and let my parents live. I could sleep with Xing and possibly get the help I needed.

What was I willing to do?

Anything, I thought immediately, then took a deep breath, released his arms and wished I'd had some of that vodka after all.


	65. Father, Part 3

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Gentle hands that warmed mine as we clasped them together. Long fingers that moved quickly and agilely. Full lips that often smiled in a somewhat mocking manner. Large black eyes by which I always found myself entranced even if I only glanced. Long silky hair that smelled different on a near-daily basis. A deep, melodious, quiet voice. A tall and willowy frame that was so graceful I swore every move she made was all part of a never ending dance.<p>

How the hell had I gone from being married to a goddess to…to this utterly horrific nightmare? Countless times I had slept with men and women purely for business reasons, but this evening as I laid naked beside Xing after it was all over, it suddenly hit me how far I'd fallen. Staring up at the ceiling bathed gold in the lamplight, I could nearly see the impossibly tall walls of the hole in which I was trapped. Would I be able to claw my way out, or would I be in here forever?

God, I missed her…I missed her so much it had long since become a physical pain that I could never get rid of. A dull pounding in my skull, never letting me forget what I had lost, no matter how much I prayed that I would. Over and over, wishing it would all just go away. But I still remembered her just as clearly as I always had. I could still see her. I could still hear her voice. I could still feel her velvety skin. I could still taste her in my mouth. I hated her and loved her, I wanted to forget everything and I wanted to always remember even the tiniest details.

The constant conflict was tearing me to shreds. When would it stop hurting so much?

A sharp metallic noise snapped through the quiet room as Xing opened and ignited his lighter, setting the swaying flame to the end of the cigarette jutting out from between his rough lips. I looked away, disgust rising yet again as I sat up and felt something cold start trickling down. Covered in another man's semen and sweat…I had fallen far.

Slowly gathering up the clothes Xing had messily tossed on the floor around us, I froze and winced slightly as pain raced up my back. It hadn't actually been that long since I'd slept with a man and had been on the receiving end of the deal, but Xing had been nowhere near gentle—he never had been, really, but I supposed the vodka had added to the brusque treatment—and getting roughly pounded into the floor for over an hour was…less than comfortable.

"I want a plane."

Not giving Xing a glance when he gave his sudden announcement, I forced myself to get to my feet and acted like I wasn't aching all over. "I set aside one for you before I came today," I eventually returned, trying to remember where his bath was located. "It has several stops in China and will suit your purposes."

"And what makes you think China is my destination?"

"You should consider getting rid of Yu Jin. He is quite talkative after a few drinks." Grabbing several tissues out of the box on a nearby table, I wiped myself off and avoided looking in Xing's direction. Last week I "bumped into" the low-level group member and had gathered, somewhat unintentionally, quite a bit of information about Xing's plan to move a large amount of narcotics from Taiwan to a branch of his family in mainland China.

"Fuck," Xing grumbled, exhaling a great deal of smoke into the air above his head. "Am I supposed to thank you or kill you for keeping such close tabs on what I'm doing?"

Ignoring the agitated question, I stepped around him as I walked toward the inner door. "I am borrowing your shower." He gave me a distracted grunt in reply. After scouring myself off, attempting to get rid of any and all signs of what had happened that evening, I carefully dressed again and went back into the sitting room. Xing had dressed—well, he'd put on his pants anyway—and had relocated himself beside the bar, where he was working on burning away a second cigarette.

I wanted to ask him if he was going to agree to my request or not, but quickly told myself to be patient and strode past him, toward the door. No small talk. No cuddling and coddling. Everything that had transpired in this room was a business deal, pure and simple. There was no reason at all to linger afterward.

"Come again next week," he called, stopping me before I could leave.

"You and I have not spent time together on a regular basis for over a year," I replied quietly. "I will not risk any changes in our behavior."

"A pair of old friends catching up is hardly strange." Other than an irritated glance, I didn't make any indication that I'd heard his comment, but he spoke again before I could get out. "This room is under surveillance—cameras _and_ microphones. Come back next week or people are going to see just how you conduct business deals."

"Next time you attempt to blackmail me, come up with a better lie," I calmly brushed off and continued walking away. "The room is clean."

"Do you really want to risk that?" he challenged.

Stopping with my hand on the doorknob, I turned toward him again. "You and I were just having sex completely exposed in the middle of the room for over an hour, yet your jealous, clingy wife, who apparently has been watching you like a hawk since your scandal in Sweden, did not intervene. And I know her—if she had known what we were doing, she definitely would have intervened. So fuck off."

He laughed, and gave me a crooked smiled. "Okay, I'm lying. But really, come again next week."

"I am very busy."

"Make time."

"Why the hell should I‽"

"I miss you," he lamely explained. "You said so yourself—we haven't spent any time together at all lately."

"You miss _sex_, not _me_," I snarled, then shot him an insulted look and opened the door, "and I am not a convenient partner who will rush to your side when you snap your fingers. Go find yourself a prostitute who can put up with your unsightly face, or make up with your wife already. Whatever you do, leave me out of it. Have a nice evening, Xing."

"Unsightly‽ Fuck you! I'm going to crash your plane into the sea, you pompous bastard!" he loudly called after me as I firmly shut the door, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a reply. Not bothering to erase the irritation from my face, I strode down the quiet hallway, straightening my tie and jacket as I went. When I left through the mansion's front door, I quickly pulled out my cellphone and made to call a taxi, having assumed that my father had already left without me, with as late as it was now. However, I paused a few steps outside the house and narrowed my eyes in slight confusion. My father's car was sitting right where it had been earlier that evening.

If the car was here, so was my father.

There was no way I wanted to ride in a car with my father at the moment, so I continued walking toward the gate, not giving a glance sideways when one of the rear windows rolled down. "You should have told me," the unmistakable voice of my father called once I'd nearly passed the car, "that you had planned to stay so late. What have you been doing?"

"Xing and I had not seen each other for quite some time; we were catching up," I told him, but then mentally swore at myself and wished I'd come up with a different excuse. Now I'd have to come again next week…

"And I never asked you to wait," I added, feeling extremely annoyed when the car started to follow me down the driveway.

"Well, I assumed waiting was implied," he gruffly replied. "I doubt I would ever hear the end of it if I left you behind—it would be one more thing for you to complain about non-stop…Get in the car."

"I will go back on my own." Lengthening my stride, I lifted my phone again and was about to call the usual taxi service, but the car abruptly increased its speed, cut in front of me, then stopped.

The rear door was flung open from the inside and my father frowned at me. "Get in, Kuo Li. I am tired and do not want to play games." When I said nothing and simply kept walking, he sighed and climbed out, grabbing my arm before I could get away. "I have no idea what I have done—or what _you think_ I have done—this time to anger you, but I have told you over and over that I am done putting up with your childish behavior. Get in the car, _now_."

Shoving him, I gave him the angriest look I could muster and stomped away. "I would rather walk home!"

"Kuo Li, come back." His voice sounded extremely worn-out, and oddly worried, but honestly I couldn't have cared less.

"JUST LEAVE ME BE!" I bellowed, all but running away from the car as I hurried down the driveway and went out the gate. It didn't seem like he was still following me, but I kept up the pace anyway and directed my steps toward the bright, glaring lights of the city.

Like a dam had broken, all of the hatred and resentment toward my father that I always tried to hide and suppress came gushing out. What had happened tonight was his fault, as well as every time before. He was aware of it. He encouraged it. Many times he had actually arranged it. Selling his son like a prostitute, all in the name of business. I wouldn't have to do such disgusting things if he had been running things properly. But, though I hated it, I would keep doing it. I would willingly take everything on myself so that Gui Wen would never have to. Once I was in charge, I would make everything right again. I'd never become a father that would use his son as a chess piece.

Taking a gasping breath, I quickened my pace again, resisting the urge to punch something. Curling my hands into fists, I dug my fingernails into my palms and tried in vain to get myself under control. My weak efforts, as always, did nothing. I hated him for all the things he'd done to me, for all the things he'd made me do, for making me feel so filthy and empty. And he would pay for it.

After that night I avoided my father completely. Inevitably, I still saw him every once and a while, but only spoke to him when was absolutely necessary. He eventually seemed to tire of nagging me about what was wrong and started acting like everything was normal.

Of course, I had to keep up the charade of "catching up" with Xing, so once a week I went to his house. Much as I had been expecting, we did little but have sex, although sometimes we did simply sit and talk. Neither of us ever brought up my request. I didn't particularly want to, anyway. Not yet. There was no need to rush things, especially not with something so important.

Nearly a decade went by in monotonous drudgery as I waited for the opportune moment to arise. In that time I found another reason to hate the disgusting monstrosity that was Zian—the influence he had on Gui Wen. Once I had gotten him into a schooling schedule, I'd immediately started driving him and Gui Wen to compete with one another. After all, one performs better when they have someone to work against. But although both boys had initially done rather well, Gui Wen eventually started dragging his feet. Skipping out on his tutoring sessions to read books. Not completing his lessons. Refusing to obey. Not that I wanted him to be a mindless idiot who did whatever I told him to do, much like Zian, whose only good trait seemed to be his obedience—then again, it was also a rather bad trait with as far as he took it—but Gui Wen was beginning to act very defiant, something that had never happened before Zian had been forced on me.

I didn't want to do it, but I was going to have to intervene for his own good. He was my heir and I was not going to stand for any distractions getting in his way. Perhaps it was only because he was a fifteen-year-old boy, and he would grow out of it, but I refused to allow him to think he could do whatever he wanted.

A soft knock on my office door at home derailed my train of thought. Damnable servants, always interrupting me for stupid things. It was probably tea time or something idiotic like that.

"Come in," I called in annoyance as I leaned back in my chair.

Rather than one of the servants, Zian slipped inside, carefully shutting the door behind himself and striding up to my desk. He gave me a quick, clumsy bow, then stared up at me with one of the pitiful expressions I hated so much. I looked away before he started talking.

"Father, may I speak to you?" he asked quietly. Though I wanted very much to tell him to get out, I gave him a nod. He looked relieved at my consent, even daring to take a step closer to the front of my desk. "Father, I was wondering," he continued just as quietly, if not more so.

I glared at him and he froze, eyes wide and mouth open. "Stop muttering," I ordered.

He nodded fervently and cleared his throat. "I was wondering," he repeated, louder than before, "about how you were planning on sending Gui Wen and I to a business school."

"And what about it?" I asked tonelessly. If he was going to tell me he wanted to go somewhere else, he was going to regret it. I'd already made his schooling and career path very clear. Much like my father had originally planned for Zhong Yu and I, Gui Wen was my successor and Zian was going to work directly under him. Assuming he was capable of doing so, with how stupid and talentless he was…and assuming Zhong Yu still hadn't come back for him by that time.

"W-well, I know you have it all planned, but Gui Wen…Gui Wen said…" He paused to take a deep breath, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue or not.

"Out with it," I snapped. How difficult was it to simply _talk_, for goodness sake?

"He said he wants to go into teaching and literature, not business," Zian abruptly blurted and I froze in surprise. Gui Wen was even more off-track than I'd thought. Since when had he thought I would allow him to do something so absurd?

Standing up, I walked out from behind my desk, passed Zian, and strode out the door. Knowing where Gui Wen would probably be, I directed my steps to the library, with Zian walking along behind me for who knew what reason.

Reaching the library, I firmly shut the door behind myself before Zian had a chance to follow. Scanning the scattered, empty tables, I turned to make my way along the edge of the rows of bookshelves. It wasn't difficult to find him, curled up in a chair with some book or another propped open against his knees. He slammed it shut as he saw me coming, and stood up, gripping it tightly in his hands. At least he knew he was doing something wrong.

"Gui Wen, Zian tells me that you are reluctant to attend the business school I spent so long choosing for you two," I said softly, coming to a halt in front of him. His face flushed slightly as I spoke. I snatched the book away from him and looked it over before tossing it on top of a nearby table. "Literature and _teaching_, was it? You are dissatisfied with inheriting your grandfather's business someday?"

"I don't want to inherit," Gui Wen answered steadily, defiance shining in his eyes. He looked just like his mother when he did that.

Quickly shoving that thought out of my head, I put on a stern expression. "It does not matter if you do not want to inherit it. You are going to, regardless. You have been taking advantage of my trust in you and acted rather disobedient as of late, but that will change from now on. You will go to your lessons every day as is required of you, and I will not hear any more out of you about this silly idea of yours. Is that clear?"

After a very long moment of staring, he gave me a nod. "Yes, father," he answered before picking up his book again. "I'm going to put this away," he muttered, quickly brushing past me.

Satisfied, I left the library to go have a little chat over the phone with his tutors. They were also at fault, allowing him too much freedom. I didn't give Zian a glance as I pushed past him out the door. He didn't follow after, and probably went inside the library to see the aftermath of his tattling.

After that, Gui Wen and Zian never spoke to one another again, rarely even staying in the same room for more than a few minutes at a time. I was a bit curious as to what had happened between them—they had always been nearly inseparable—but I didn't pursue the subject, as they had both taken to their lessons with renewed vigor. That was all that mattered to me.

A month passed, and early one morning while I was eating breakfast I received the horrifying news from one of the maids that Gui Wen was gone. For a very brief moment, my mind was filled with the suspicion that Zhong Yu had come back and had kidnapped him. However, that was silly—if he had been the culprit, Zian would have been the one who had disappeared.

Still, knowing that Zhong Yu was probably not involved didn't stop me from becoming extremely alarmed and my mind raced as I wondered where he'd gone. In the flood of scenarios, the situation from last month abruptly resurfaced and I stood from the table in silent rage.

Leaving my room, I stormed to the guest wing and went to Zian's room where he was still asleep. Throwing open the door to his bedroom, I stepped quickly toward the bed. Zian sat up, looking frightened when I stopped beside him and dragged him out of the blankets. "Where is he‽" I furiously demanded, holding the scrawny boy up by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth. He simply looked confused by my inquiry, so I shook him again as hard as I could. "I ASKED YOU WHERE HE IS! TELL ME!"

Grabbing my wrists in an effort to support himself, Zian gasped and shook his head. "What are you talking about‽"

"GUI WEN!" I bellowed, throwing Zian to one side. He collapsed on the floor, tears already streaming down his face. I stepped to him and pulled him to his feet, slamming him against the wall. "He told you of his ridiculous plans, so where is he‽ Tell me, you idiot!"

"I do not know!" Zian repeated in terror, attempting to wrench his pajama top out of my grip.

Gritting my teeth, I lifted him off the floor a second time and threw him across the room. Striding up to him where he'd slid to a stop and curled around himself, I took hold of his hair, lifting him up again. "Tell me where my son has gone."

"H-he did not tell me, father!" Zian screamed. I drew back my other hand and he shook his head, covering his face. "I AM TELLING THE TRUTH!"

"TELL ME!" Thrusting my fist forward again and again, I smashed it repeatedly into his shielded face, ignoring his shrieks of pain.

"P-please, father!" he sobbed, struggling hard in my grip. "HE DID NOT SAY!"

His terrified denials only made me angrier. Letting go of his hair, I furiously continued, refusing to cease until he told me what I wanted to know. I wasn't sure how long I beat him for, but suddenly someone else was yelling at me to stop and I was abruptly yanked off of Zian. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING‽" my father bellowed, shoving me backward as my mother raced forward to pull Zian away from me.

"GUI WEN IS GONE!" I screamed, struggling to break free of my father's grip. Although I'd been expecting the usual bored apathy from him, his eyes widened in an obviously surprised look. Even he hadn't known about it.

"That gives you no right to do this," he hissed after a moment of silence, taking a breath as he looked over his shoulder and watched my mother help the thing out of the room. "Just calm down," he hesitantly continued once they were gone. "I am sure Gui Wen is fine. He is quite mature for boys his age, after all…Completely capable of handling himself. We will just–"

"No," I interrupted, shaking him off and giving him a murderous look. "Not 'we.' You fucking stay out of this. He is _my_ son. If you try to stop me as you did before, I swear I will kill you."

"Kuo Li, wait," he hastily said when I started heading for the door, but I ignored him. He followed me, but I didn't turn. "You knew he wanted to leave," he angrily snapped. "If you find him and bring him back, he will only try to leave again! He chose this for himself, so let him go!" Quickening my steps, I took a deep breath and tried to block out his voice as he stopped and yelled, "You cannot control everything, dammit!"

Breaking into a run as I turned the corner, I dashed to my room as fast as I could and locked the door behind me. Pulling out my cellphone, I opened up my contact list and started scrolling through the names, shaking more and more with each passing second. Within an hour I had informed the police, hired an entire detective agency, and checked with everyone I could think of to ask if they knew anything.

When I ran out of people to call, I tossed my cellphone to one side and collapsed on the floor, pressing my hands to my mouth and sobbing, shaking my head as if denying it would change something. "No…" I weakly gasped, gritting my teeth, "no, no, no, no, no…God, no…" The hysteria continued to rise with each second, and confused, jumbled thoughts tumbled through my head as I tried to decide what to do. I didn't know. I had no idea. How could he have done this to me? How could he have left me? After everything I had done for him, how could he have abandoned me? It had taken me years to put myself back together after Hui Ying left, but all of those efforts had been for nothing. The pieces were easily crumbling apart all over again.

I didn't know how long I stayed in my room. It might have been hours, days, weeks, or even years. I couldn't find the will to do anything. I could barely even motivate myself to eat. All that mattered was my phone—I refused to let go of it even for a second as I waited and waited for a call from anyone who might have information about my son's whereabouts.

But the call never came.

Even with so many people searching, no one could find any clues. Gui Wen had covered his tracks completely. That was the first time I cursed his intelligence, and it was not the first or the last time I cursed Zian's meddling ways. If that stupid boy hadn't been here, Gui Wen still would have been. If Zhong Yu had never been born, none of this would have happened. Where was the point at which everything began to fall apart? My life had been going so perfectly. How had it all vanished so easily?

Zhong Yu kept stealing away things that were precious to me, even in his absence. But I refused to let that happen anymore.

Early one morning before the sun had risen, I slowly lifted myself off the floor, my phone still clutched tightly in my cramped fingers, and stepped slowly across the silent room, stopping at the window behind my desk. For several seconds I simply stared outside, then I looked down at my hand.

I had called the number before my mind had caught up to what I was doing. Raising the phone to my ear, I took a slow breath. A sleepy voice on the other end spoke, but I immediately interrupted. "If you are going to help me…do it," I whispered. "If you are not, I will find someone else."

There was no reply for nearly half a minute, then a sigh came. "_I'll help,_" Xing agreed.

"Today," I firmly ordered. "This morning."

"_Are you serious? We didn't even come up with a plan yet! At least give me some time to prepare! I–_"

"This morning," I repeated coldly.

He was quiet for a while longer before he softly murmured, "_I know you've been…I mean, are you_ really_ sure you want this? I can't bring him back to life if you change your mind._"

"Just do it." I ended the call and turned off my phone, turning to go into my bedroom. As if in a dream, my mind felt oddly disconnected from my body while I retrieved the bottle of poison from the place I'd hidden it years and years ago. Tucking it into my pocket, I left my rooms and silently went downstairs to the dining hall.

My parents hadn't come down yet, and the servants were still in the process of cooking breakfast. Sitting in my chair, I wordlessly stared at the wall across from me and waited. Eventually, the servants noticed I was there and a butler strode forward, delivering a hasty apology for not having my food ready.

"Bring tea," I flatly commanded, fighting to keep my composure, although my heart was pounding with nervous anticipation in my chest. Within a few minutes a tea set had been placed in front of me and I waved the man away, waited until the room was empty again, and pulled out the bottle. After pouring myself a cup, I held my breath, uncorked the phial, and, before I could hesitate, tilted it over the small pot, watching with extreme concentration as two drops of the clear liquid fell.

Hardly able to breathe, I shoved the cork back into the bottleneck and put the teapot's lid back on, then waited again. Servants began to appear around me, bringing in breakfast, but I ignored all of them. In my head I began to count the slow seconds, eyes fixed once again on the wall. When I reached two hundred and forty-seven, the doors opened and my father walked in. I could hardly suppress my startled reaction.

"You came down at last," he remarked in a pleased tone, then walked to his seat at my left, sat, and pulled the tea over to himself, carefully pouring a cup. "Goodness, I was starting to wonder if you had died in there. It has been weeks. Your mother is not here, I am afraid. She left a few nights ago to go on a little vacation to France with some other ladies. I suppose she will bring back a truckload of useless souvenirs to cheer you up. You have worried her quite a bit, you know, holing yourself up like that. Are you feeling better?"

"What the fuck do you think?" I mumbled hoarsely, giving him a glower as I shakily picked up my teacup and took a drink. I almost choked, but eventually managed to swallow the hot liquid.

He stared at me for a moment, a curious look on his face, then he settled down in his chair and shook his head. "Well, you certainly look terrible. Stay home a few more days. You cannot go to the office in such a state." He continued to talk, but I hardly heard him—he had picked up his tea. I held my breath and unblinkingly stared at him when he obliviously took a sip. Immediately, I started sweating and shaking even harder than I had been.

I'd done it. At last, I had done it…and I was utterly terrified. Had I put in enough? Would anyone be able to trace it back to me? Would Xing's plan, whatever it was, be successful? If it the plan failed and if I hadn't used enough poison…would my father know I was behind it? What if he already knew? What if he'd known about the poison since the day Zhong Yu had given it to me and had replaced it with water or something a long time ago? What if Zhong Yu hadn't even given me poison in the first place?

Thousands and thousands of doubts raced through my head, and my stomach began to churn as I watched him empty his cup and move to pour himself another. Abruptly, I stood up and said something about not feeling well, then hurried out of the room. Covering my mouth, I ran upstairs. Somehow I managed to hold back until I'd reached my bathroom, collapsed beside my toilet and vomited. Trembling uncontrollably, I slowly managed to stop gagging and I leaned back against the wall, gulping down air as I tried to calm down. Shit. This was so much harder than I'd thought it would be…But I had done it. There was no going back now, whatever happened next. No going back. Shit, oh shit, oh shit. Why had I thought this was a good idea? This was a terrible idea. What had I done?

No, no, no…I had been planning it for ten fucking years. It was necessary. I couldn't let myself have second thoughts now. Even if I did, it was too late to change my mind.

A brief knock at the door nearly made me scream in fright, and I half-expected a mob of policemen to burst in and arrest me.

"Kuo Li?" my father called. "Are you alright?"

"N-no," I replied, glaring at the door and feeling extremely mad at myself for getting so worked up. I took a few seconds to compose myself, then tried to sound weak and pitiful without being too dramatic as I added, "I feel ill."

"I see…I will have the servants bring you up some medicine and soup later," he assured, paused for several seconds, then continued so softly I had to strain my ears to hear him. "I…I, ah, just wanted to tell you that I was glad to see you come down. Your mother has not been the only worried one, I hope you know…I have been, too. Very worried. I know what happened was difficult, and…and I wish…" His words gradually trailed off into silence, then he sighed and said in a lighter tone, "I will let you rest. I hope you feel better soon…I suppose you think I am silly, but no matter how old you and your siblings are, I will always fret whenever any of you are not well." A light chuckle came from the other side of the door, making me feel even more nauseated. "Try to sleep."

His quiet footsteps retreated from the bathroom door and faded out, leaving me in total silence as I stared, wide-eyed, at my tub. Of all the times he could have picked to finally act like a father, he did it not five minutes after I had slipped him a lethal poison. For some reason, that made me laugh harder than I had in a very long time, perhaps harder than I ever had before. However, the humor soon slipped back into hysteria as I held my head in my hands and curled up on the floor, fighting the renewed urge to puke again. What had I done?

I wasn't sure how I did it, but eventually I somehow moved myself back into my office, turned on my phone, and laid down in the middle of the room, staring up at the ceiling as I silently waited. Everything was so taciturn, it was almost like the whole world was frozen in place, holding its breath along with me in the disquiet. Waiting…and waiting…and waiting.

Xing's one-word text came almost exactly two hours later. After I read it, my whole body went numb and my arm fell back onto the rug. I tried to smile but failed, a whirling confusion of feelings pounding through my brain. He had done it. It was all over. I could finally make things the way I wanted them to be. I could finally fix everything. My father couldn't hold me back any longer.

I was free…so why did it still hurt so much?

The funeral was showy and large. I did my best to play the part of the grieving son and accepted everyone's hollow, comforting words with silent acceptance as I stood beside my weeping, diminished mother and my oddly calm sister. Zhong Yu didn't come, and there was still no sign of Gui Wen.

Less than half a year later my mother over-dosed on sleeping pills, and I was left as the last remaining resident of the mansion, not including the hidden monstrosity that no one knew about. There were whispers of foul play, of course—few people hadn't known about my family's many issues—but nothing ever came of them. I buried myself in my work from that point on, surging forward in the world of business, squashing everyone who stood in my path, but making sure to build networks as I went.

However, no matter how much time passed, I couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling of emptiness. No matter how much wealth I amassed, no matter how far I expanded my company, no matter how many people I surrounded myself with, it was never enough. Everything always felt so pointless.

Still, time relentlessly continued to pass by while I struggled onward.

Zian grew up to be a spineless version of Zhong Yu. Well, Zhong Yu as he had been as a child—antisocial, unsure, and whiny. When he turned eighteen I finally let him leave the house, sending him to the university I'd chosen what seemed like a lifetime ago. I felt extremely nervous letting him go out into the world, but pacified myself with the knowledge that there was little to no chance that someone would find out what he was. When people asked me in bewilderment where he'd come from, I simply told them he'd been a very sickly child and had been living elsewhere until then. The lie was readily accepted, and the uproar over the unexpected appearance of my "second son" soon died down and became old news.

After he graduated, I gave him a job at my company. He seemed content to sit in his office all day long, so I left him there, only calling him when absolutely necessary. Everything went rather smoothly, much to my surprise. Gui Wen also reappeared at last, after eleven long, anxiety-filled years. He didn't come home, unfortunately, but at least I knew where he was. An acquaintance of mine who owned a university in northern Taiwan informed me a new professor had been hired. My long-lost son, who had apparently been studying abroad this whole time. The news that he was alive and well was overwhelmingly relieving. Though I was still angry with him and wanted an explanation, I didn't contact him in fear that he would vanish again. It made me content enough for the moment to know that he was okay.

When along came a business trip to T City where the university was, I sent Zian in my place, hoping they would run into one another. Also, because I was tired of Zian sitting about doing nothing but reading reports. Even if he was an idiot, he needed experience with more than the inside of his office.

But that backfired and he ended up befriending his employee rather than finding Gui Wen.

Stupid boy.

It really hadn't helped that I had placed them in the same room to be sure Zian got his medicine—he still hated eating, but seemed more likely to do so if he was in the company of someone else. However, even if Zian was hopelessly inferior to Gui Wen, he still should have had the sense to keep himself above his own employees. Then again, he'd been disappointing in every other way, so it wasn't odd that he had made yet another mistake.

Thinking he would focus again if I kept him busy, I began organizing his wedding to the daughter of one of my acquaintances. But again, it didn't work. In fact, he seemed to become even more distracted, and finally when one evening I saw—using the little tracking device his doctor had given me—that he had gone to his employee's house, my temper finally snapped and I confronted him once he got home. Upon discovering that he had been playing a stupid game on top of everything else, I lost control, to put it lightly. His disobedience was an echoing reminder of Zhong Yu's infuriating behavior, and, before I really knew what I'd done, he was laying unconscious at the bottom of the front stairs.

After a somewhat frightened call to that doctor, I shakily watched as Zian was carried to his room and put on the bed. He wasn't dead, at least, but I honestly wasn't sure if he was going to live this time. His doctor arrived shortly and gave him a thorough examination as I silently observed from one side. When it was over he stomped up to me and presented me with an extremely dirty look. "He'll live, no thanks to you."

"No thanks to him," I corrected snappishly, glowering down at the much shorter man. My efforts at intimidating him did nothing, as usual.

"I have no idea what he did and I really don't care." He crossed his skinny arms and narrowed his eyes. "What I care about is that you almost killed him, again! What the hell did I just finish telling you a week ago‽ Dammit! You never listen, you moron!"

Feeling extremely irritated, I upped the anger on my face. "That does not matter to me. Both times, it was his fault. You should be thankful that I have not killed him."

"Don't you dare kill him! I don't care whose fault it is! If you keep treating Zian like this, _he's_ going to come here!"

Fear filled me as he spoke and I immediately made a mental note to strengthen my security. "I will _never_ allow that."

He frantically started waving his right hand toward the bed. "Then move him. I told you already that Zhong Yu's gotten more than tired of how you treat Zian as your own personal punching bag. If you don't want him to come for a not-so-brotherly visit, you'll cooperate with us!"

My fear immediately sank into hatred, remembering what had happened the last time he'd visited. "If Zhong Yu dares to come here after what he has done to…to Hui Ying and Gui Wen…to my family…" Pausing, I attempted to regain my composure, although I could hardly reign in the despair that filled me as all of my old wounds tore open yet again. Hardening my face, I furiously stared at the old man. "If he comes here, I assure you that he will not live long enough to regret it."

The doctor's wrinkly face softened a few degrees, which only made me feel worse. "He won't come if you move Zian."

I took a deep breath and shook my head again as I turned and walked toward the door. "Alright, I will," I agreed. Although I didn't want Zian to live somewhere else—my paranoia that someone would find out what he was had never gone away, regardless of how easily he'd blended into society—it was a bit of a relief to finally be able to get rid of him, so I sent him to live with his fiancée's family on their nearby estate.

The very next day, Shi Heng called on me in my office. I had planned to quietly fire him and be done with it all, and didn't particularly want to talk to him in person, but I let him in anyway. Seeing him stand in front of my desk so confidently was annoying, and I had a strong feeling that he was the reason Zian had been so distracted with that stupid game.

"I want to talk to you about your son," Heng informed, anger edging his quietly spoken words. I silently waited for him to continue, hoping he would be finished soon. I was far too busy to listen to him whine about how terrible he thought I was.

"Why did you do that to Zian?" he asked, his face slipping into a look of disgust.

Scowling at him, I inquired in return, "And what business is it of yours what goes on in my home? If you have nothing worthwhile to say to me, you may leave."

"Zian is very important to me," he answered firmly, leaning over my desk and resting his hands on the edges. Rather than feeling angry at him for doing so, I was sort of impressed with his audaciousness. It had been quite some time since anyone, other than that wrinkly old doctor, had stood up to me in such a blunt way.

"That's why it's my business if you try to _kill_ him, you bastard. All he's ever tried to do is make you proud of him and you just–"

"Please leave," I interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. "There is no point in talking about such silly things. It does not matter to me if he tries to please me when all he does is make mistakes. He was disobedient and that is all there is to it. Now then, I assume, with as close as you two seem to be, that he told you about my little warning, so clear out your desk and leave at once."

Heng gave me a furious look, but backed away. "I guess there's really no point in talking to you, huh?" he muttered, turning toward the door.

"And Shi Heng," I added before he could leave, and leaned back in my chair. He gave me a reluctant glance over his shoulder. "Stay away from him." The scruffy man simply stared at me for several seconds, then turned and stormed out of my office.

When the door closed behind him, I smirked slightly. Everything about this meeting had made their relationship completely obvious. Really, I couldn't have cared less if Zian had been sleeping around with people, as long as he didn't cause any scandals, but the idiot certainly could have chosen a better partner than some low-class pauper. What was the point? There was absolutely no worth in it.

Also, their actions made it clear that they had started taking it all in the wrong direction, so it was better to put a stop to it before anything else happened, not only to prevent any messy situations, but because seeing Zian enjoy something made me endlessly irritated after he'd caused me so much trouble.

What right did the disgusting creature have to be happy when I was always so miserable?

None at all.

Heedless of my numerous warnings, the two continued to see one another in the months that followed. I supposed they thought they were so clever and that I had no idea they were sneaking around. Rather than stopping them, I quietly waited, watching as they got closer, contemplating the best way to squash them for good. The opportunity came when Zian told me he wanted to break off his engagement to Lin Jiao. Initially, I was utterly horrified, assuming he had wrecked the bridges I'd spent years building between myself and the Lin family, but then found out they were in agreement to it all.

And there it was—the chance to gain another partner, and another way for me to crush Zian underfoot.

The Sunday after Zian had come to see me, I went to the Lin estate to collect him—taking several bodyguards with me, just in case there was resistance—and discovered, much to my delight, that Gui Wen was there as well. I hadn't ever completely given up hope that he would come home. I didn't want to force him into anything, but still hoped that perhaps…perhaps he had changed his mind while he'd been gone. Perhaps he was waiting for me to ask him to come back.

Seeing him come out of their kitchen—who knew what he was doing in there—filled me with more relief than I'd had in a very long time, but that relief was short-lived. It was obvious from his behavior that all of my hopes had been pointless. However, I wasn't going to give up so easily, and asked him to speak with me.

He agreed, reluctantly.

Taking him into an empty room near the dining hall, I inhaled deeply and gave him a proper look-over. Although I'd been so worried that perhaps he'd not been able to take proper care of himself, he looked fine. He was taller than Zian, and obviously much healthier. Really, the only things I was annoyed about were his rather messy hair and obviously cheap clothes. But those things didn't matter. I was just so happy to see him again.

Over the years a lot of things I wanted to say to him had piled up, but now that he was in front of me my mind had gone blank, so I simply went with the first thing that I could think of. "How have you been?" I quietly asked, hoping I didn't sound as nervous as I felt. The constant glare he was giving me was putting me on edge.

"If you dragged me in here just to make small talk, I'm leaving," he snapped, then turned around, but I hastily put myself between him and the door.

"You disappeared for eleven years, yet you think it needless of me to ask how you are?" I demanded in extreme agitation. "You have no idea how many nights I went without sleep because I was so afraid that I would wake up to the news that your body had been found." I took a breath, as if to say something else, but all of the words I could have said got stuck in my throat. Gui Wen sighed faintly and looked away from me. Swallowing hard, I let all of my grief spill out as I took half a step back. "How could you do that to me?" I whispered miserably. "How could you just leave without any warning at all?"

With an incredulous expression, Gui Wen briefly slid his gaze back to me, then let out a harsh laugh. "How…How could I? Why do you think I would have warned you? You would have stopped me!"

"Of course I would have stopped you! Why the hell would I let my fifteen-year-old son leave the house‽"

"I wouldn't have left like that if you hadn't tried to force me into inheriting! You knew I didn't want it!"

"AS YOUR PARENT, I WAS JUST TRYING TO DO WHAT WAS BEST FOR YOU!" I bellowed. "I THOUGHT–"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU LET _ME_ DECIDE WHAT WAS BEST FOR ME‽" he yelled in return. "I WASN'T AN IDIOT! I COULD DECIDE THINGS FOR MYSELF! I DIDN'T NEED YOU TO LEAD ME AROUND BY THE HAND!"

"YOU WERE A CHILD, DAMMIT! I WASN'T GOING TO STAND BACK AND LET MY SON GO GALLIVANTING OFF TO FOLLOW A USELESS DREAM THAT HE WOULD EVENTUALLY TIRE OF!"

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU KNOW ABOUT ME AND MY DREAMS‽ NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT! YOU WERE ALWAYS WORKING! YOU WERE BARELY EVER HOME!"

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO UNGRATEFUL‽ I WAS WORKING TO SECURE YOUR FUTURE!"

"I never asked you to do that!" He weakly lifted a hand and rubbed at his eyes for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not ungrateful at all, Father…But why couldn't you have just talked to me and discussed things instead of trying to force me into a life I didn't want? And dammit, it's not like everything you did was for nothing! You know perfectly well that Zian has always been willing to inherit!" Gui Wen's face darkened again, and his eyes got a bit watery. "He works so hard to please you…Why do you treat him so horribly?"

A sour taste filled my mouth as he posed his question, and I answered quietly, "I told you once. Have you forgotten?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and gave me an extremely bewildered stare. "What, do you mean Mother's affair?" He paused, probably to hear my reply. I stayed silent and his expression twisted with anger. "How could you possibly blame Zian for that? He wasn't born yet when that started! Hell, even _I_ wasn't born yet! He didn't cause any of that to happen!"

"There are other reasons," I icily cut in.

"Well, I doubt they're any better," he huffed. "He makes sacrifices right and left for you. Even now—you're dismantling his whole life, but I haven't heard him complain even once. Why is it so hard for you to appreciate him?"

Great. Yet another person telling me that the monstrosity was wonderful and that I was terrible. Zian certainly had a talent for turning people against me. But it really hadn't helped that Gui Wen had gotten more than Hui Ying's beauty; his personality was turning out to be quite like hers, too, and this conversation felt very similar to the countless ones I'd had with her whenever she would lecture me about my ruthless treatment of Zhong Yu.

"Zian's outside," Gui Wen quietly said, cutting into my annoyed thoughts. "Please don't make him wait for long."

He moved to step past me, but I put my hand on his shoulder and gently halted him. "Will you not change your mind?" I whispered, pleadingly staring at him when he turned toward me. "I will always be more than willing to welcome you back if you decide to come home."

Immediately, he shook his head and carefully removed my hand. "No, Father. My mind has been made up since the beginning, and that's not going to change. I guess a part of me is happy to hear that you've been worried about me, but…you don't have to anymore. I'm fine now." A few seconds passed by in silence, then Gui Wen smiled and opened the door.

A murmured goodbye was all I was left with when my son abandoned me a second time.

Children grew up—it was inevitable—but I hadn't known just how hard it would be to let him go. He didn't need me anymore, but I still felt like I needed him. Even with him gone I'd been working all these years for his sake. But my son, the core of my whole existence, the only reason I hadn't killed myself a long time ago, had just pushed away my hand.

I was alone again.

No one needed me.

If I disappeared, no one would care.

Everything I'd done in my life had amounted to nothing in the end.

The way I felt as I left the room, stepped quietly down the hallway and toward the front door was identical to how I'd felt the morning I killed my father. Numb, disconnected, broken beyond repair.

I couldn't remember getting in my car. I couldn't remember the drive. I could only vaguely remember stumbling around for a while in my office, gathering up paperwork, sitting blankly at my desk and doing absolutely nothing without even realizing it. I eventually managed to work up enough motivation to leave again, and I slowly made my way back to the parking garage, climbed into the car, and went home.

It wasn't until the car had pulled to a stop that I finally looked up and stared with utmost loathing at the monster sitting across from me. The disgusting thing that had torn apart my whole life. Poor little Zian. So pitiful and mistreated. But what about me? No one gave a damn about what I had been through. I didn't matter at all. And since I didn't matter, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted.

"Take him to my office," I quietly ordered the four suits that I'd borrowed from Xing's group. They gave me silent nods and got out of the car, dragging Zian along by his arms. As I slowly climbed out of the car, I watched as they took the thing up the front steps, then I turned and walked toward Zian's car, which had been brought back by another driver. Leaning forward, I waited until the passenger window had been rolled down, then I jerked my head toward the garage. "Put it away. It will not be used again, so put its cover on as well. Afterward, bring me the–"

"FATHER!"

Straightening, I turned in confusion to watch as Zian came racing out of the house. For a brief moment, I had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but then everything became completely clear when Zhong Yu marched out the door behind him, smiled at me, and raised a gun, pointing it at Zian's back. "GET DOWN!" I yelled, and Zian immediately dropped to his knees, rolling down several steps. The dart that my brother had shot at him flew over his head and hit the driveway.

A feeling of helplessness filled me when quite a few people wearing helmets and vests and carrying large guns came out of the house and crowded behind Zhong Yu. "Dàgē!" he called loudly, striding forward. "How lovely to see you again! I apologize for dropping in so suddenly like this, but I assume you know already for whom I have come."

Trying my hardest to hide my fear, I sneered at him. "Of course I know. You think of nothing else, do you?"

Zhong Yu's face lit up with amusement as he put on a mockingly loving expression. "Ah, you know me _so_ well. Therefore, let us not waste any more of our precious time and simply get down to business. I have come to reclaim my property." His eyes drifted back to Zian, who froze in his attempts at crawling backwards down the stairs. "Come here, Seven. We are going home."

"I did not say I would give him back," I snapped. "I still have need of him." The moment I had seen Zhong Yu all hope of using Zian for another business partnership had gone down the toilet, but I at least wanted to beat him to a pulp one last time.

"I know," Zhong Yu answered. "However, you have had twenty-two years to use Seven as you wanted. Do not think of demanding more time for your little plans. I told you when I first brought him to you that you were only _borrowing_ him, so also do not think of saying that you had no warning of this. I would have left him alone for a bit longer, but seeing as you have brought him back to your home and will undoubtedly injure him again, I have returned earlier than planned to stop you from further damaging my delicate specimen. Now, give him back."

I looked at Zian, silently yelling at him to get over here. It took him a few seconds, but he stood up and hurried over to me, and I gave Zhong Yu a smug look. He sighed heavily and frowned. "You certainly have trained him well. I congratulate you for finally managing to brainwash someone. It is quite the accomplishment after you failed with me, with Liu, with Gui Wen, even with Hui Ying. All of us were so happy to rid ourselves of you at last. Especially Hui Ying. The silly woman ran away with me without a thought."

Like he had just punched me in the gut, all of the air left my lungs and for a long moment I couldn't breathe. Struggling to fight my way back to the surface, I plastered my sneer back on and replied, "I congratulate you for managing to seduce a whore."

"The whore you married and fell in love with." My face flushed with humiliation and fury at that addition, but he waved his hand before I could retaliate. "Enough. I have a very tight schedule to keep, and have no more time to waste on you, Kuo Li. Come here, Seven. _Now_." Zian immediately shook his head, and Zhong Yu angrily looked back at me. "Kuo Li! If you do not want certain incriminating pieces of evidence about _that_ to be leaked to the police and the press, tell Seven to cooperate!"

Evidence about what, exactly? He had a lot of dirt on me. Could I get out of it?…Not without a struggle, no doubt. Damn it all, this day had gone from horrible to hellish.

"Go with him, Zian," I eventually ordered, my mind racing as I started making a mental list of everything I needed to gather, to make a quick getaway.

Zian's eyes went wide and he shook his head again. "No, Father!"

"Go with him," I repeated, feeling extremely annoyed that he was disagreeing.

"I do not want to!"

Exhaling sharply, I turned away and walked toward my car. "Fine. Do whatever you please. You are no longer my responsibility."

I heard him try to follow me, but he was stopped by one of the people Zhong Yu had brought. "FATHER!" he screamed.

That word had always grated on my nerves when he'd said it. Gui Wen had been the one who had told him to call me that, and although I had agreed in the beginning I had always hated it. But now I wouldn't have to hear it anymore. I wouldn't have to look at that disgusting thing anymore. Just being around him had always made me feel sick. The pitiful way he looked at me, his pleading voice, the hesitant way he moved, it was all exactly like Zhong Yu had been—turning to me for help only when it was convenient, and ignoring what I'd say the rest of the time. It was driving me insane.

But at last, everything was finally over for good.

I glanced back at the thing only once before climbing into the car and ordering the driver to go, leaving Seven to whatever fate Zhong Yu had in store for it.

"Where shall we go, Zhu Ren?" the driver shakily called back to me after we'd left the house.

Breathing heavily, I ran a hand through my hair and tried to come up with a plan. "Nowhere," I answered after a few seconds.

"N-nowhere, Zhu Ren?"

"JUST DRIVE, DAMMIT!" I bellowed, and felt the car speed up. "Drive anywhere! Take us back to the house in half an hour!"

"Yes," he replied in a frightened tone. I leaned back against the seat when he rolled up the window, leaving me in silence. Quickly, I attempted to organize my thoughts. I highly doubted Zhong Yu would be satisfied with simply taking Seven. I knew too much. But there was a good chance that he had left the house, at least for a little while to take Seven to wherever, which left me a small window of opportunity to go back and grab some things.

And then what?

In frustration, I furiously bit my lip and looked out the window, having no idea what to do or where to go. I owned several houses other than the mansion here in P City. Some were vacation homes in other countries, ones my father had bought for my mother. But Zhong Yu knew about them, so going to any of those was out of the question.

My cellphone suddenly started to vibrate, and if I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt I probably would have jumped and hit my head on the car roof out of surprise. Tearing the phone out of my pocket, I glared at the screen and swore at the top of my lungs as I pressed the "Answer" button. "CALL BACK LATER, YOU ASSHOLE!"

"_I just saw the news!_" Xing yelled in reply. "_What's happening‽_"

I was about to yell something else, but then froze and glanced out the window again. "What news?"

"_Turn on channel ten!_"

"I DON'T HAVE A TV!" I screamed and looked around the inside of my car, completely panicking.

"_YOU'VE GOT A CELLPHONE, YOU FUCKING IDIOT!_"

"Shit, shit, shit," I mumbled, trembling as I took the phone away from my ear and opened up an internet window. Quickly directing it to channel ten's website, my heart almost stopped when I looked at the live-streaming video on the front page. I couldn't hear the audio, but a photograph of my father was displayed above the peppy-looking newscaster's head.

Zhong Yu had leaked the evidence before he'd even gone to my house.

"_HEY! ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD!_"

"What?" I whispered, putting the phone back to my ear.

Xing continued in a comforting tone that he rarely used. "_I don't know what's going on, but come to my house! I'll hide you until we get this sorted!_"

I shook my head, not that he could see me. There was nothing he or I or anyone could do to fix this. Even if I got out of the charges somehow, my reputation would be stained forever. No one would want to have anything to do with me. And with one black mark exposed to the public, I wouldn't have been surprised if all the people I'd stomped on to get to this point would start coming out to the media, to tell everyone what I'd done to them.

Everything was over. I was completely ruined.

"Xing," I murmured, cutting into whatever he was yelling at me. "…Thank you for being such a good friend."

"_Kuo Li?_"

"Goodbye."

"_WAI–!_"

Ending the call, I quickly began to erase all of my phone's data, then turned it off when everything was gone. I prayed that the information wasn't retrievable, to keep Xing out of the line of fire. I owed him that much, at least. If he could just keep his stupid mouth shut, no one would know that he'd helped me.

My driver eventually took me back to the house, and when I got out I told him to leave. He seemed more than happy to do so, judging by the dark skid marks he made with the car's tires when he took off at full speed down the driveway. Maybe the news had already spread to the radio.

Walking up to the front door, which was still open, I went inside, stepped over the four suited men laying in the entryway, then made my way to the staircase on the right. For a very brief moment, I froze when I was five steps from the top.

Part of what looked like a woman's arm was laying on the floor.

Very slowly I continued my ascent as my eyes darted all over the place. The whole hallway was littered with chopped-up body parts, some of which had been so mangled that I couldn't tell what they were. Shredded scraps of blood-stained cloth from familiar uniforms told me that the mess was what was left of my house staff.

Almost tripping over one of the bigger chunks of someone, I broke into a panicked run and dashed to my rooms, feeling extremely relieved when I saw my office was free of the gore. For a moment, I paused a few steps in, not quite knowing what I'd come here for, but then I started forward again and went to my bedroom, then to the closet. Kneeling down beside a set of drawers, I opened the second from the bottom and pulled out a small, ornate jewelry box. Taking my keys out of my pocket, I unlocked the box and lifted the lid, clenching my teeth when all of Hui Ying's delicate jewelry came into view.

Shoving it all out of the way, I pressed on part of the box's bottom and the velvet lining popped out. Shakily I picked up the bottle of poison I'd hidden inside the small space between the jewelry compartment and the bottom of the box. I'd only used two drops on my father, and my mother had committed suicide before I'd even started considering how to kill her, so there was still plenty left.

There was no way in hell I would go to prison. Not only would I have to answer for my father's murder and whatever crimes that would probably be reported in the near future, but I had a strong feeling that Zhong Yu was going to pin the deaths of my servants on me as well. I'd never be released.

I sat down on my closet floor and stared at the bottle in my hand. What next? Kill myself? It wasn't like I had anything left to live for now that there was no hope that my son would come back, but I still felt frightened at the thought of dying. Even if the poison was painless, the big unknown that came after death was utterly terrifying. What would happen to me?

Shaking harder than I ever had before, I slowly uncorked the tiny bottle and stared in horror down at the opening as I attempted to talk myself into drinking the contents. Quite some time passed, and at some point I had put the cork back in. My mind reeled as I attempted to decide what to do. I didn't get anywhere, however, before a noise behind me made me jump and twist about to see what it was. A fist came flying at me and smashed into my face. There was an odd, unpleasant crunching sensation in my nose, then all at once pain exploded as I fell over and yelled, raising my hands to shield myself.

Looking up, my eyes widened in terror when Zhong Yu smiled down at me, grabbed my arm, and effortlessly dragged me out of the closet. "Dàgē, Dàgē, Dàgē," he loudly said, tossing me across the room like I didn't weigh anything. I crashed into the opposite wall and crumpled to the floor, gasping and wheezing as I tried to get to my feet. "You did not think I would let you die so easily, did you?" His face suddenly appeared in front of me again as he lifted me up with one hand. "How silly!" he declared, that smile gaining a rather insane twist as he slammed me to the floor. I screamed in pain when he squeezed my arm tighter and I felt my bones snap like dry twigs in his inhumanly strong grip. What the hell had he done to himself at that laboratory?

"How does it feel, Dàgē," he asked calmly when I quieted, "to be completely powerless? Pinned down like an insignificant insect, unable to fight back?" Rage burst over his face as he grabbed me by the throat and began to repeatedly slam my head into the floor. "ARE YOU ENJOYING IT AS MUCH AS YOU DID WHEN YOU BEAT ME OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER, AND OVER‽" All at once, he stopped and looked calm again. I fought to stay conscious as he lowered his face down near mine. My breath sped up as I stared into his black eyes. Fear had filled me so completely I couldn't move at all. I couldn't make a sound. I couldn't look away. Realization slowly dawned on me that I wasn't afraid of the pain he was inflicting. It was simply the horrifying feeling like I was looking into a mirror.

"I may have been easy to overpower when we were younger…However," he whispered, then slowly leaned away and held up a syringe in one hand. A small, curious smile found its way onto his face again as he took the cap off the needle. "Oh, how things have changed."


	66. Transient Lives

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note __– __**__Finally, we have returned to Zian! Hooray, I guess. lol.__ __

* * *

><p>The ticking of that stupid clock hanging on the wall was starting to drive me crazy. I had given it many dirty looks since I had been locked in this room, but it had returned every one with a blank and unconcerned stare and countless more ticks. Had I not been securely strapped to the bed, completely unable to move anything except my eyes, I would have smashed underfoot it a very long time ago.<p>

Or even better…Smashed it over Fu Han's head. Without fail, that damned traitorous bastard came to my room every single morning—at least, I assumed he came in the morning, since the lights automatically turned on around then—at precisely seven o'clock, to do doctorly stuff.

After my little adventure—that is, after getting dragged to some examination room full of white-clothed men, I'd been pinned down to a table and had my pants ripped off while someone had injected me with what I later decided was an aphrodisiac, judging by what my body's reaction had been. They had taken what they'd wanted, and the only satisfaction I was left with in the end was that I'd managed to bite a rather large chunk out of someone's arm, which was what I assumed had caused me to be stuffed into an adult diaper, tied to the bed, and left here in the seventh room for what had felt like weeks now.

For all I knew, it really had been weeks. I'd lost count of how many times the clock hands had gone past twelve. Fu Han always refused to speak if I asked something unrelated to the daily checkup, and the only other visitor had been my doctor, who had come in once and only once with the sole purpose of giving me a painfully detailed explanation about what this place was and why I was here.

My first reaction to hearing it all had been simple denial. Everything had sounded so absurd. It was like I had stumbled into a science fiction movie. But those thoughts soon vanished, and I was left with a great deal of depression and confusion. All of the times I had huffily told people "I'm not Gui Wen," suddenly sounded so silly and stupid, I almost wanted to laugh. I was him—well, I was a poor imitation of him anyway. No wonder my father had always hated me for no apparent reason. A copy of his precious son had been forced on him by the brother he despised. He was probably a lot happier now that I was gone for good. He'd just go back to how he was before. Perhaps he would offer to make one of Aunt Liu's sons his heir…Oh well. It wasn't like I'd lost anything; nothing had been mine in the first place.

But, my father and all that aside, the vast majority of the depression had come from unsure thoughts of Heng. Before all of this, I'd had enough trouble trying to come up with reasons that made me worthy of being with Heng, but now that I knew what I was, all of those reasons suddenly didn't seem very good anymore, and what if he would think the same? If he knew everything would he still offer me all of those gallant promises, or would he take them all back? Would he still want me, or would he think I'm a disgusting freak? Would he still look at me the same loving way, or would he be frightened?

…Was he even really waiting?

I didn't know how long it had been since my abduction, and I didn't know how long I was going to be trapped—until death, I supposed, if no one came to my rescue. Honestly, I wasn't even sure why I was still alive. After all, Zhong Yu had told me that he'd only wanted my sperm, so I had gone into that examination room fully expecting to be killed after they had finished with me. But they hadn't. Why were they keeping me alive? There must have been a very important reason, or else that maniac definitely would have "disposed" of me like all the others.

My father had probably known that Zhong Yu planned to never let me go, so I wouldn't have been surprised if he started telling people I was dead. He would just make up some story about a fatal accident, and everyone would believe him. No one would come looking for me and I'd never get out of here. What if Heng, too, thought I was dead? What if he was already grieving for me? He had made all of those promises on the assumption that I was going to come back eventually, not that I was going to be killed…He'd give up.

And even if Heng and the Lins didn't believe stories of my death, they wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. They would definitely accuse my father of hiding me somewhere, but there was little to no chance that he would admit what really happened. They would look for me in all the wrong places, and nothing worthwhile would come from any investigations. I'd never be found. I'd be trapped here until the day I outlived my usefulness. I would simply vanish, like I'd never existed in the first place. But that wasn't so strange. I wasn't a person who should have existed anyway; I was just an experiment masquerading as a human. I wasn't the man who should have been living the life I'd had. That was where _he_ was supposed to be. The real one. I was just a copy.

What had been the point of everything?

What was the point of me?

Gritting my teeth, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to stop thinking about all of that awful stuff. I was tired of laying here, feeling sorry for myself. It got me nowhere, and usually made me cry, which made my face itchy, and I couldn't scratch, and it was horrible.

Oh no, just thinking about my face being itchy from the tears was making me feel itchy all over.

Pointlessly, I attempted to lift my arms, and they strained against the straps that were holding me down. I pushed as hard as I could until I broke out into a sweat and started shaking with the effort, then relaxed and let out a long sigh.

This was horrible.

And so boring…

When the hell were they going to untie me?

Feeling extremely angry, I looked toward the door and screamed, "LET ME OUT, DAMMIT!" wiggling around as hard as I could. I continued that for nearly ten minutes, but, of course, my feeble struggling did nothing. The restraints were as snug as ever. The door remained shut. The clock kept ticking. I let out a miserable noise and closed my eyes, trying to fight away the tired urge to simply give up all hope.

It wasn't until the clock hands had gone past twelve at least five more times that Fu Han lingered after the usual routine checkup and crossed his arms as he stared down at me, a grouchy look on his face. "If I untie you, will you behave yourself?"

"That depends on what happens after you untie me," I growled, glaring up at him.

"You will be allowed to leave the room as you please, but that's only if you promise not to try to bite off anyone's arms again. Or any other body part, for that matter. Your little cannibalistic outburst nearly cost you your life. Quite a few of the doctors were afraid you'd harm the August boys, and wanted to dispose of you."

"And what of it‽ You people will kill me regardless of my actions!"

Fu Han let out a sigh and glanced toward the closed door. "Are you going to behave or not?"

"I'm not going to harm the children, if that is what you are asking. They have done nothing. But if any of you damn scientists do anything to me again, no, I will not 'behave!'"

"They have what they wanted," he quietly replied. "No one will bother you now, unless you do something to instigate it, which I highly advise against; if anything happens, they will not be so lenient again. So, for the third time, will you or will you not behave?"

Silently seething up at his impatient expression, I gave one nod, then looked away, locking my eyes on the white wall as he quickly began to undo the straps holding my legs. I very much wanted to smash my foot into his face as he bent over me, but held myself back. Fighting them was obviously not going to get me anywhere. I had to be patient, bide my time, and perhaps an opportunity to do "something" would arise. Whether or not the something would get me killed didn't matter, since they were planning on killing me either way, and I was determined to take at least one of these sadists—preferably more than one—with me into the afterlife.

Once Fu Han had removed the last of the restraints and had gathered all the equipment, he made his way out the door and gave me the usual "See you tomorrow," as he disappeared. I watched the door slide shut behind him, then leapt off the bed and hurried to the dresser. After trading that stupid diaper for a pair of underpants, I nervously went out into the hallway and glanced toward the closed door to the right. Pulling my IV stand over the threshold, I stepped cautiously toward the door and expectantly stopped in front of it. Like the last time, it didn't open.

Sighing faintly, I turned and went in the other direction, walking slower than normal just in case one of the boys was going to come racing around the corner again. However, I got to the intersection without seeing or hearing anybody, so I turned to the left and went toward that room Zhong Yu had shown me. The door opened as I got to it, and I leaned forward a little to look inside. It was deserted.

Giving a last glance behind myself, I quickly stepped inside and inspected the quiet room, wondering where everyone was. The digital clock on the wall over the door stated in blocky red digits that it was seven forty-two in the morning. Perhaps they were all still sleeping, or maybe eating breakfast. Neither of those were activities in which I wanted to participate—I'd had more than my share of laying in beds, and the IV bag attached to my left forearm was giving me all the "food" I needed—so I decided to simply wait until someone arrived. Walking toward the bookshelf placed against the wall opposite me, I ran my eyes over the multitudes of books, toys, and colorful boxes of jigsaw puzzles that all had more pieces than I could ever hope to have the patience to put together.

I sighed again and picked a box of crayons and some pieces of blank paper off one shelf, then sat at the low table and started doodling. I didn't particularly feel like drawing at the moment, but at least it was better than staring at the wall, which was all I'd been able to do when I'd been strapped to that bed. I could have explored now, I supposed, but I didn't really care what rooms the lab contained; the only place I wanted to go was obviously someplace I'd never be allowed from now on.

A miserable frown twisted at my mouth for the millionth time as I stared at the rough crayon sketch I'd made of Heng's face. Placing the crayon back in the box, I picked up the paper, folded it over on itself as many times as I could, and put it in the pocket of my blue pants. Crossing my arms over the table, I laid my head down on them and closed my eyes, forming a perfect mental image of him.

_"Just so you don't forget what I look like or anything."_

Even if the photo had been taken from me, there was no way I could forget. Being apart from him was making me so lonely, my whole body hurt, like I'd gotten torn in half. I sort of wished I could forget everything. These doctors could make me remember things, so they could make me forget, too, couldn't they? They could make everyone forget, then there would be no annoying people asking annoying questions about where I'd gone. Perhaps no one remembered me by now. They would obliviously continue to live their lives like nothing was wrong.

But maybe that was better. If Heng didn't remember me, he couldn't miss me, so he wouldn't be lonely and sad. He'd find himself a nice person to date, perhaps even marry, and then he'd make tons of kids and give them all stupid names. He'd be happy even if I didn't exist. He'd be fine. Completely fine. Everything was fine.

I was still attempting to convince myself that everything wasn't a huge disaster when voices abruptly cut into the silence for barely a second, then stopped again. Lifting my head slightly, I peered over my arms at the five faces that were staring at me from the doorway. Zhong Yu quirked an eyebrow at me, then slipped past the boys and sat down in a corner. Several seconds passed before one of the boys finally stepped into the room and came to a halt on the other side of the table. "Are you better now?" he asked, eyes wide with curiosity. "I wanted to go to your room, but I wasn't allowed. They said you were sick."

"As fine as I can be under the present circumstances," I answered, trying to keep my voice from sounding as despairing as I was feeling. "Thank you for asking."

"You were in there so long. It must have been bad."

"It was terrible."

His eyes got wider, but before he could say anything, Zhong Yu's extremely amused voice cut in. "Terrible? You certainly looked like you were enjoying yourself."

Although I wanted to jump up and whack him upside the head with my IV stand, I settled for snarling a "I wasn't," and refrained from looking at him. Attacking him would only scare the boys and get me tied to the bed again. Or worse. Besides, Zhong Yu was ridiculously tough; he hadn't flinched once when I'd been attempting to beat him up in the hallway. It was like he hadn't even felt me hitting him.

Trying to distract myself from my new-found rage, I looked from boy to boy, attempting to decide which one was which. The one in front of me was Five, perhaps, since he had been the one who'd talked to me before…Eight had been reading in the corner the first time I'd seen him, and one of them was over there now, so perhaps that's who that one was.

That left Six and Three.

I questioningly looked toward the last two when one began marching forward, his little feet stomping along on the squashy, padded floor until he'd come to a halt at my left side. His glaring eyes went from me to the box of crayons, then back to me and he gave me an extremely angry look. "Those are _my_ crayons," he huffily told me.

I pushed them in his direction. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"DON'T TOUCH THEM!" he abruptly yelled, snatching them up and holding them away from me.

"Why not?" I quietly asked, frowning in annoyance at him.

"BECAUSE THEY'RE MI-I-I-INE!"

"That's no reason to get so angry."

"IS TOO!"

"No, it isn't. I didn't break them or anything."

"THEY'RE MINE AND YOU CAN'T TOUCH THEM!" With a look of superiority, he turned and stomped over to a chair, plopped himself down, and set the crayons on the table as far away from me as he could, as if he thought I wanted nothing more than to mess with them.

Things were quiet for a few moments, then Five, who had seated himself in another chair while the other boy had been screaming, softly offered, "You can use mine."

I almost agreed, but then remembered I had my own in the table by my bed. "Thank you, that's very kind of you, but I have a box of them in my room."

"WHY WERE YOU USING MINE THEN‽" the other one snapped, looking outraged again.

"I forgot I had some. Please stop yelling at me."

Apparently, he wanted to be as obnoxious and annoying as possible, and he leaned over the table and let out one of the most ear-piercing screeches I'd ever heard. Feeling somewhat horrified at his ridiculous behavior, I looked toward Zhong Yu, wondering why he wasn't doing anything. I had sort of assumed he would be the "parent" here, but he seemed to be completely absorbed in something he was looking at on a computer tablet.

"I would very much appreciate it if you stopped," I firmly added once the boy ran out of air, "and I'm sure everyone else feels the same."

He answered with another scream, this time while pounding his fists on the tabletop. This went on for what felt like a very long time, and all the while he stared hard at me, obviously waiting for me to say something else. When I gave him no reaction, he surprised me by standing up and throwing his crayons at one of the other boys—the poor kid promptly burst into tears and put a hand to his forehead, where the box had hit him—then he threw his chair at me. I leaned to the right, and it bounced to the floor nearby. Sighing, I gave another look to Zhong Yu—he was still staring at his tablet, like nothing was happening—then I stood up to take things into my own hands. Moving around the table, I tore out my IV—it would only get in the way, plus I didn't want to give the boy the opportunity to hit me with the stand—grabbed the flailing boy under his arms, and walked toward the door, ignoring his shriek-filled commands for me to put him down.

"Yelling and throwing things is not acceptable behavior," I sternly told him, speaking loudly, so he could hear me, while trying not to sound like I was raising my voice. Quickening my steps, I went to my room—it was the only place I could think of that would be suitable for a time-out—and set him down on the bed. "Sit here for a few minutes. You may leave when you've apologized."

His angry screams had turned into frightened crying, and before I'd even turned around, he had jumped to the floor and was running for the door. Grabbing him, I returned him to the bed, only to watch as he immediately jumped off again.

This repeated for several very long, exhausting hours, until, instead of attempting to escape, he finally fell down face-first on the bed, hoarsely screaming his bald little head off. I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat on the hallway floor and began to count in my head. In the five months I'd lived with the Lin family, I'd witnessed Shuang throw temper tantrums—they had been few and far between, and none of them had been this bad, thank goodness—and this was how Chen and Delun had dealt with them. Put her in time-out somewhere away from her toys for several minutes.

Had I been this terrible as a child? These boys were three years old, if I was remembering correctly, which was how old I had been when Zhong Yu had taken me to live in P City. If I'd been this bratty…everyone I'd lived with had my deepest apologies.

After waiting a few minutes, I stood and cautiously went into the seventh room, feeling a bit guilty as I came to a stop. He was curled up in a little ball, sobbing and crying. Sitting down beside him, I put a hand on his arm, but he jerked it away and wailed, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Taking my hand back, I held in yet another sigh and leaned forward. "I put you in here because you were yelling and throwing things," I quietly told him. "Those are not things you should do."

"GO AWAY!" he screamed, abruptly uncurling as he jumped at me and started kicking and scratching me. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Standing, I firmly sat him down on the bed. "I see you need another few minutes." Turning away, I went out into the hall again. The door slid shut as I sat down, and his hysterical screams were abruptly silenced. Drawing my knees up to my chest, I bent my head down and closed my eyes, counting again and attempting to keep my temper in check. It was extremely difficult to do that when he was being so frustrating, but yelling back at him would do nothing but make him yell more. Someone had to remain calm, and he obviously wasn't going to.

Three minutes later, I went back into the room. He was still crying hard, but at least he was sitting up now. Crouching down in front of him, I put my hands on my knees and stared up at him. "I put you in here because of your behavior. Hurting people in any way is very unkind. You should not treat others like that. Do you understand?"

Although I wasn't sure if he'd really heard me, he gave one nod and continued to sob as he rubbed at his red face, wiping away all the tears.

"I want you to apologize," I added, wondering if he'd really do it or if he'd just attack me again.

Through his shuddering breaths, he managed to wheeze out a "S-sorr—sorry!" in a somewhat irritated voice, which didn't sound very apologetic, but it was better than nothing, I supposed.

"Thank you," I replied, smiling warmly. I gave him a few more moments to cry, then slowly moved closer to him and leaned on the bed. "Why are you so upset?"

"Y-you used my cr-crayons!"

"I was only drawing a little."

"But they're _mine_!" he repeated in a wail.

"I know they're yours, but it's not nice to be so selfish. You have many crayons; you could share the box with everyone and still have plenty for yourself."

"Everyone has crayons, too!"

Trying not to roll my eyes—he was completely missing the point—I fought to keep my gentle expression as I stared at his stubborn frown. "Well, I promise I won't use your crayons on purpose anymore. And if I do anything in the future that makes you upset, please try to tell me without getting angry like you did. I'll gladly listen to you if you want to talk, but I don't like violence. Okay?"

"Fine."

I widened my smile and carefully patted one hand on his arm. He leaned away slightly, so I quickly took my hand back in a want to keep him from exploding again. "Shall we go back now?"

He nodded, and I slowly backed up and let him get off the messy bed, watching as he hurried out of the room. After retrieving my own box of crayons and slipping that drawing into the bedside table's drawer, I followed after the boy as he went back to the room in which I'd been waiting. It was empty again.

"Do you know where they've gone?" I asked, looking back into the hall.

He didn't answer and looked up at the clock. It was past noon. Without warning, he dashed out of the room. I dropped the crayons on the floor and hurried after him as he trotted along the hall, passed the intersection leading to the bedrooms, and went in the door opposite the playroom. Inside were two flights of stairs, one leading up and one leading down. I didn't know what was upstairs, but downstairs, where the boy was going, was where Zhong Yu had taken me before.

Feeling nervous, I moved to follow the boy, but stopped when he abruptly whirled around and demanded, "Why are you coming, too‽"

"I've nothing else to do."

"Stop following me!"

I gave him a stern look for being so rude, but he ignored it as he turned and continued on down the stairs. Waiting a moment, I let him get to the bottom before I started following him again, trying to be quiet, so he wouldn't notice. I emerged into another hallway lined with numbered doors. He kept running until he reached the "11" door, then started taking large gulps of the cold air while he went in and gave a loud, important-sounding announcement that he had arrived. Slowly creeping along after him, I stopped outside the door and gave a cautious look inside. The room was filled with very shiny and complex-looking equipment. The other three boys and several doctors were gathered around a table, where they were doing something with eyedroppers and petri dishes.

What were they doing?

Then again, did I actually want to know?

Several minutes went by while they messed with the droppers and quietly spoke amongst themselves, but no one came over to explain what they were doing, and I didn't want to go inside, so I continued to observe in confusion. Until someone sneaked up behind me and coughed. In surprise, I jumped and almost hit my face on the door frame, but just barely managed to keep myself from doing so. Turning in fright, I came face to face with Fu Han, who was waving around the end of my deserted IV tube.

"I know Three would have torn it out, but regardless try to keep it in as much as possible," he irritably grumbled, grabbing my left elbow and reattaching the IV to my arm. "I have much more important things to do than come down here and stick you with a needle yet again." Once the tube was secured with a great deal of tape, he whirled around and went up the stairs two at a time, disappearing from sight with a flip of his white lab coat.

Wanting to chase after him and beat him up, I glowered at the empty steps for a moment, then turned back to the doorway. So, Three was Tantrum Boy. Eight was the one who silently sat in the corner and read books. Five was the one who liked to talk to me. That meant Six was the one who'd been smacked in the face with the crayon box. There would be a mark, maybe, to tell him apart from the others…but that would fade and I'd have to find some other way to differentiate them all. However, even if they were, on a cellular level, the same person, they all seemed to be very different from one another. Perhaps learning which one was which wouldn't be too difficult after all.

Eventually, I got bored, so I turned away from the room with a sigh and looked around. After giving another glance to the doctors, I slowly moved away and let the door close. Once I was hidden from view, I went to the door across the hall and attempted to open it, but it was locked. Frowning in annoyance, I went to the next door, but it was also locked. As it turned out, every one except the eleventh were locked, so in defeat I made my way up the stairs, then up the other stairs. I emerged in a small room that had a table and four chairs. There were two more doors, but both were locked just like all the rest, so I went back to the playroom.

As I began to draw again, this time with my own crayons, my mind cranked away as I attempted to come up with some sort of escape plan. There was little I could do when every door was locked. There were no handles, no keyholes to pick, only little scanners built into the doors. I had no pry bar and no suitable substitute to shove into the tiny gap between wall and door and attempt to force them open.

Perhaps I'd be able to steal one of the doctors' card keys, which hung on white lanyards about their necks. But there were cameras everywhere, and I didn't know the layout of what laid outside this little area in which they'd locked me. I'd definitely be stopped before I would be able to get outside.

The air vents, which were used so often for convenient escape routes in the movies I'd watched with Heng, were all far too small for me to get anything bigger than one of my legs through, even if I was as skinny as before.

If they decided to move me from here to somewhere else, they'd probably sedate me for transportation, so I wouldn't be able to do anything then, either…

Plus the chip Fu Han had put in my shoulder could most likely be tracked. Even if by some miracle I escaped, there would be no place to hide. They would simply find me and take me back again. If I went to a hospital to get the chip taken out before they could find me…No. No hospitals. There was no way in hell I'd trust any doctor now. Hospitals weren't safe anymore. What, then? Cut open my own shoulder and dig around until I found the chip? What if I damaged a major blood vessel in the process? I'd bleed to death and the whole escape would be pointless.

Attempting to suppress the urge to go berserk and tear apart the place, I dropped my crayon on the table and fell back on the soft floor, closing my eyes and giving in to all the hopelessness.

Time went on slowly. I kept a piece of paper by my bed and made a small mark every night, and I watched with ever-increasing despair as the days turned into weeks, which eventually turned into months. Every day was structured and repetitive. The lights turned on at seven, when Fu Han came in to examine me. He left around eight, when the boys were finishing their breakfast upstairs, and were going to the playroom. At nine they went downstairs to do God knew what in the lab rooms until eleven-thirty, when they had lunch. At noon, they went back downstairs again, then came back up at five for dinner. At six, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted, until bath time at eight, and bedtime at nine when the lights turned off again and I would place another mark on my paper.

But although nothing ever changed with the schedule, the boys changed quite a bit over time. Three started behaving much better after countless time-outs, and I channeled his aggression into other things; they had no activities other than what one could do at a table, so I organized little races in the hallways, played tag and hide and seek, showed them how fun it was to put on socks and slide around on smooth floors, wrestled with them in the playroom, jumped on the beds, taught them the basics of martial arts, as well as played several games we invented ourselves. Eight and Six, who were both very shy and wary of Three—no one wanted to talk about it, but through their vague mumbles I eventually came to the understanding that Three had treated them very badly—eventually became much more energetic and expressive. Five was the only one who didn't change much, really, although after a while he stopped simply watching whenever Three would throw a fit and attempt to hurt Six or Eight, and would instead try to intervene.

I also gained more enlightenment about the purpose of the place in which I was trapped, not a day after I'd been unstrapped from my bed. The boys were more intelligent than anyone I'd ever heard of. They made Gui Wen look slow and stupid. It was obvious that the doctors had done something to them.

Without any help from me—I would have only gotten in the way—the boys put together a pictureless, bright orange-colored five thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle in less than fifteen minutes. All four were confused at my flabbergasted response. They thought it was normal, and seemed to be just as surprised at me as I was at them when I told them such a thing was impossible for me.

I showered them with astounded compliments for being so amazing, which then led them to shove things in my face, with a chirpy order of "Look!" practically every minute. Every day they would take me downstairs and give me extremely complex explanations about things that I never understood, but I would praise them for it anyway and their little faces would glow with pride and happiness.

But while I seemed to be brightening their lives, mine was becoming more and more dismal in my captivity. I felt furious to the point of being sick to my stomach every time I saw any of the doctors. It was obvious they had never treated these children as _children_. The boys and I, and all who were dead now, really were nothing more than lab rats in the doctors' eyes. No word of encouragement or warm smile was ever given. The boys hadn't even known what a hug was until I gave them one, and then they all started demanding I give them one first thing in the morning and another one right before bed.

Thus, with the boys and I becoming very close, a small measure of acceptance finally appeared somewhere in my mind. It would inevitably come to an end, but before then I could give these children all of the parental love and affection I'd never had.

One afternoon I was lounging on the foot of Five's bed. He hadn't been feeling well the past few days, and had been excused from his work downstairs, so I decided to keep him company. Disinterestedly turning the page of the book I was pretending to read—it was some historical novel, which Eight had insisted was utterly fascinating—I finally gave up trying to find some sort of amusement in it and closed the cover, then sat up and stared at Five as he scribbled a drawing of something that looked sort of like a very fluffy werewolf holding a balloon.

"Do you know what this place is?" I asked quietly.

Five glanced at me, looked around, and then looked back at his drawing. "It's my room." He pressed his lips together and seemed to be attempting to hide a smile.

Chuckling slightly, I leaned back and rested my weight on my hands. "I meant the whole building."

"Well…it's…our house? We live here."

"Haven't you ever thought it's strange?" I pressed. He looked up again, but said nothing. "Why are we never allowed to leave? Why are we never given any news of Ten or the others? Why won't they tell us what's happening outside?"

"I…I don't know," he softly answered, looking a bit upset.

"Why do you not know?" I attempted to keep my voice from getting edgy, but when talking about such things it was difficult to keep calm.

"I never thought about it before."

"Why not?" Once again, I was given no answer. Five seemed to be under the impression that I was mad at him, so I forced a smile on my face and sighed. "I was asked similar questions by a very close friend of mine, and my answers were the same as yours. When I was younger, I was sent away from here to live outside, but the man who raised me kept me indoors, just like here. I never thought it was strange. I was taught never to ask questions. However…that's completely wrong. Asking questions is very important. You need to look at a situation critically and logically, to break it down and try to make sense of it.

"You," I paused and gestured toward Five's head, "and the other boys have been given minds that are capable of doing things I could never imagine, but…if you never use them for anything…" Grabbing the mechanical pencil he'd put down, I held it up and asked, "What is the purpose of this?"

"Writing things?" he asked, sounding confused.

"What else?"

"And…um." He held up his picture and smiled. "You can draw things, too."

"Yes, you can," I agreed, smiling back. "You can use this unremarkable stick of plastic and graphite to create beautiful artwork. You can use it to write a story that will touch the hearts of people around the world. You can use it to compose a symphony that people will still listen to thousands of years from now. You can use it to design homes where families will live for generations. You can use it to build people up with encouraging letters, or tear them down with hurtful words…The possibilities can go on and on. But if you put it in a drawer and never take it out then it becomes useless, and the same can be said for the human brain. You need to use your mind, or your head may as well be filled with nothing at all."

"But I do use it!" he indignantly retorted. "I work every day almost! And, and…and this morning I chose what to eat for breakfast."

"You use it exactly the way the doctors want you to use it," I corrected. "They tell you what to think and how to think about it. They've got you and the other boys convinced that nothing is wrong, that you should do nothing but what they want. Are you really content to be controlled like that?"

"Well, no, I guess," he replied, "but…that's just…how it is. I don't like it, and sometimes I do what I want instead of what they say, but if we don't do what they say then they get mad. It's not my fault. I have to!"

Quickly shaking my head when his eyes started tearing up, I smiled helplessly. "I'm not blaming you for anything. I understand. It's just frustrating, isn't it?" At his nod, I slowly gave the pencil back and sighed faintly. After a short pause, I asked, "Did the doctors tell you why Ten left?"

"He was sick. They said they were going to make him better."

"What about the others?" I softly added. "Why did they leave?"

Five was quiet for a few seconds, then shrugged one shoulder. "I don't remember most of them. They left a long time ago. But, um, I remember Two. He left a little bit before Ten. He was sick, too. Sometimes he couldn't breathe right and they had to put a mask on his face. When we were eating lunch he fell down and the doctors took him away, but they said he's okay now."

I tried very hard to keep my face blank. Yes, he certainly was okay now…now that he was dead.

Taking a slow breath, I folded my hands together to hide how I was shaking. "Why do you think only the sick are allowed to leave?"

"To get better," he answered quickly.

"There are rooms downstairs filled with medical equipment," I pointed out. "When I first came here, they gave me treatment for…for a wound on my arm, and now I'm given an examination every morning. With what they have here, taking the sick elsewhere for treatment is unnecessary."

"But they always told us–" he began, but I quickly cut him off.

"That's my point. Don't believe everything you're told, especially when the situation seems strange. Why would they take the sick from a place where they could be healed? Why do they lock the healthy in here when we are perfectly capable of living outside? It makes no sense at all." Taking another calming breath, I slowly shifted closer to him and laid down at his side. He looked overwhelmed by all of the stuff I was throwing at him. "Sorry for talking so much. I wasn't expecting you to answer."

Five picked up the pencil and started drawing again, then paused and turned to look at me. "Do _you_ know the answers?"

Laughing faintly, I rubbed at my eyes and stretched out my legs, shaking my head as I murmured, "I wish I did." I knew some answers, and there was a lot I could tell him, but giving a three-year-old such horrifying information didn't seem like a very good idea. I woke each morning assuming it was my last. During the examinations I always expected Fu Han to inject me with something lethal. I didn't want the boys to have to live in such fear.

We laid there without talking anymore, and eventually the scratching of Five's pencil stopped when he fell asleep. Carefully taking the pencil and paper, I put them on his bedside table, tucked in the blanket around him, and laid down again. My mind immediately was filled with Heng. Not an hour had gone by these past months when I hadn't thought of him. These boys were a bit bigger than Dib, and were far less cuddly and clingy, but having a tiny, warm person beside me was comforting all the same. Smiling faintly, I snuggled a bit closer, and soon I had also fallen asleep.

The next morning, I hurried out of my room when Fu Han had finished with me. The procession of the boys, and Zhong Yu, were already marching down the hallway when I got to the intersection. However, rather than the usual scream of greetings, the boys silently walked past me, all wearing expressions of discontent. Three, who was, of course, wearing the grouchiest face, had his arms crossed tightly over his chest, and was stomping along as hard as he could.

"What's wrong?" I asked, slipping into the playroom behind them all.

"It's not fair!" Three immediately wailed, bursting into tears. "I WANTED TO GO NEXT! WHEN'S _MY_ TURN‽"

He continued to yell and scream, so I looked to Six and Eight for an explanation. However, Zhong Yu was the one who answered. "Five's condition worsened last night." For several seconds, I couldn't move. Numbing fear filled me as I turned to look at him, already knowing what was coming next, but praying I was wrong. "We had to take him," he ended, smiling brightly. "But do not fret! He will be better soon. I will inform him that you were all very worried."

My eyes got a bit blurry as I continued to inspect his face. I couldn't understand. There was no remorse, no sadness, nothing at all…Even Fu Han had acted as he always had. We were nothing to them. It was like they had just squashed an insect on the sidewalk.

"May I have a word?" I whispered, attempting to get my shaking legs to move back out into the hallway. Making my way around the corner, I leaned against the wall by the door numbered "1."

"What is it?" Zhong Yu asked, placing himself in front of me.

I swallowed. It was difficult. My throat felt so tight. I eventually managed to ask a simple "Why?"

"You know the answer," he replied airily, tipping backward to rest against the wall. A mocking smile quirked at his mouth. "Are you going to attack me again?"

"No," I murmured, knowing that the result would be the same as before, "but the day will come when you must face the consequences of your actions."

"Oh?" His smile widened. "And who exactly do you think will make me? The police? Even the most righteous man is willing to look the other way if he is paid enough. No man is incorruptible."

"Perhaps you may be able to avoid punishment in life, but I highly doubt you will ever have enough money to bribe a god."

"A god?" He laughed and shook his head. "I am afraid you will be waiting a very long time if you expect divine intervention. Do you really think gods care about the business of lowly humans? If they did not agree with my actions, they would have stopped me a long time ago. Besides, they should be thanking me for trying to correct their mistakes."

"Gods don't make mistakes," I countered, frowning.

"Aeolus." He looked somewhat amused at the surprised reaction I tried to hide upon hearing that name. "I assume you know at least a little about Greek mythology, yet you claim gods do not make mistakes."

"Greek _mythology_," I echoed. "It's all myths and stories. I don't believe them."

"Well, whatever higher power in which you believe. What is their reason for creating incurable diseases? Developmental disorders? Birth defects? If those are not mistakes, then what are they? Perhaps the gods simply have an odd sense of humor, and all of the horrible imperfections of the human body are just their way of making jokes—is that what you think?"

Faced with his question, I didn't know how to respond. I hoped whoever was in charge of making humans wasn't such sick and twisted being, but I couldn't honestly tell him I didn't believe his argument was false. I hardly ever knew the reasons behind humans' actions; how the hell was I supposed to know why gods did what they did? For all I knew, he was right and they were tormenting the human race out of a want to entertain themselves. Or perhaps physical impairments were meant to test a person's character, to help us overcome challenges. Or perhaps they were the result of bad karma. Or maybe it was all just random and meaningless.

"I don't know," I finally replied, "but whatever the reason, it doesn't mean you may murder innocent people."

Zhong Yu let out a sigh, and that near-constant smile finally left his face. "If murder was my purpose, do you really think I would be _here_? I am trying to help people, you brainless dolt. My team and I have worked for years trying to to find the answers to medical complications that have plagued mankind since the dawn of time. Such lofty goals would be impossible to reach if sacrifices were not made along the way."

"Don't talk like you and the other doctors are the ones giving up your lives for these experiments!" I snapped at him, feeling furious and disgusted with how he was twisting everything around. "These children and I have no choice! You're forcing this on us! If your intentions were really so pure, it would be you getting examined every morning! You're nothing but a coward!"

With a frightened gasp, I hastily backed up and took hold of my IV stand when he rushed forward and gave me the angriest look I'd ever seen someone wear before. I had obviously gone too far, and was completely convinced that he was going to kill me. "Shut up," he spat. "You have no idea how many times I have nearly died in the process of using myself as a test subject for my own experiments. You creatures are nothing but tools created for one purpose—multiplying the results of my research." He took a slow breath and stepped back, looking away from me. I had no idea what to say to him. Even if I did, I saw no point in arguing any further. It was obvious that he had completely convinced himself that the appalling things he was doing weren't wrong in the slightest.

"It is narrow-minded hypocrites like you," he continued coldly, "who are the reason people like me are forced to hide and work in secret. You all put yourselves on pedestals, spewing sanctimonious lectures about how monstrous we are, yet we are the ones to whom you turn and beg for help when Death comes knocking, because all of the doctors you think are better than us will never be able to give you what you seek. They put leashes about their necks and pretend they are righteous, but really are too afraid of staining their reputation and being criticized as we are, too afraid to step out of their boundaries and open their eyes to all of the possibilities that society has forcefully labeled as unwholesome, giving no room for anyone to disagree." Disdain covered his thin, pale face as he turned and strode down the quiet hallway.

"I am far from a coward, Seven," he called back, pulling his key card out from under his coat, to unlock the door at the end of the hall. "And as you are no longer a part of the outside world, I suggest you stop trying to force that world's useless morals on me. They have no place here."

"If you didn't want me to be influenced by the outside world," I replied angrily, "you should not have put me in it for so long."

With a faint laugh, he momentarily looked back at me as he stepped through the door. "Yes, perhaps it was a mistake…but it is a mistake I would gladly make a million times over. Having to listen to you preach is a small price to pay in return for the satisfaction of knowing that my beloved brother spent the last twenty-two years in torment."

A satisfaction gained at my expense, I thought when he disappeared from view behind the door as it slid shut and soundlessly locked. Everything he and my father had done had always been at my expense. All I'd ever been was their plaything, used to torture one another. My whole life had been lived unknowingly on their chessboard, just a little pawn getting shoved and pulled back and forth between the two.

Now another pawn was dead. Five had been one among many—nine from the experiment from which I'd been born, seven now from the August series, and all the others from an unknown number of experiments that had taken place over the years. How many more would have to die before these people would finally be stopped? Would the last three from the August series survive somehow, or would they, too, be killed? What about the newest experiment for which I had been used? All of my children, if they could be called that. Would they be like the rest of us, hidden away from the rest of the world in this spotless white laboratory, until our short-lived usefulness ran out?

Why did I have to be so powerless?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I lowered my head down and tried not to cry. The other three didn't know. They couldn't know. I had to act like everything was fine, like he was still alive.

Pretending was one of the hardest things I'd ever done. I forced myself to behave the same as always. When the boys were around, I smiled, laughed, played. On the surface, everything was the same, but underneath, the fragile control I had managed to hold on to all this time was slipping away more and more with each passing day.

But all at once, everything came to an end.

We were in the playroom when it happened. It was one of the rare evenings when the boys were quiet and subdued. They were trying to put together a puzzle with all of the pieces wrong-side-up when Zhong Yu abruptly stood from his seat in the corner. Initially, that hadn't been odd; he often got up to leave for a few minutes. But this time his face was contorted with rage, and he stormed toward the door. However, it opened before he got to it, and several frantic doctors piled inside. One of them nodded. Zhong Yu sent a cold look toward the boys and I, hissed, "Kill them," then ran out of the room.

Feeling alarmed, I looked up when Fu Han strode forward and grabbed me by the arm. One of the boys yelled, and I turned as they were all pulled away from the table. "What are you doing‽" I demanded, attempting to stand and yank myself out of Fu Han's grip. "LET THEM GO!"

Burning pain suddenly burst through my left arm. I turned back to Fu Han in fright as he dropped an empty syringe and pushed me to the floor, holding me down. For a few brief seconds, I tried to struggle, but immediately my body stopped responding to me. My vision went black as I stared up at the ceiling. The terrified screams, which had been so loud, were replaced by complete silence.

In the last few moments before my mind blanked, I realized what had Fu Han had done and I was thrown around by a torrent of feelings; relief that it was over at last; fear of the big unknown that I was about to face; guilt that I hadn't been able to protect the boys; and regret that I was finally going someplace where Heng would never be able to follow.


	67. Hatred and Hope

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>I hadn't known what to expect when I opened my eyes. I'd thought about death several times before, wondering what mysteries laid beyond the inevitable end that came to every living creature's life, but with all of the theories out there, I hadn't ever really come to a solid conclusion. I doubted I ever would have been able to decide until I actually died, anyway.<p>

So, what then would I see? Puffy clouds, blue skies, and angels flying around while playing harps and trumpets? Some sort of Utopian society filled with aggravatingly chipper people? The rebirth of myself in some other body? The endless flames of hell? The ferryman Charon waiting in his boat to take me to the underworld? Or perhaps I would simply cease to exist?

Whatever I had expected, it hadn't been the terrible sight that I did see when I woke up.

Snow.

Snow everywhere.

This was the first time—and the last, hopefully—I'd ever seen snow in person. There was so much of it drifting down from the gray sky and encasing everything in a smothering shroud of ice. Standing by the small window, I stared in horror at the sparkling outdoors and quickly decided that I had gone to hell—my own personalized hell where everything was cold.

But…

I turned away from the frosty window and glanced around the small, modestly-decorated bedroom in which I'd woken up. But if I was in hell, why was there a house? What was this place? The devil's ski lodge? Or had the maniac scientists transported me somewhere else, somewhere that looked like the North Pole…I'd never escape, even if I did get outside; I'd freeze to death immediately. They had been giving me the red warm-up pills in the lab, but the effect had worn off. The blue laboratory garb I was still wearing was so thin, I may as well have been clothed in tissue paper.

Trying and failing not to make any noise on the creaky wooden floor, I crept toward the door, stopping frequently to listen. Many voices and footsteps were coming from the rooms below and whatever laid outside the door. I couldn't hear what was being said, but the tone didn't sound threatening. Even so, I certainly didn't want to alert whoever they were to my presence.

Heart pounding, I came to a halt beside the door and put my hand on the round metal knob. After waiting a few moments, straining my ears, I slowly pulled open the door and peered through the crack. The narrow, unlit hall outside was deserted, so I squeezed myself out the door and tip-toed along the green carpet to the nearby stairway. Keeping to the wall, I went down a few steps, then froze and attempted to make myself tiny and invisible when a group of people in thick white winter clothes stomped past the bottom of the stairs. Through the gaps in the banister, I watched as they made their way across the small sitting room and opened the door. A gust of painfully cold air blasted over me as they went outside, then shut the door behind themselves.

Feeling extremely grateful that they hadn't noticed me, I took a few moments to pointlessly try to calm down, then resumed my slow descent. When I got to the bottom, I gave a look around. After living in that lab for so long, everything looked a bit strange and alien, but really it seemed to be an ordinary house. Couch, reclining armchairs, television, bookshelves, tables, plants…telephone.

Oh my god, there was a telephone.

In extreme relief, I almost ran to the phone to call someone, anyone, for help, but there was a loud clatter from an open door to my left, so I scrambled around the corner by the steps and plastered myself to the wall, hoping no one had seen me.

"Hey. You woke up."

Almost letting out a scream, I whirled around and stared in terror at the extremely huge, foreign-looking man sitting at the table. Frantically glancing around, I searched for something with which I could defend myself, grabbed the first pointy object I could find, and held it up in both hands.

He drew his pale eyebrows together into a confused look. "Are you really trying to threaten me with a butter knife?" The slow, heavily-accented Mandarin he was speaking was filled with amusement.

Drawing in a shaky breath, I glanced down at the bread crumb-covered knife clutched in my trembling hands, then looked up again. "It will still hurt if I stab it in the right place."

"Relax. I won't hurt you."

"You expect me to believe that‽" I snapped, trying my hardest to look fierce and intimidating.

Shrugging his broad shoulders, he turned his attention to a laptop in front of him and mumbled, "Believe it or not. Doesn't really matter." We both fell silent for several minutes, and he didn't do anything suspicious, but I continued to hold up the knife as I inspected my surroundings. I had gone into a kitchen that looked just as ordinary as the rest of the house. The only thing in the room that looked odd was the man. He was very burly, unshaven, blond-haired, brown-eyed, and clothed in an unknown country's military uniform.

I flinched a little when he moved his arm, and I immediately prepared myself for an attack, but he only reached for a white mug that was sitting beside the computer. Lifting it up to his mouth, he paused a moment, then looked at me. "You know English, right?"

I slowly nodded.

"Fluent?"

I nodded again.

"Great." He grinned as the language shifted, and he started speaking much quicker. "My Mandarin isn't so good, so I'd rather use English. Want coffee? There's a pot of it over there. It's black, but we've got milk an' cream in the fridge, an' sugar on the cupboard. We've got food, too. Help yourself to what you want."

Shaking my head, I continued to point the knife at him. There was no way I was going to eat or drink anything. They'd probably drugged it.

"Who are you?" I demanded, trying to ignore the ache in my arms.

"Second Lieutenant Benjamin Cale, proud soldier of the United States army," he replied, smiling amiably, "but just call me Ben. You're April Fourteen Seven, right? What part of your number do you prefer?"

"None of it," I angrily huffed. "My name is Min Zian."

He quietly stared at me for a moment, then announced, "I'm never going to remember that. Got a nickname?"

"None you're allowed to use."

"…'Seven' it is, then! Nice to meet you."

With extreme annoyance, I straightened up a little and glanced toward the snowy window. "Where are we?"

"Tibet. Don't ask the prefecture, because I can't pronounce it. This is a safe house my platoon an' I set up over a year ago when the local government approved our investigation into two laboratories, one of which you were in."

"You're not working with the…with the doctors?" I cautiously asked.

"We were with some of them," he clarified, "but only for the purpose of shutting down the labs. We finally had the chance to attack two nights ago. It didn't go as smoothly as we hoped, but I suppose you'll be happy to hear that no more of, um, _you_ are going to be made."

Inhaling slowly, I stared hard at him, trying to find some sign that he was lying. So many people had lied and pretended, people I'd trusted…Anymore, I felt as though even a blatant statement of facts about something that was common knowledge would sound suspicious.

Before I could come to a decision, someone came through the doorway beside me, with a loud and unexpectedly casual "Good mornin', Lieutenant!" and I flattened myself up against the wall again, retightening my grip on the knife. However, the man who entered didn't seem to have noticed me.

The kind look on Benjamin's face darkened slightly, and he turned back to his computer, mumbling, "Morning, Rivers."

"O-o-o, coffee." He hurried across the linoleum floor, grabbed the coffee pot, and quickly dumped the remainder of the pot's contents into a green mug. Afterward, he whirled around and started saying something, but then let out a noise of surprise when he finally noticed I was there. A very annoying sneer-like expression settled over his very young face.

"The thing woke up, eh? It try t'attack ya with a butter knife?" Benjamin's quiet answer was drowned out when the man laughed, then took a drink of his coffee and strode forward, looking like he was attempting to add a swagger to his steps. It looked ridiculous. "Gonna attack me, too?" He came to a stop only a few centimeters in front of me, then grabbed the knife and wrenched it out of my hands. "Try anythin', an' I'll tear yer head off. Got it?"

"Tear his head off an' Captain Walker will dismember you," Benjamin warned, sounding extremely irritated.

An unmistakable expression of fear flashed over the man's face, but was quickly replaced by a haughty, confident look as he laughed again. "Walker can't do shit!"

"I assure you I can," a quiet voice cut in, and I froze in terror when Fu Han strode in, gave a cold look to the man in my face, then went straight for the coffee pot.

"Good morning, Captain," Benjamin called as he stood up.

"Good mo—Who drank the last of the coffee and didn't make more‽"

"That would be Rivers, sir."

"I was goin' to, sir!" the man defensively added, turning away from me at last, "but it was pointin' a knife at me!"

"Yes, because a man who has no muscles and hasn't eaten in days is so threatening!" Fu Han growled, forcefully slamming open cupboards. "WHERE THE HELL IS THE COFFEE CAN‽"

"Same place it always is, Captain," Benjamin replied, raising an eyebrow as he sat down again.

"Someone didn' get his beauty sleep," the man mumbled, taking another sip of coffee.

"SHUT UP, RIVERS!"

"An' someone else got too much," he continued, ignoring the Fu Han's heated order. He turned toward me again and smirked. "Thought ya were a woman when Captain Walker carried ya outta the lab. Short, no muscles, girly face…Ya really a man?" he asked. "I bet ya ain't got no dick."

I wordlessly stared at him in confusion, having no idea what he was talking about. Was he trying to insult me?

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I soil yer honor?" He laughed again, as if he'd just told a hilarious joke.

Taking a deep breath, I straightened up and firmly told him, "My honor would have to be ridiculously flimsy, to be shaken by something so insignificant."

His eyes widened in a way I probably would have found comical if he hadn't been so irritating. He whirled around and stomped toward the table. "YA DIDN' SAY IT COULD SPEAK ENGLISH!"

"He can speak English," Benjamin belatedly informed, looking amused.

"If you had read my reports, you would have known," Fu Han snappishly added, scooping a great deal of coffee grounds into a fresh filter.

What, he had been jabbing at me this whole time thinking I couldn't understand? What was the point of that?

"Sir, ya know I hate readin'," he huffed sourly.

"I know," Fu Han coldly agreed, "and your ignorance nearly got all of us killed."

"Tha' wasn't my fault!"

"IT WAS!" he bellowed, abruptly turning around and striding toward the other man. "IF YOU HAD READ THE INFORMATION, THAT ALARM WOULDN'T HAVE GONE OFF AND WE WOULD HAVE HAD MORE TIME!"

"I DIDN' SET IT OFF!"

They continued to scream back and forth at one another for quite a while until Benjamin stood from his chair and bellowed, "PRIVATE RIVERS!"

Fu Han immediately turned and went back to making coffee, although the other man continued arguing, but Benjamin pointed at the door and snapped, "You're on laundry duty. Get to it."

"But, sir! Walker is already doin' it!" he whined, making me feel somewhat appalled at his disrespectful behavior toward his superior officer. They seemed far too casual with one another to actually be in the military. Maybe they were pretending. Maybe this was all an act to trick me into thinking I'd been rescued. Maybe I was still at the lab, and the doctors had drugged me for some new experiment, and I was having a very bizarre hallucination…

"NOW, PRIVATE!"

Although it was hesitant, the man put down his mug and that butter knife, and stiffly answered, "Yes, sir," then left the room, not forgetting to give me an angry look along the way. Once his footsteps faded—and a door slammed—Benjamin sank back into his chair and let out a sigh.

"Why did you have to put him on laundry?" Fu Han grumbled. "Now she'll come in here and nag me."

"You look like you need to be nagged," he answered without concern, then yanked out another chair and looked at me. "You going to stand there all day, or would you rather sit?"

Silently shaking my head, I didn't move from my spot by the wall, although I sort of wanted to run forward and retrieve that knife.

Sighing again, he put the chair back and returned his attention to his computer. "That charming gentleman was Private Nate Rivers. Useful when it counts, but the rest of the time he's just an annoying little twerp…Don't worry about him. He's all talk. He knows if he does anything to you, our evidence, he'll be in deep shit. An' I guess you already know Captain James Walker, here."

"Nice to meet you," the damned kidnapper said. "Yet again."

Well, that answered my question about whether or not anyone had been looking for me after my abduction. They hadn't been. Searching hadn't been necessary; they had known the whole time exactly where I was.

Fucking bastards.

I gave him a furious glare when he turned to sit at the table. "A military officer playing doctor?"

Fu Han…James…whoever the hell he was exhaled slowly and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. "No, I am a doctor…a military surgeon stationed in Maryland, although for several years now I've been helping infiltrate the laboratories here in eastern Asia. By the way," he continued, sticking one hand into his pants pocket and pulling out a small pill bottle, "you'll be wanting these. They're pain meds."

"What for?" I asked in suspicion, eying the bottle warily when he set it on the table.

"I removed the chip in your shoulder while you were asleep."

"I don't want them."

"You'll be wanting them later."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will."

"After what you've done to me, I'm never taking anything from you again. It doesn't matter whose side you were on this whole time, you fucking kidnapper."

After an agitated glance, he covered his face again. "I'm not going to apologize and I'm not expecting any forgiveness. I wish there had been a way to keep you out of it, but gaining their trust was my top priority. Regardless, I did what I could to keep them from killing you."

"That changes nothing," I whispered coldly.

"I know," he murmured, then stood up and went back to the coffee pot. "I'm going to go help dig through the rubble. I'll be back this evening."

"Walker isn't going to be happy that you're not sleeping," Benjamin warned, smiling faintly.

"Well, you can tell Sergeant Walker that _Captain_ Walker has work to do, and doesn't have time to sleep."

"Pulling rank isn't going to stop her."

"You'll just have to get creative, won't you?"

"Great. Now she'll yell at me, too. Be careful out there, sir."

He poured some coffee into a thermos, and turned back to me, once again rummaging around in his pocket. He pulled out a small, slightly crumpled piece of paper, and dropped it on the cupboard beside me as he walked past. "Sorry for wrinkling it. I was in a hurry."

While he left the room, I slowly slid my eyes down to see what it was, then nearly burst into tears when Heng's face smiled up at me from the photograph I thought had been lost forever. Quickly snatching it up, I crammed it into my pocket and angrily stared at the floor. I could hear Benjamin take a breath, as if he was about to say something, but, thankfully, he stayed silent.

Eventually, I managed to regain control of myself, and I looked up. "What rubble?"

Finishing a drink of coffee he'd been in the process of taking, he set down the mug and continued to stare at his computer, his face darkening again. "The doctors set fire to the labs when we broke in. Tried to destroy the evidence while they ran away—they didn't get far, though; one of our squads caught them at the exit. It got bloody…You probably noticed they were working on enhancing intelligence in that lab. They had another group of kids they were using for physical enhancement—making them stronger an' faster—an' it seemed a few of the doctors had used themselves as test subjects. Was hard to subdue them. Anyway, I'm not sure how it happened, but the building caved in while we were leaving. It was pretty solid, but maybe they built it with a way to destroy it at will. I don't know. But we've got several squads out there digging for evidence."

Evidence…Did my medicine count as evidence?

"You have the doctors in custody?" I asked.

Benjamin gave me a complicated look. "Yes an' no. Some of them were inside the building when it collapsed, an' we're still searching for their bodies. The ones who got out, however, are dead. We wanted to take them alive, but they were armed. An' one of them, your…um, your father, I guess is what he is, kept shooting an' killing all the doctors we managed to get under control. Eventually he was the only one left, an' he…Well, even if he'd enhanced his strength, his body couldn't take the strain. Wore himself out, collapsed, an' died a few minutes later."

"What about…I don't know his name. He used to be my physician. He's old and has fluffy hair."

"He was one of the ones who were still inside," he quietly answered. "He might be alive, but I wouldn't get my hopes up."

Slowly nodding, I fell silent and ran my finger over the edge of the photograph in my pocket. Zhong Yu and my doctor were dead…They had told me they were the ones who'd made my medicine. Now that they were gone, how was I going to get more? Had they stocked up on it and stored it somewhere in the lab? If so, would these people find it and let me have it, or would they take it all as evidence? What the hell had been the point of bringing me here if I was just going to die in a few days? They should have helped the boys get out, not me.

Leaning wearily back against the wall, I watched as he typed something, then asked, "What is the date?"

"Monday, February sixth," he answered promptly.

Attempting to keep my eyes from widening, I looked down at the floor and began to quickly count. It had been late March when I'd been kidnapped…Ten and a half months had gone by while I'd been trapped in that lab. It had felt more like a decade.

I was startled out of my thoughts when another call of "Lieutenant!" came from my right as someone came striding through the door and straightened into a salute. The chipper voice was female this time, and far more amiable than the man's had been. "I am pleased to report that Rivers won't be finished with the laundry for at least another five hours."

"…Thank you, Walker…at ease," he mumbled, locking his eyes on the laptop.

Relaxing, the woman turned to look at me. If I hadn't been trapped against the wall and the corner of the cupboard, I would have backed away from her. She was dark skinned, had her hair up in braids, was as tall as me, and had more muscles than I'd ever seen on a woman before. After living for so long with the dainty little women of the Lin family, this woman was somewhat alarming.

"Zian!" she chirped, snatching my hand and shaking it up and down so hard I thought my arm would be torn off. "Nice to finally meet you in person! I'm Miranda Walker, James' wife. He's mentioned you lots of times. And oh, all you Asian guys are so cah-yoot." I flinched and leaned back when she grabbed my cheeks and started yanking on them.

Good god. She was Brushy Butt the squirrel in human form.

Abruptly, she dragged me forward and forced me into one of the chairs at the table. I rigidly watched as she went to the coffee pot, poured some into a mug, and plopped it down in front of me. "There you go!" Wagging her finger at Benjamin, she scolded, "Lieutenant, why were you makin' the poor man stand in the corner? Look at those scrawny legs—it's a wonder he can even stand up! You didn't even make him any breakfast!"

Benjamin's mouth opened slightly, then he gave me a somewhat apologetic glance and seemed to think better of saying anything. He quickly drank some coffee to cover up the movement. While Miranda rummaged around in the refrigerator, talking ceaselessly about what food was inside, I stared at the stream curling in spirals off the surface of the coffee she'd given me. I was so cold and thirsty, I was very much tempted to grab the coffee and start gulping it down, but in my suspicion I still held myself back.

Sure, they acted nice, mostly, and maybe there really was nothing wrong with the coffee, but I had run out of trust a long time ago, and I wasn't going to take any chances. I had to keep my defenses up. I wouldn't let myself be fooled again.

"I didn't put that coffee there for decoration," Miranda told me, raising an eyebrow as she shut the refrigerator door. After a very brief pause, she let out an "Oh!" and set down the carton of eggs she'd gotten out. "You don't like coffee? I should've asked. Want tea? We've got some of that."

I wordlessly shook my head, uncomfortably looking down at my lap.

"Milk? Orange juice? Water? Hot chocolate? Beer?" After I'd shaken my head at each offer, she huffed, "God, you're picky."

"I just don't want anything," I quietly replied, wishing she would take the hint and leave me alone.

"You were sleepin' for over a day. Don't pretend you're not thirsty." With that, she filled a glass from the faucet and set it down beside the untouched coffee. "Drink it," she ordered, then turned and picked up the egg carton again, placing herself beside the stove. "Speakin' of people sleepin', James went upstairs after he was yellin' at Rivers, right? The idiot keeps goin' for days without sleep. You'd think a doctor would know better!"

When no one answered her, she turned around, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. "Lieutenant?"

Benjamin let out a sigh and finally looked at her. "He went to help search through the rubble."

Anger burst out on Miranda's face and she roughly shut the egg carton. "Not to be disrespectful, _sir_–"

"Of course."

"–but lettin' him go out in the freezin' cold tundra, diggin' around in a collapsed lab when he hasn't slept in two days is practically sendin' him off to die!"

"I can't give him orders."

"WELL, HIS WIFE CAN!" she bellowed and went stomping through a second door I hadn't noticed. Her loud voice, yelling threats to her absent husband, traveled back into the kitchen while she went down to what I assumed was the basement.

Benjamin was quiet until several minutes later when Miranda, who was still yelling, came back up into the kitchen—she was wearing outdoor gear now—left the room and went out the front door. Then he turned to me, looking tired. "Speaking of people sleeping," he echoed, "upstairs, second door on the left. They're probably awake by now, if you want to go up an' check."

"Who?"

"The August boys."

My eyes went wide in shock. Immediately standing, I hurried toward the door, but Benjamin called, "Wait!" and I looked back at him in annoyance. He stood up, worry falling over his face. "Before you go up, I need to warn you…" He paused, slowly taking a deep breath. "The Captain only managed to persuade one other doctor to help him, an' things happened fast when the alarm went off. We did all we could, but we didn't have enough time. In situations like that, you've only got a split second to decide who to save an' who to leave."

The unexpected happy surprise of hearing the boys were here faded into familiar anger-edged fear and despair. Trembling, I looked away from him and tightly curled my hands into fists.

"…They killed Eight before the Captain could get to him."

Not answering, I moved around the wall and ran up the stairs, stopping once I'd reached the door. Stifling the urge to scream in frustration, I extended a shaky hand and slowly turned the knob, slipping into the room.

Two little figures were laying on the bed inside.

I shut the door and dashed forward when Six sat up and wailed in a frightened voice, "Seven!" Climbing onto the bed, I scooped him up and held him close, rocking him back and forth as he sobbed. "Three won't wake up!"

"It's alright," I murmured, holding him a bit tighter. "It's alright. He'll wake soon."

"Is he okay?"

"Yes." Please, god, let that be the truth…

"Eight isn't here!"

Hesitating, I slowly continued to rock him back and forth as I attempted to come up with some sort of explanation. These boys were extremely intelligent, but would they understand the concept of death? Was it even appropriate to tell someone so young about something so morbid? What if hearing about what had happened scarred him for life?

"He's gone," I finally answered, fighting to keep my tone comforting and light. "He went to live with Five and everyone else in a nice place very far away."

Leaning back, he gave me an anxious but hopeful look. "They'll come back, right?"

Smiling faintly, I shook my head. "They're so far away, I'm afraid it's not possible for them to come back. But don't worry about them. They're fine…I'm sure they're all very happy now."

He didn't look comforted, but quieted a little and proceeded to wipe his face off on my shirt. Leaning the side of his head against me, he glanced around the room. "Where are we?"

Extremely glad to direct the conversation somewhere else, I gently gathered him up in my arms and stood, walking to the window. His flushed, tear-stained face immediately lit up when he looked outside. "We're outside the place we were living," I announced as cheerily as I could manage.

"Snow!" he declared, stretching out his right arm to draw a line in the frost on the windowpane. "It looks like one of the pictures on the puzzles! Can we go outside?"

"I can't. It's too cold. But once Three wakes up we can ask the people downstairs and perhaps they'll let you two go out."

"Who's downstairs?"

Damn. Another difficult question.

"The doctors were bad people," I slowly explained. "They wanted to use us for bad things. The people downstairs stopped the doctors and brought us to this safe place."

"What were they using us for?"

Good grief…

Sighing, I went back to the bed and set him down. "I would tell you, but I don't want to frighten you. The things they were doing were awful," I answered quietly, giving him a pat on the head as I quickly changed the subject. "Are you hungry? There's food downstairs." Food that I would force Benjamin to taste-test first, and then test it myself, just in case they had put in something to which they'd built an immunity. I hadn't been able to protect Five and Eight, but I still had the chance to keep Three and Six from harm, and I was determined to do it at all costs.

Six nodded, so I carefully wrapped Three in a blanket and picked him up—I didn't want him to wake up alone—and followed Six to the door. I should have expected it to happen, but I didn't manage to warn him in time before he walked right into the door and let out an "Ouch!" as he stumbled backward, then tilted his head back. "It's locked!"

Trying not to laugh, I told him, "No, it's not. These doors aren't automatic. You need to turn the knob and pull."

"Oh." Opening the door, he cautiously edged around it, as if afraid it was going to hit him again. Looking nervous, he took hold of the hem of my shirt as we went downstairs, then turned left into the kitchen.

Benjamin looked somewhat surprised that we were there, but quickly put on a warm smile and stood. Although I felt somewhat afraid when he walked toward us—now that he was close, I was very alarmed to discover he was even taller than Heng—I tried to hide it when he crouched down by Six and extended his hand. "Hello. I'm Ben," he greeted, switching back to his hesitant Mandarin.

Six sent me a wary glance, and I nodded in return, so he shakily replied, "I'm August Twenty-four Six," but didn't reach out to take the offered hand. I doubted he knew what a handshake was.

"Would you like some breakfast, Six?"

"Yes, please."

The outstretched hand went from the handshake position to a point as he gestured toward the refrigerator. "I can make you something, but I'll need your help. Okay?"

Six nodded, but I kept him at my side when he tried to move. Giving Benjamin a cold stare, I told him in English, "Whatever you cook, eat a bite before you give it to him."

"Why?"

"So I know you didn't put anything odd in it."

"I'm not going to tamper with the food."

"Your word means nothing. Test it or I won't let him eat anything."

Sighing faintly, he nodded and slowly stood up. "Alright." Putting on his smile again, he switched the language back as he walked around us. "What would you like to eat, Six?"

Although he looked a bit scared, he went over to Benjamin and peered into the open fridge, listening while Benjamin listed off what was inside. Keeping a close eye on them, I carefully sat down in one of the chairs and arranged the still-unconscious Three into a comfortable position, snugly tucking the blanket around him. Other than when I forced Benjamin to let me inspect the eggs he was using for any holes or cracks in the shells, breakfast went smoothly. Three woke up when Six was almost done eating, and, although he was a bit disoriented and scared, he was just fine, much to my overwhelming relief.

Now that they were both awake, Benjamin gave them a general explanation about what had happened. It was probably because he didn't mention all of the deaths, but the boys took the situation much better than I had, and were quickly back to their normal, hyperactive selves.

Benjamin took them outside after they had both eaten their fill, and after retrieving all of the blankets from the bedrooms upstairs, I wrapped myself up and put myself in an armchair by the window in the front room, to keep an eye on them while they played in the snow. Since the boys had no winter clothes, except hats, which Benjamin had gotten from the basement for all three of us, they ran back inside every five minutes or so, thawed themselves out by standing next to the oven in the kitchen, then ran back outside to play some more.

Several hours passed while they ran around in the snow. Their playtime was only interrupted for a short lunch break, then they went right back outside again, obviously enjoying themselves immensely. I continued to lounge in the armchair and drink the coffee I had finally deemed was safe, all the while feeling a bit envious of their ability to withstand the cold. I would have gladly gone outside if I could have. It would have been far more enjoyable than sitting alone in a chair, with nothing to do but think.

Would the other boys have enjoyed the snow this much?

What would they have eaten for breakfast?

What sort of people would they have become?

Where would they have gone to school?

What careers would they have pursued?

Would they have had families?

The futures of countless children had been erased all for the sake of some damned scientists' experiments. Knowing that I had almost been one of those children made me so much more aware of the fact that I was alive. I kept noticing and feeling thankful for being able to experience and see small, ordinary things I had used to take for granted and overlook completely—the feel of the air going in my body and out again with every breath I took, the feel of my heart beating, the dull ache in my joints, the softness of the blankets, small bubbles in the windowpane, individual grains in the wooden ends of my chair's armrests, the colors of everything surrounding me, the sharp and warm smells of winter and coffee mixing in the room.

If I, too, had been killed when I was a child, the world wouldn't have been much different. Perhaps things that had happened, things I'd always felt that I had caused, would still have happened without me. But knowing that I almost hadn't been able to live the life I'd had, and knowing that so many children would never have that chance again, made me more furious than I'd ever been before, to the point that I even found myself feeling happy that the doctors had been killed. I was happy their lives had ended. I hoped their deaths had been painful and drawn-out. They were monsters that deserved an end a million times as terrible as what they'd had.

Hatred, which was something I had never particularly had a reason to feel before—the negative feelings and thoughts I'd had for people in the past now seemed silly and insignificant—raged with ever-growing force through my whole body, making me shake. Closing my eyes against the snow's harsh glare, I curled tighter in my blanket cocoon and took several deep, shuddering breaths. Nearly a year…Somehow I'd kept my control, my sanity while being locked in a lab for nearly a year…I couldn't let go now. My father and Zhong Yu had both chosen to spend their lives wallowing in their hate. I didn't want to be anything like them. I had to keep holding on, even if letting go was so much easier.

I kept up my feeble mental struggle until late afternoon, when the boys finally decided they were done playing in the snow, and came back inside, giving me a distraction at last. Benjamin, who looked very cold and tired, tossed a few boxes of crackers on the coffee table near my chair, set a pot of tea beside the food, put an animated kids movie on the TV, and went back into the kitchen, leaving me to deal with the very soggy and still-very-energetic boys.

However, I didn't have much to do, other than keep them from spilling their snacks everywhere. They became so engrossed in the movie, they barely even blinked. After the movie was over, they begged to watch it again, so I started it over at the beginning. I regretted that decision, however, when it ended and they immediately started it over again themselves.

During our fourth viewing of the movie I was coming to hate, a bunch of people came in through the front door and Benjamin appeared to the kitchen doorway, but was blocked from view when the people went inside. Quiet conversation that I couldn't hear very well came out of the kitchen, and I listened intently, trying very hard to catch every word that was said. Although a great deal of the discussion was drowned out by the TV, I heard bits and pieces of their report about the situation at the labs. They had found more doctors in the rubble, but they were all dead, and a lot of the research material had been destroyed in the fire, although some evidence had apparently been retrieved.

Nearly fifteen minutes after the people had arrived, they all left again, except one man I hadn't met. He strode up to my chair, set a rolled-up coat on my lap and a large bag on the floor nearby. "Delivery," he announced, giving me a smile, then he turned away. In bewilderment, I looked down at the coat and began to unroll it, assuming Benjamin had asked him to bring it to me to wear, but I froze when I had the coat open.

There was a baby inside.

Oh no. No, no, no. Definitely not.

Leaping to my feet, I let the blankets fall to the floor as I chased after the man and ordered, "Take him back!"

He looked over his shoulder and shook his head. "I don't have time. Besides, he's _your_ kid."

"But I don't know how to take care of a baby!" I sputtered desperately, feeling overwhelmed. Trying to handle four boys had been nearly impossible, and only having two was still difficult. Adding a baby into the mix was a nightmare.

"You got everything you need in the diaper bag, and you can ask Lieutenant Cale if you need help. He's got five kids, so he'll know what to do." With that, the man went outside, calling back "Good luck!" as he shut the door, leaving me to fend for myself in the completely unknown territory of babies. After staring at the door for several seconds, as if I expected the man to come back, I slowly returned to my chair and sat down. Carefully uncovering the baby, I stared down at him, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do.

He was asleep, so I supposed I was okay for now, but what about when he woke up?

This was the first time I'd ever even held a baby, much less cared for one. I wanted to eventually have children, of course, and it wasn't like I didn't want this one, but…but I didn't _want_ him. Not right now. Back when I'd been engaged, I hadn't wanted to be a father until Jiao had graduated college, so I hadn't done any preparation whatsoever, mentally or otherwise. Abruptly being given a baby was utterly terrifying.

"That's January Twenty-eight Five." I jumped in surprise and shrank against the back of my chair, quickly looking up. I hadn't noticed that Benjamin had arrived. He certainly was sneaky for such a gigantic person. Normally I would have thought that was interesting, but now such a trait only made him more suspicious and untrustworthy.

After giving one more look to the newest Five, I tilted my head back to glance up at Benjamin. "Where are the other nine?" They had better not have been planning on dumping nine more babies on my lap. That is…if the other nine were still alive.

With a sigh, Benjamin lowered himself onto the couch and shook his head. I hadn't thought I could feel worse than I did already, but his answer had proved me wrong, and my anger flared up again. Not wanting to hear the details—they were easy to imagine—I quickly refocused my attention on the baby, desperately trying to find something positive in this endless nightmare. "Is he…Is he healthy? I mean, he's not like me, is he?"

"He's completely healthy," he assured. "Even if he is a clone of you, whatever problems the doctors had with the April series, they were fixed."

At least I had that to feel relieved about. I hadn't known if my physical issues were genetic or not, but one worry about having children was that there might have been a possibility that they would inherit some, if not all, of my health problems. Constantly feeling cold and achy, often having an upset stomach…It was definitely not something I would want my children to suffer through their whole life.

Staring down at the baby, I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind of his nightmarish origins. It didn't matter what he was, where he'd come from, or how he'd been made. He was still just a baby. My baby. My son. I had been nowhere near any sort of happy when the doctors had taken my sperm, and honestly I hadn't thought much about what the result of their experiment would be, but now that I was holding one of those results, I came to an abrupt realization—a realization I really should have come to a very long time ago—that I'd helped create life.

Regardless of all of the death, there was still life.

Extremely cute and chubby life.

I wanted to extend my hand and touch him, but held back; my hands were cold, so it would probably be like poking him with an ice cube, which would probably wake him up, and I wanted to enjoy him while he was still being cute, not screaming his head off and dirtying his diaper.

Abruptly pausing in my thoughts, I looked away from Five and felt a bit embarrassed. Was it vain of me to think that he was so cute? He was me, sort of, after all…I considered asking Benjamin, but, afraid that he would laugh at me, I kept the question to myself. Even if Five was me, he wasn't me. We were two separate people, who would most likely be just as different from one another as Gui Wen and I.

Therefore, it was completely okay to gush with thoughts about how adorable he was.

"If you had the choice," Benjamin quietly said, sliding his elbow off the couch's armrest to fold his hands on his lap, "would you go back to Taiwan?"

Feeling a bit confused, I looked up and stared at his profile, but he kept his gaze locked on the TV, like he hadn't said anything at all. Sighing faintly, I leaned back in my chair and slid my eyes over to the boys, who at some point had fallen asleep on the floor without my noticing. "I wouldn't," I answered, "but if the boys also had the choice, I would want them to go."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"It's been two days since I last had my medicine, and if I don't get more then I only have four or five days left to live. Going back to P City, then, would be a very pointless and short trip."

"We found quite a few bottles of your medicine in the lab. The Captain sent in a request to our superior officers to give us a portion of the capsules, although we haven't been given an answer yet. When we're finished, we'll be handing everything over to the Chinese government, so I doubt we'll get very much, if they agree at all, but there's a chance at least."

"Regardless, I would still choose not go to back."

"Not even for the guy in that photograph?"

I shot Benjamin a glare, but he was still looking elsewhere. My eyes started to burn as I answered, "He already had to bury his parents. I'd rather never see him again than put him through another funeral. It would be easier just to tell him and everyone else that I died already."

"You would never say that if you were the person getting left behind," Benjamin growled, finally giving me a look of annoyance. "I've gone to many families before, to tell them their loved ones will never come home, because they were killed. We lost three soldiers two nights ago, an' I'll have to inform their families, too. Just because they didn't witness the death…in no way is that fucking _easier_ on them. God, if my wife was in your place, kidnapped an' dying, there's no way I'd choose not to see her one last time, even if it was only for a minute. It'd still hurt like hell, an' I'd still lose her, but at least we'd be able to say our goodbyes.

"The Captain an' I put in a request to let the four of you go back. We'll know by tomorrow, so think it over." He stood up and went back to the kitchen, leaving me to my muddled thoughts.


	68. Whole Again

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>"Morning!"<p>

I jumped slightly at the loud greeting, and blearily looked up from the plate of food I had been attempting to talk myself into eating. Trying not to give Benjamin an annoyed look for scaring me yet again, I slowly picked up my fork. I had been up almost all night with my new Screaming Poop Machine, who was currently looking misleadingly cute and innocent while Miranda bottle-fed him across the kitchen table. I was exhausted and dizzy, and although Miranda had offered to watch the boys while I went back upstairs, I refused. I wouldn't have been able to rest. Not only was I constantly on edge, but the incision in my arm hurt a lot, and also I'd been having nightmares almost every time I slept, ever since "the other Five" had been taken.

"Mornin', Lieutenant!" Miranda replied, gently lifting the baby's right arm to make him salute. Five, not seeming to care that his arm was being messed with, continued to drink his breakfast while James, who had come in the door before Benjamin, leaned down to give Miranda a kiss and sat beside her, helping himself to the food on the table.

Benjamin dropped himself into another chair and let out a long sigh, rubbing his eyes as he yawned. As far as I knew, he and James had been out all night, although I didn't know what they'd been doing. However, I was given the answer—or perhaps part of the answer—when a familiar-looking white capsule rolled across the table at me. "You have a month's worth," James quietly informed. "I would give you all of it, but we're under orders to hold it for you, just in case something happens, so whenever you want more you'll have to ask."

Stiffly nodding, I stared at it a moment, wondering if it was really my medicine. However, even if it was something else, I was going to die anyway, so I slowly picked up the capsule and reluctantly put it in my mouth. Taking a long drink of tea, I swallowed the pill and, through my fear, felt a slight relief; I was going to die anyway…but that certainly didn't mean I was ready to stop living.

"We also got permission to let you four go to Taiwan," Benjamin added cheerily. "We'll have to come with you for security purposes, but otherwise everything's all settled. We leave tonight. Are you coming, Seven?"

I still didn't really want to, but I nodded anyway, if only to make sure the boys would get settled in nicely. Perhaps they could be adopted into the Lin family. It would be a huge favor to ask when I had nothing to give in return—I didn't even have money anymore, knowing my father had probably emptied and closed my bank accounts after I'd been kidnapped—but I didn't want to put the boys in an orphanage or foster care, or adopt them out to a family I didn't know well. However, the Lins were good people, so I supposed I didn't have anything to worry about.

"What about you two?" Benjamin continued, switching to Mandarin as he addressed Three and Six. "Would you like to go to Taiwan with us tonight?"

"Why?" Three asked, eyes wide.

"You might live there from now on."

"Are my parents in Taiwan?" My stomach dropped at his question. Shit, how was I supposed to explain this without adding death into it?

If Benjamin felt worried, his face didn't show it. "No. You'll be living with Seven."

Three gave me a somewhat annoyed look and declared, "I don't want to live with him. He's not my father. I want to live with my _real_ parents." Six gave a nod of agreement, hopeful anticipation practically radiating off him. Honestly, I couldn't blame them for choosing their real parents over me, but still, I'd gotten rather attached to them over the months, and felt somewhat hurt that they would desert me so easily. I really hadn't even considered that they might not want to stay with me anymore.

"Do you know where they are?" Six asked anxiously.

"Yes, we know." Smiling gently, Benjamin shook his head. "But you can't live with them."

"I can!" Three snapped, crossing his arms and putting on his stubborn you-can't-tell-me-what-to-do face.

Taking a deep breath, Benjamin let it out again and told them, "They're not alive anymore. Those doctors killed them." When both boys' faces became very surprised and fearful, I had a strong urge to stab Benjamin with my fork. Why'd the moron have to say it so bluntly?

"They're not dead!" Three immediately denied, standing up on his chair. "You're lying! Take me to them right _now_!"

"I wish they were still alive, but they're not. I'm sorry."

Looking extremely upset, Three tipped his food onto the floor, jumped off his chair, ran out of the room, and went upstairs. I thought about going after him, but didn't, knowing he'd probably just scream at me if I tried to talk to him without letting him calm down a bit first. Thankfully, Six didn't seem to be angry about the news.

"They're really dead?" he asked sadly, and Benjamin nodded. "Oh…" Falling into thick silence, he absently picked at a piece of egg on his plate. Several somewhat awkward minutes went by without any conversation, then he finally looked up again. "What happened to them?"

There was finally worry on Benjamin's face. "Are you sure you want to hear? It's not a happy story."

"A lot's not happy anymore," Six quietly pointed out.

After a moment's hesitation, Benjamin leaned over, pulled his laptop out of the bag he had set down by his chair, and turned it on. Miranda gave him a somewhat disproving glance, but didn't try to stop him. Once the computer had booted up, he took a few moments to look for something, then cleared his throat. "Well…" he slowly began, looking reluctant, "your mother was a fifteen-year-old from Korea. Um…Late winter of twenty-ninety-seven, she went to a café with–"

"What's café?" Six interrupted.

"A place that sells food and drinks."

"Oh."

"She went to a café with some friends on her way home from school. According to the report her friends gave to the police, she stopped in the toilet before leaving. They went looking for her when she didn't come back out, but she wasn't in there, although no one had seen her leave…and she was never found. The police later arrested a man, who had apparently been stalking her, but that was just a cover-up put together by the doctors. She was actually taken to the place you were living, and the doctors made her pregnant with you, then they killed her once you were born…Do you want to hear about your father, or do you want me to stop?" he asked, staring in concern at Six, who looked oddly calm.

"I want to hear," he whispered.

Sighing, Benjamin rubbed his forehead as he leaned over the computer, typing again for a few seconds before he quickly summarized, "Chinese, mid-twenties, around the same time as before…He was driving home from a date with his fiancée when he stopped to buy groceries. Eye-witnesses say he was walking back to his car when some muggers dragged him into an alley. Just like your mother, no one could find him afterward, until a week later when his body was discovered in a nearby river." Clearing his throat again, he leaned back and closed the laptop, switching back to English. "Most of the people they've used have similar stories, though the location varies. A lot were homeless. Easy to snatch, an' detached from society, so they wouldn't be missed until after they'd been gone a while."

"How did they kidnap his mother with no one noticing?" I asked quietly. "A café in the afternoon…I can't imagine it would be very empty."

"We don't know exactly, but we suspect they drugged the girl an' took her out the back door, then wiped the memory from all the eye-witnesses."

Feeling my stomach churn, I pushed away my plate of almost-untouched breakfast and looked back to Six. He seemed far too calm after hearing about his parents. Perhaps he was actually taking it all a lot better than I had predicted he would…or perhaps he was taking it a lot worse.

"Are you okay?" I inquired. He slowly shook his head and continued to pick at his food, not seeming to want to talk anymore, so I looked away and began to make a plan for what we would do once we got back to P City. Even if Benjamin was so sure everyone would want to see me again, I still didn't know if I was actually convinced. Perhaps I'd just go to the Lin house, explain things, and leave again…It wasn't like I had a home to go back to anymore, so where would I go afterward?

With an idea forming in my head, I looked toward the other three. "What are your plans now?"

"These labs are everywhere, not just here in China," James answered. "We'll clean this place and move to the next location."

"What do you mean by clean?"

"Get rid of the rubble and any people connected to the labs."

"The labs must have been getting a lot of funding, right?" I slowly commented, hearing what I'd been hoping for. They all gave me "Do you even have to ask?" looks. "The financiers, who are they?"

"We can't disclose that information."

"I don't want specifics, just…High society? Influential? Perhaps government officials?"

"Maybe," James evasively replied.

"People my father might have known?" I added, and his eyes immediately narrowed.

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Maybe," I echoed. "Would it be beneficial to your investigation if I went back to P City openly? If the people you're looking for knew my father, they probably would have known me. Or known _about_ me, anyway. If I go back openly…will they not come to tie up their loose ends?"

"No way," Miranda cut in, shaking her head. "That would be way too dangerous for you."

"That doesn't matter."

"You could be _killed_."

Barely stifling a laugh, I raised one eyebrow. "Have you forgotten? I am going to die soon. Rather than spend the remainder of my life in hiding, I would much rather use it helping get rid of these bastards. So, forget about my safety. Would it or would it not be beneficial to you?" No one answered me. In fact, everyone seemed to be reluctant to even look in my general direction, so I snapped, "All of you were willing to let me be kidnapped for your investigation, but now that I voluntarily offer my help, you don't want it‽"

Looking annoyed, James gave a jerky nod. "Yes, it would be beneficial, but you have to know the risks of what you're offering. It's not just your life that would be in danger. They would try to kill everyone else nearby. You'd be risking the boys' lives, your brother's life, Heng's life, and the lives of whoever else would come to see you."

"Don't bother to pretend that people's lives actually matter to you," I coldly snarled, glaring at him. "My offer won't change, so take it or not." Standing up, I pushed my chair to one side and stepped out of the room, starting up the stairs to find Three. However, I was stopped by a rough shove that sent me crashing into the wall.

When I turned in fright, Benjamin gave me an extremely angry frown and crossed his arms. "You've got every right to be angry with all of us, but keep it to yourself. James is a very good friend of mine an' I'm not going to let you trash-talk him anymore. He was just following orders. Nearly ruined everything trying to keep you safe, an' now he has to deal with a ton of shit from our superiors, because he ordered us to attack before we were ready, because the doctors had finally decided it was time to kill you. He's saved your ass over and over, so, even if you're not grateful, just keep your mouth shut an' quit blaming everything on him." With a sharp exhale, he turned and went back into the kitchen.

If these people actually expected me to be friendly with that kidnapper, they were going to be disappointed. There was no way in hell I'd ever be able to treat him anything like the way I had before…back when I thought he was sort of my friend. Everything he had ever said and done had just been an act. He was just like so many other people, using me for his own benefit, without any consideration for what would happen to me as a result.

Feeling very irritated, I continued on up the stairs. Three was in the bedroom we had all shared last night. Shutting the door behind myself, I slowly stepped forward and sat on the edge of the bed, where he was crying, curled up in a little ball under the blankets. "May I speak to you, or would you like me to leave?" I asked, then waited a few moments, but he didn't answer. Hoping his silence was permission to stay, I continued. "I'm very sorry about your parents…I wish there was something I could say to make it better, but there really isn't. I don't have any either, so I know how lonely it feels."

"You do n-not!" he countered through a sob. "You hav-have a father!"

"I used to think so," I murmured, morosely staring at the elongated rectangle of sunlight sprawled across the wood floor. "But it takes a lot more than genes and money to make someone into a parent. The man who raised me and the man who created me both never wanted me, so I consider neither of them to be my father." Sighing faintly, I turned toward the quivering lump under the covers. "But," I added in a lighter tone, "even if your real parents are gone, you don't have to worry about anything. When we go to Taiwan, we can find you new parents. There are lots of nice, loving families out there who would love to adopt you. I've already got a family in mind. You can meet them and get to know them, and decide if you'd like to stay with them or not. They're very kind people, with a big house and a big garden. I'm sure you'll like it there a lot."

Rather than the relief I had expected from him, he started crying even harder. Feeling confused, I attempted to come up with something else to tell him, but he unexpectedly wailed, "Y-YOU HATE ME-E-E‼"

In complete bewilderment, I hastily denied, "I don't!" How the hell had he come to that conclusion after I'd offered him such a nice suggestion?

"YES, YOU DO!" He cried and sobbed for a few more seconds, then continued with increasing hysteria. "YOU'VE ALWAYS LIKED THE OTHERS MORE! EVERYONE ALWAYS DOES! YOU-YOU'RE ALWAYS BEING MEAN TO ME AN-AND PUTTING ME IN TIME-OUTS, BUT YOU'RE ALWAYS NICE TO EVERYONE ELSE! NOW YOU'RE TRYING TO GET RID OF ME!"

"I'm not trying to get rid of you!" Quickly uncovering him, I gently put a hand on his trembling shoulder. "I'm not doing that at all! I'm just trying to decide what our options are, since you don't want to live with me."

"I THOUGHT MY PARENTS WERE ALIVE!" he yelled, curling up even tighter and keeping his red face covered with his hands. "But now they're not and I've got nowhere to go! Don't make me go away!"

Carefully scooping him up as he continued to plead with me, I cradled him against my chest. He finally uncurled, and for a moment I thought he was going to start trying to beat me up, but instead he gave me a hug. He always acted so tough and confident, I sometimes had to remind myself that underneath his thick defenses he was still just a little boy. A little boy whose whole life, like mine, had been turned completely upside down when he'd been tossed into a world he knew nothing about, leaving him confused and afraid.

"I'd never send you away," I murmured, rubbing his back, "and I don't hate you at all…I think of you as a son, and I love you."

"But we're not related," he pointed out through his shuddering breaths.

Laughing faintly, I hugged him tighter and let us fall over backward, dragging the blanket over us. "Blood relations aren't important. I used to know lots of people who were closer to me than my own family, and it didn't matter at all that we weren't related."

"Really?" he asked, looking very worried. Nodding, I smiled. The uneasiness didn't fade completely, but it seemed he was finally starting to calm down a bit. I lifted my arm up a little, then wrapped it around him when he scooted closer and took hold of the front of my shirt. This was the first time the huffy boy had been so snuggly.

"I was looking forward to it a lot," he quietly said after a pause. "Living with my parents…That's where I always wanted to go when the doctors picked me."

Although I wanted to tell him getting picked by the doctors meant something completely different than what he thought it did, I kept silent and hugged him a bit tighter, deciding to direct the conversation down a much more positive path. "It's still possible for you to have a family. One just as wonderful and happy as you would have had with your parents."

"With you?" he asked, tilting his head back to stare up at me.

I shook my head. "You'll only be staying with me for a little while." When he sat up and looked extremely upset all over again, I shoved him back at the bed and quickly explained before he could start yelling. "Don't jump to conclusions. It's not because I don't want to live with you. It's because I'm sick. Remember how I always had that IV? I've been taking medicine to keep me healthy, but that medicine is running out, and when it's gone I'm going to die."

"We can go to a hospital and find a good doctor and you'll get better!"

"I'm not going to get better," I whispered, and his face scrunched up, much like Dib's did when he was trying not to cry. "It's alright. You and Six and Five will be fine, even when I'm gone. I promise."

"But I don't want you to die!" He almost sounded angry, as if he was insinuating that I was doing it on purpose. And although he was upset, I felt happy hearing that he cared about me. Given that he almost never showed such obvious affection, I'd probably never hear something of this sort from him again.

"Death is a natural part of life," I softly replied. "It will happen to everyone someday. You have to learn to accept that."

For a split second, he looked a bit scared, and I wondered if I should have phrased it differently, but then he hardened his face into his usual somewhat grumpy expression and crossed his arms, rolling onto his back. "I don't want to."

Smiling faintly in relief that he had calmed down, I propped myself up on one arm and stared at him. "Well, you still have a while to think it through. If I ration my medicine, I've got a few months left." Assuming nothing would happen to us when we went back.

"I don't want to think it through!" he grouchily declared, kicking his feet at the rumpled blanket.

"What would you like to do, then?" I asked, giving up.

For several seconds he was silent, and the grumpiness slowly faded into a somewhat embarrassed, apologetic look that he rarely wore. "I want to clean up the food I dropped," he eventually whispered. An overwhelming gush of parental pride abruptly exploded inside of me. This was only the second time—and the first time sounding so willing—that he had offered, all on his own, to clean up some mess he'd made.

So, after I gave him a hug he acted like he didn't want, and after we washed his face in the bathroom, we went back downstairs to rejoin the others, minus James, who had gone somewhere again. The day went by quickly, and in basically the same manner as yesterday—watching the boys play outside with Benjamin. But rather than moping about all on my own by the window, I was put back on Baby Duty, and Miranda stayed nearby, keeping me from being completely bored.

Breaking the staring match I was having with Five—he had been winning—I glanced over at Miranda while she dug around in the diaper bag. "Do you have children?" I asked, looking down when Five let out an "ah" noise. His tiny mouth opened wide as he yawned, his wrinkly face getting even wrinklier when his eyes squeezed shut. Good grief, he was so adorable…

"No," she answered after a moment, dropping a handful of colorful baby clothes onto the couch. "Sometimes I wish I did, but no. I'm infertile." Feeling guilty for asking, I gave her a hasty apology and attempted to think of some other conversation topic, but she just laughed and smiled, carefully folding the tiny clothes and stacking them in a neat little pile. "Don't worry. It's been a long time since James and I found out. I suppose we could adopt, or use some medical procedure to get pregnant, but kids just…wouldn't really fit our careers. Constantly movin' all over the place, gettin' assigned to dangerous stuff like this. But even without kids, I'm content. Just happy to be able to make a difference in the world, you know?"

"I don't know, really," I admitted. "I haven't done anything worthwhile with my life."

"Then whataya call that baby on your lap?" she countered, sounding amused. "Isn't he worthwhile?"

Sighing, I shook my head and looked out the window, watching while Three tripped and did a face-plant in the snow, which would have probably been alarming yesterday, but now Three and Six both had complete sets of outdoor clothes that the Americans had supplied, along with countless outfits for Five. "Don't give me credit for something I didn't do on purpose."

"The stuff you do, on purpose or not, will mean the world to someone else. Give yourself a bit of credit, at least." She held up a bright green and yellow infant bodysuit and a matching hat with frog eyes bulging out on top. "O-o-oh, let's make him wear this one next time he poops all over himself."

"You probably don't have long to wait," I mumbled. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since I'd been given the baby, and I had already changed his diaper at least fifteen times. It was like he had a magical digestive system that created ten times more excrement than how much milk he'd drank.

Miranda chuckled and made a fist, putting the hat on top, staring at it for several seconds. I quickly looked away when her cheery expression dimmed slightly. An urge to let Miranda hold Five rose up, but I suppressed it, not wanting to seem like I was trying to pass off my responsibilities to someone else.

My mind started to wander to Taiwan while Miranda continued sorting and packing away the boys' clothes into the diaper bag. The internal conflict from last night was still raging chaotically in my head, leaving me completely without any resolution. I really couldn't decide if I wanted to refuse to see everyone, or, as Benjamin suggested, say my goodbyes. Both ways seemed so messy and painful.

When evening came around I still hadn't prepared myself at all, but before I knew it, I was going out the front door with Benjamin, Miranda, and the boys. Fighting to ignore the horrible cold that made even the tiniest movement difficult, I climbed into the military vehicle waiting outside, all the while trying to subdue the ridiculously hyper boys, who had never seen a car before, much less one that floated, which was completely mind-blowing to them, and thus were a million times more excited than I wanted them to be.

In under twenty minutes we arrived at a small, secluded airstrip filled with people in both American and Chinese military uniforms. Feeling awkward when a bunch of people saluted at Benjamin, I quickly got out of the car, and got into a tiny plane, which immediately distracted the boys from their annoyance that they had to leave the "magic car" behind. With little trouble, soon we were in the air and headed east. I stared outside into the dark sky, my stomach becoming more and more nauseated with each passing second. I had told Benjamin right before we'd left the safe house that I didn't want to see anyone yet, but since we weren't keeping my return a secret, certain people were probably going to contact me anyway, and that made me feel extremely nervous.

What would I do if Heng came to find me?

…And what if he didn't?

Both of those scenarios sounded terrible, and I couldn't decide which one was worse.

I wanted to see him so badly, but I wanted to never see him again. I wanted to be with him for as long as possible, but I wanted to stay by myself. I wanted to go straight to his house, but I wanted to run as far away as I could. I wanted to hear that he'd been waiting for me as he'd promised, but I wanted to hear that he'd forgotten.

My inner battle was still going at full-throttle when we landed in Taiwan, after traveling for slightly over an hour. However, we all got into a helicopter rather than leaving the airport, so my terrified thoughts had a chance to start back up almost immediately. And that terror soared to new heights, for a completely different reason, when we landed again and I got out of the helicopter, shivering violently as the cold night air was blasted around me by the spinning blades overhead.

"Why are we here‽" I demanded in a yell, glaring at Benjamin as he passed the drowsy Six to me, then hopped out of the helicopter, onto the helipad of P City's private hospital.

"Captain's orders!" he replied, carefully picking up Three, then he grabbed our bags with his free hand and strode off toward the door, shoving me along in front of himself as Miranda, carrying Five, followed.

"I couldn't care less what his orders are! I want to go somewhere else!" I snapped, attempting to evade the open doorway in front of us, but he pushed me inside anyway. I gave an extremely dirty look to the man who shut the door, but was promptly ushered toward an elevator and had no time to demand to be let back out again.

As Benjamin forced me inside, I put myself in the corner and glared at him as he pressed one of the buttons. Shifting the bags, he explained, "Captain Walker said he wants to check on your arm, an' the boys' arms, so we got you guys a room here, where he's got all the stuff he needs."

"My arm is fine!"

"He doesn't think so, since you've been refusing to take the antibiotics." Letting out a sigh when the door opened, he gave me a glance and walked out. "Relax. We're putting you in a high-security room, an' we'll have guards outside the door. Plus we've booked the rooms on either side of yours, so we'll be nearby if you need us."

"Your precautions will be useless if the hospital staff do something," I growled, looking around the quiet hallway. It looked and smelled so similar to the lab, my mind was getting flooded by my recollections of being trapped in that hell, and I could feel myself starting to panic. Even going back to my father's house would have been better than this.

"The Captain will be the one looking after you four, not the staff."

"Oh, what a _relief_," I sarcastically hissed at him, coming to a halt when Miranda hurried past us to open one of the doors. When I attempted to remain where I was, Benjamin used his elbow to shove me into the room. My heart started pounding harder and harder as I unwillingly stepped inside, feeling like I was going to puke when Gui Wen and Delun stood up out of the bedside chairs.

What the hell? I'd clearly told Benjamin that I didn't want to see anyone.

"I'll put the boys to bed," Benjamin told me, setting down the bags and reaching over to lift Six out of my arms. Six was so tired, he didn't protest at all at getting passed around. Reluctantly letting go, I watched in fear as Benjamin carried both boys back out of the room, and whispered, "We'll be over here if you need us," jerking his head to the right. Miranda put Five in a plastic hospital crib nearby, then gave me a smile and followed after Benjamin, shutting the door behind herself.

Trying not to run away, I braced myself when Gui Wen and Delun both came rushing forward, and my brother nearly knocked me off my feet with a spine-snapping hug. Awkwardly patting him on the back, I half-listened to him and Delun as they scolded me for disappearing, demanded to know if I was okay, and asked questions to which I knew I wasn't allowed to give answers. Mumbling vague replies, I felt my breath leave me as my eyes searched the room behind them, although I already knew I wouldn't find who I was looking for. And I was right.

Heng wasn't here.

Several seconds went past while this sank in. Feeling my eyes start to burn, I returned my attention to Gui Wen and Delun, trying my hardest to look happy. Either they didn't notice my abrupt misery, or they simply took it as something to be expected from someone who'd been kidnapped, and continued to talk like nothing had changed.

"Stupid Twig, you had everyone worried," Delun growled, giving me several slaps on the back, which, somewhat surprisingly, were far more gentle than the ones he'd given me in the past. "The girls have been seriously discussing storming the police station to get answers."

Not everyone had been worried…

"Sorry," I whispered, fighting to keep away the overwhelming depression as I mentally told myself over and over that it didn't matter that Heng wasn't here. I was the one who'd told him not to wait, so I didn't have any right to be upset. Besides, now he wouldn't get caught up in anything else. He was better off without me, the big mess of problems. It didn't matter at all. Not at all.

Nothing mattered now.

"Are you okay? You look like you're about to pass out," Gui Wen observed, grabbing my shoulders as if he was expecting me to topple over.

Delun narrowed his eyes. "I bet you haven't eaten anything today…or yesterday, or any other day since you left my house last _year_, you idiot."

"I had three meals today," I corrected indignantly, "and yesterday, too." Leaving out the part where I had indeed not eaten anything else before that, I stepped toward the bed. "I just need to lay down."

Gui Wen tugged me back. "No, go invade the bathroom first," he ordered. I gave him a bewildered look, but that immediately changed into shock when he continued. "Dib's been in there for over five minutes."

"He drank a whole pot of coffee all by himself," Delun added. "Probably been in there peeing the whole time."

My mind was all jumbled up when Gui Wen gave me an encouraging push toward the bathroom door. I wanted to run and hide somewhere…but I also wanted to blast through the bathroom door and strangle Heng for making me think he wasn't here. I was so happy and relieved and mad and completely confused, but somehow I managed to walk forward, feeling all floaty and weird. Gathering up all of my tiny shreds of courage, I held my breath and knocked.

"Come in," a muffled voice from inside called, and I started shaking extremely hard, that feeling of nausea rising again, worse than ever. Attempting to keep myself from running from the room, I slowly opened the door and stepped inside, feasting my eyes on Heng's back. He was wearing the usual red hooded jacket and worn-out blue jeans, and had grown his hair out again—it was tied back, but was still long enough to hang to his neck.

"I'll be ou' soon, jus' brushin' my teef," he announced very wetly, not turning. Dipping down, he spit into the sink, then straightened as he added, "Don't wanna have coffee breath." Finally looking into the mirror, his eyes met mine and he froze, his face looking extremely surprised. Whirling around, he let out a scream of "AL!" and I was promptly grabbed, spun around, and smeared with minty toothpaste foam. Afraid that he was going to drop me, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held on for dear life, fighting the urge to vomit all over him as I watched the bathroom spin around and around and around while Heng continued to scream excited, incoherent things.

I wasn't sure how long he continued this, but eventually he toppled over, crashing into the wall and almost falling into the bathtub. Rather than putting me down, he hugged me even tighter, digging his fingers into my shoulder and side as he smashed our mouths together in what I guessed was supposed to be a kiss, though it felt more like he was attempting to break my face. Then his excitement abruptly sank into tears. "I missed you so much," he quietly told me, taking gasping breaths. "Oh god, I missed you-u-u! Where the hell have you been, you jerk‽"

Shakily releasing my death-grip on his shoulders, I leaned back to smile at him, then used my sleeve to rub the toothpaste foam off his mouth and chin. "I missed you, too."

Scrunching up his face, he started crying harder and his voice got a bit squeaky. "You were gone so long, I was starting to think you were dead." With a miserable frown, he took a moment to let out a few sobs. "B-but you said you'd conta-tact me, so I waited…and waited and waited, and the stupid police never made any progress with their stupid investigation and would never tell us anything, and I was so worried!"

Letting the crying take over, he buried his face in my neck, completely soaking a patch of my shirt. Once upon a time, this behavior would have annoyed me. If he kept it up I would have slapped him upside the head and told him to stop being such a baby. I would have scolded him for spinning me around so much I'd almost puked. I would have yelled at him for getting toothpaste all over me.

But at the moment, my mood was soaring somewhere in the heavens, happiness taking place of everything else now that I finally knew he had waited. Through all of the shit that had happened, Heng had always stayed the same, and that unshakable solidarity made me feel more relieved than ever before.

Leaning against him, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of his familiar scent. But then, through all of the warmth and joy, that small question started nagging at me. If he knew what I was…would he still hold me like this? Would he still cry for my sake? Would he still love me? Would he have come to see me at all?

Quickly shoving all of that out of my mind, I gripped him harder. None of that mattered. He would never know, so it didn't matter. Attempting to direct my thoughts elsewhere, I opened my eyes and glanced at his shoulder, then leaned away a bit to glance at his other one, visually measuring up the distance. He wasn't as wide as he used to be.

"Have you lost weight?" I asked in concern, rubbing his arms.

Heng looked up and gave me a very annoyed frown. "Lost…lost WEIGHT‽" he snapped, abruptly dropping me to the floor and shaking me slightly. "Look who's talking! You're even skinnier than you were before, stupid! After all the fattening-up I made you do!" He suddenly gasped and stared at me, with a fearful expression. "Or were they starving you‽" he whispered in a horrified tone.

I slowly shook my head. "They gave me food." I just had never wanted to eat any of it.

He huffed at me and put on a very stern face. "Stupid Al, never taking care of yourself…Not even wearing a coat. Geeze!"

I took a step back when he bent over forward, slipping out of his hoodie. Once he had it off, he crammed me into it, and although I attempted to make him let me put it on myself, he roughly yanked it down and, much to my embarrassment, the hat Benjamin had given me yesterday was pulled off in the process. It had been over a week since the doctors had last shaved my head, but I was still bald all the same, and I hadn't wanted him to see, although I supposed he would have found out eventually.

Annoyance immediately began to rise when Heng's face turned a bit pink and the corners of his mouth started twitching. Even though he made no noise, it was obvious that he was laughing at me in his head. Quickly yanking my hat back on, I roughly shoved him out of the way and stomped out of the bathroom, looking around for Gui Wen and Delun, but the room was empty. I jumped a little when Heng grabbed my shoulders and directed me toward the bed, stuffed me under the covers, and flopped himself over my stomach.

"I was so lonely," he whimpered. After a brief moment of squirming around to get himself comfortable, he gave me a pouty look and ordered, "Rub my back!" Obediently putting a hand on his back, I started rubbing it and tiredly closed my eyes, listening to his little contented humming sounds as he pressed his face to my chest. If the bed hadn't been so uncomfortable, it would have been almost like we had gone back to before. The familiarity was soothing.

"Where have you been?" he asked again.

"Tibet."

He let out a very annoyed-sounding snort. "That's not so far away…The stupid police kept telling me and everyone they hadn't gotten any new information. All year they kept giving the same exact excuse! It's like they weren't even trying to find you!"

They probably hadn't been trying, either under the pressure from the people connected to the labs, or pressure from the people investigating.

"And right after you disappeared, tons of asshole reporters kept harassing all of us, then after like a _week_, there was barely anything at all about you in the news anywhere, like you were an old story that everyone was tired of! Made me so pissed off…After all that time without any information, it was a really big surprise to hear a bunch of Americans had found you. Didn't even know the US government was involved…Kinda weird to see all those military guys drive up to my house earlier, to bring me here," Heng mumbled. "Especially your secretary. Marching around and giving people orders…So weird."

"Did he happen to tell you when I'd be able to leave?" I asked, feeling extremely irritated all over again when I heard it was James' fault I'd had a bunch of unwanted visitors waiting for me here.

"Nope…All he said was that they had found you. Since they were bringing you here, I was afraid you were going to have a really bad injury or something."

"There's a small one on my left shoulder," I admitted, "but he already dealt with it, so I really don't need treatment…I'd much rather go home and talk some things over with my father. I'll do that tomorrow, if they let me." Heng moved his head off my chest, so I cracked open an eye, taking in his fearful expression. "Don't worry, I'm not going to stay there, and I won't let him do anything. That is, if he even agrees to a meeting. I think he might have disowned me, but that certainly doesn't mean he's allowed to keep my belongings."

"Al…" Heng's tone was oddly gentle and quiet. "They didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" I slowly questioned, fully opening my eyes to stare at him.

Taking a small breath, he hesitantly stared back and answered, "Your father's been dead since last year."

I silently stared at him for several long moments, attempting to process what he'd just said. "What‽" I exclaimed in shock. My father had always seemed so powerful and invincible, hearing that he'd died was completely ludicrous.

Looking somewhat scared, Heng took another breath, briefly glancing down as he took my hand, as if trying to comfort me. "Um…Well, about an hour after you left Wei Bo's house, there was a bunch of stuff on the news about him working with a triad group and doing a lot of illegal stuff. The police went to arrest him later and, um…geeze, it sounded like a horror movie. The bodies of your house staff were everywhere. They found his body in his bedroom. Looked like someone had beaten him to death. Police said he probably went crazy and started killing everyone, and got himself killed in the process."

"He didn't kill the house staff," I immediately corrected, feeling sick all over again as I mentally replayed walking up to the front door and being met by no one. "They were already dead when we got home."

"Oh." He seemed a bit surprised. "I wonder who beat him up, then. The police said nothing in the house had been stolen, and there were no suspicious fingerprints, so it wasn't a robber or anything, right?"

Sighing, I let my eyes roam around the ceiling, immediately deciding the culprit had been Zhong Yu, or perhaps one of his equally-deranged minions. How in the world could he murder so many people, including his own brother, and brush it off like it was nothing? He hadn't been sad about it, but he hadn't ever seemed to be proud of it either. It just didn't matter to him.

"Are you okay?" Heng asked quietly, giving my hand a squeeze when I looked back at him. "I…I mean, well, not to be disrespectful toward the dead, but I guess I'm kind of happy that he's gone. But, um…he was still your father, and I know you cared about him…So, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," I whispered, going back to staring at the ceiling. There was nothing left in me but pity, disdain, and anger toward the man who had tormented me all my life. I doubted now that I had ever really loved him; I had simply wanted a parent, and had looked for one in the wrong place.

"I'm not sad," I added after a moment of silence. "I'm relieved, I suppose…Does that make me a bad person?"

Heng gave my hand another squeeze and moved himself upward, laying down next to me and pulling me into a firm hug. "No, Al…Of course not. You've got every right to be relieved after everything he's done." He smiled and ran one of his rough hands over my face. "He can't hurt you anymore."

I stared into his round eyes, taking in the wrinkles on his face that hadn't been there last year. Lifting my own hands, I ran them over his face in return, letting my fingers explore the familiar shape of his square jaw and scruffy cheeks. Being able to be with him again made me so happy. Leaning forward, I closed my eyes and kissed him, letting the rest of the world fade from my mind. Right now, he was all that mattered. He was the only thing I wanted. The gaping hole of loneliness that had been growing and growing since last year, even with the boys around for company, was abruptly filled in with his presence.

When the kiss ended, he gave me an accusatory frown and scratched his fingertips over my cheek. "Excuse me, but please keep your facial hair under control. Your stubble was poking me."

"Revenge for all the times you scratched me with yours."

Laughing lightly, his eyes dropped to the lower half of my face. "Never seen you with a beard and mustache before…It looks kinda weird."

Giving him a look of false offense, I sighed. "I'll shave in the morning. Is there a razor in the bathroom?"

"Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff in there. It's like a hotel…though I doubt the food is like a hotel," he added, then pointed at a huge bag I hadn't noticed in the corner. "I brought you lotsa stuff from my fridge, so you don't have to eat nasty hospital food."

"Thank you." Smiling, I let my head drop onto the pillows and took Heng's hand, but then was startled when he suddenly sat up, looking surprised.

"Where'd that baby come from?" Abruptly filled with fear, I watched as he stood up and went over to the crib, bending over and carefully picking up Five. "Whose is it?" he wondered in a confused tone, turning around.

I really, really, really didn't want to discuss Five, but took a shaky breath and unwillingly told him, "Mine." Heng's face immediately twisted with a pained expression, and I quickly added, "It wasn't on purpose."

"It's impossible to _accidentally_ have sex with someone, Al…" Taking a deep breath, his face relaxed a little as he stared down at the baby. "You don't have to make up some story. I won't be mad at you if they forced you to do it, for whatever creepy reason."

"I did nothing with anyone," I whispered. "I never touched the mother. I never even saw her. The kidnappers injected me with an aphrodisiac and…Well, that's what happened."

His mouth dropped open a little as he glanced down at the baby, then stepped forward and sat down on the edge of the bed. "What the hell kind of people were they‽ Kidnapping people and making them have babies…That's so fucked up! Where's the mom‽"

"They killed her after she gave birth."

"Shit…" he breathed, looking scared. "Who was she?"

"I don't know. Someone else they kidnapped." Perhaps it hadn't been the right choice, but after hearing about Six's mother and father, I had refused Benjamin's offer when he'd asked me after breakfast if I wanted to hear about the other women used for the August and January series.

"Geeze." Heng fell silent and continued to stare at Five, taking the baby's tiny fists and wiggling them around. Five simply looked kind of bored, as usual. "Why'd they do that?" he asked, then gave me a quick glance. "Don't bother trying to answer, I'm just wondering aloud. The Americans already told me I'm not allowed to know, 'cause the investigation is still ongoing. But geeze, kidnapping super-attractive people and forcing them to have babies…Is it some kind of human trafficking scheme? Making cute little kids to sell as sex slaves to dirty old perverts?" He cringed and shuddered, and I was abruptly filled with horror, imagining the boys getting raped by old men.

If that, or something similar, was what had really happened to all of the children I had thought were dead…

I made a mental note to ask Benjamin if the laboratory's records were truthful, then refocused my attention on Heng as he let out a sigh and mumbled, "Well, however the baby happened, it's really cute. How old? Boy or girl?"

"About a week and a half, and he's a boy," I replied.

He smiled and leaned a little closer to Five. "Aww. He's got your pretty eyes, and your grumpy little frown." After a short pause, he added in amusement, "And your bald head."

"Shut up," I grumbled, giving his shoulder a shove as he chuckled.

"He's perfect," he murmured warmly, although his face still looked a little pained.

In worry, I glanced between the two. "Are you angry?"

Slowly shaking his head, he carefully moved himself backward and lifted his legs onto the bed, putting Five down between us. "No…Not at you and the baby, anyway. And not his mom, either. Just pissed at the kidnappers." Falling silent, he tugged Five's bodysuit into place and pursed his lips. "Kinda…jealous, too, I guess," he mumbled, "'cause someone else got to have your kid, even if it wasn't by choice."

"It's not like _you_ could have given birth to one," I pointed out, frowning in confusion. Not unless there was some bizarre new medical procedure that I didn't know about. Well, now that I thought about it, since it was possible nowadays to create clones, making a man pregnant wouldn't be too hard, then, would it? But what kind of weirdo would choose to go through something like that…

"I woulda figured out a way," Heng sulkily declared, crossing his arms, then looked down at Five and quirked an eyebrow, watching as the baby held open his mouth for a moment, then closed it and opened it again. "I think he's hungry. Do you have food for him?"

"In the bag by the door," I replied, watching as he slid off the bed and hurried away. "The milk is in a thermos, so I hope it's still warm enough."

Thankfully, the milk's temperature was fine, so within a few minutes, Heng was holding Five in the crook of his left arm while the baby ate, watching with extreme fascination and making aww-filled remarks like "Look at his chubby little cheeks!" and "Look at his cute little chin!" and "Look at his fat little stomach!" While I was happy that Heng had accepted the baby, I was feeling a bit annoyed that I wasn't the sole object of his attention anymore. Then again, a small part of me still felt like Five was me, so it was sort of like I was jealous of myself, not that I really had a reason to be jealous…

Abruptly, my mind was filled with a horrifying thought: What if Heng started liking Five in the future? People lived so long nowadays, a twenty-six-year age gap probably wouldn't be seen as strange, once Five was an adult. Five would probably grow up to have a personality similar to mine, and obviously he would look just like me, so it was terrifyingly possible that Heng would have feelings for Five. But…I was a clone of Gui Wen, and Heng didn't like Gui Wen like that…But what if he had met Gui Wen before me? Would Heng have fallen for him instead? What if one of the other April series had been sent to my father's house instead of me? Would Heng have liked him?

The never-ending stream of panicky questions was interrupted by the door opening and a sleepy voice calling "Se-e-even!"

Eyes going wide in surprise and concern, I jumped out of bed and hurried toward the door, kneeling down in front of Three and Six. "What's the matter?" I had thought they'd gone to sleep a long time ago, yet here they were…

"Why are you in here?" Three irritably demanded, swaying a little and looking like he was fighting to keep his eyes open.

"We want to sleep in here, too," Six explained.

"The bed will be crowded," I warned. It was large enough for two adults to sleep side by side, if they didn't mind touching, so it wouldn't be too hard to fit two small boys and myself, but I'd been expecting Heng to stay here, too.

"Doesn't matter!" Three huffed crankily. Smiling, I pulled them forward and picked one up in each arm, then stood and pushed the door shut with my foot. Although Six made a faint sound of relief and closed his eyes, as if already falling asleep, Three sat up and gave a glare to Heng when we got to the bed. "Who's that‽"

Heng gave me a small look, then turned his attention to the boy. "I'm Shi Heng. What's your name?"

Rather than answering the question, Three stood up when I set him and Six down on the mattress. "Seven! Make him go away!"

"No," I quietly replied, tucking Six under the covers and holding them open for Three.

"Why‽"

"He's a very special friend of mine," I sternly told him, then pulled him over and made him lay down.

Three immediately sat up again. "But I don't like him!"

"You don't even know him."

"So‽"

Giving him my behave-right-now expression, I gently pushed him down. "Heng is not leaving. If that makes you uncomfortable, then you can sleep in the other room."

"No-o-o!" he wailed, grabbing onto the blankets. "I'm staying!"

"Then go to sleep," I whispered, "or at least be quieter, so Six can sleep." Giving Heng and I very grumpy looks, Three rolled onto his side, facing away from us, and yanked the blankets over his head. Sighing, I laid down again. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Heng whispered in return, briefly looking amused, but his face soon darkened. "Their heads are shaved…Were they kidnapped, too?"

I nodded. "Three is the loud one, Six is the quiet one. If that isn't enough to tell them apart, Three has a small scar under his right eye—we were jumping on a bed and he got a little too enthusiastic and fell off…The baby is Five, by the way."

Heng raised an eyebrow again. "What's with the numbers?"

Pausing, I attempted to decide how I was supposed to explain without lying. It wasn't like I could tell him the doctors had given us numbers instead of names when we were born. Taking a breath and feeling guilty, I answered half-truthfully, "The kidnappers numbered the bedrooms."

"Oh." Although he still looked a bit confused, he returned his attention to Five, but we both looked up when the door opened again. Gui Wen and Delun stepped inside. Where had they disappeared to?

"Zian, we're going to go," Gui Wen whispered. "I'll be back tomorrow morning."

I slowly nodded, then looked at Delun as he came to a halt, staring down at Five, his expression unreadable. Then he turned to me and unexpectedly told me, "My son is bigger," in a very superior tone, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket. After a brief moment, he turned it around so I could see the screen, which was displaying a photograph of Delun, Chen, Shuang, and a baby boy with a lot of puffy hair and an extremely surprised facial expression. "Jin, four months old," he proudly declared.

Staring in surprise at the photo, I eventually looked back at him and replied, "Congratulations."

"Thank you." He accepted it like I was handing him a trophy. "Cutest, smartest baby ever…Except for Shuang." I made no effort to agree, verbally or otherwise, but he didn't seem to notice, and kept bragging for nearly a minute, until he finally announced, "Well, I'll see you later. Jiao-mèi and Chen told me earlier that they'll be coming to visit tomorrow morning."

"Thank you for the warning."

"And eat a bowl of lard or something, would you‽ Stupid Twig."

"I'll ask a nurse for some lard immediately. With greasy fat trimmings on the side."

Heng made an "mmm" noise and nodded while Delun snapped a "Good!" and turned toward the door, waving a hand.

"Gui Wen, wait a moment," I quietly requested when he moved to follow Delun, but stopped and questioningly looked back. "I heard about Father. Is the airline alright?"

Letting out a sigh, he nodded and crossed his arms as he came back. "For the most part, although quite a few of the shareholders and partners left because they didn't want to be associated with our family after the news got out about what Father did. That bastard's will even had me as the beneficiary…but there was a lot of stuff going on and I didn't want to deal with anything else, so I handed control over to Aunt and Uncle. _Temporary_ control," he corrected. "They've done a great job managing everything, and also got some help from other companies, but I made sure they knew it was only until you came back. You can reclaim it whenever you want."

"No, they may keep it," I replied, feeling satisfied.

Gui Wen and Heng both gave me disbelieving expressions. "You were willing to give up everything and live under Father's iron fist as his heir," Gui Wen mused, "but now that the airline falls into your lap, with Father not attached to the package, you don't want it?"

"I do want it, but my circumstances have changed. I can't inherit anymore."

Looking angry, Gui Wen sighed in a frustrated way. "You don't have to inherit right away, you know. You can recover first. Or are you being timid again? Because if you're just afraid to take the company back from Uncle, I'm going to hit you so hard, you–"

"That's not it," I interrupted, frowning up at him. "I'll explain later. I don't want to talk about it right now."

He didn't look convinced at all, but nodded and sighed again. "Alright. Just think this over really carefully, okay? See you tomorrow morning."

Heng and I sent "goodnight's" after him as he left the room, then I settled down and rubbed my eyes, feeling exhausted. "After you chose that damn airline over me, you'd better have a super-good reason for giving it up now," Heng continued, giving me an extremely annoyed stare as he lifted Five up and started burping him.

"Due to recent events," I sleepily mumbled, "I have been forced to rearrange my priorities."

"Woulda been nice if you'd rearranged them last year," he growled, slowly standing up and walking toward the door. For a moment, I was afraid I'd made him so angry he going to leave, but then he whispered, "Go ahead and go to sleep first."

"You're staying here tonight?" I hastily asked, watching anxiously as he crouched down to get some things out of the diaper bag.

"I'm staying here 'til you get released," he clarified, "then I'm coming with you to wherever you go afterward. There's no way I'm gonna let you outta sight, stupid."

Letting out a relieved breath, I slowly relaxed into the blankets again and sleepily followed him with my eyes as he finished burping Five, changed his diaper, put him back in his crib, and washed out the bottle. Stretching, he let out a small grunt and stepped out of his shoes. Taking off his glasses, he put them on the bedside table and waited for me to move over as far as I could without pushing Three and Six off the edge of the bed, then he climbed in and sighed faintly, hugging me tightly from behind. "Goodnight," he murmured, giving my cheek a kiss before he flopped his head down onto the pillow.

"Goodnight." I smiled and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and shutting my eyes. I finally felt somewhat safe again.


	69. Fading

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note – **__Even with all of the changes I made between the original Clockwork and this version, I was very determined to include the children from the original epilogue, Lien Hua, Gao, and of course Jin as well. Hooray for babies all over the place!_

* * *

><p>"It's fine," I snarled, glaring up at James. Three and Six, wearing somewhat amused expressions, glanced between us as if we were putting on a show to watch during their breakfast.<p>

Regardless of our audience, he glared right back. "It's not fine."

"It is!"

"If it's fine, then there's no problem if I look at it!"

"You don't need to look because it's fine!"

His face darkened into the agitated expression he always wore during those examinations. "If you don't cooperate, I'm going to sedate you and tie you to the bed again."

"It's _my_ arm," I huffed stubbornly. "What's it matter to you?"

"I risked a lot to rescue you," he growled. "You and the boys are my responsibility now, and I'm not going to just watch while you get an infection. My superiors would order my head on a platter if something happened to our evidence on my watch."

"I couldn't care less what your superiors will do to you. Besides, you said you treated it already, so leave it be!"

Clenching his jaw, he started arranging things on the wheeled table he'd brought into the hospital room. "I only removed the chip. I didn't have what I needed to properly close the wound, and you haven't let me look at it, so I haven't been able to keep it disinfected."

"It doesn't need anything else!"

"Al, quit," Heng scolded, giving me a reproving look. "Let him look at it. It hurts, doesn't it?"

"It's not unbearable!" I insisted, feeling far angrier now that Heng was taking the kidnapper's side over mine; he knew the basics of what James had done, so it made me a billion times more furious than when he'd stupidly defended that rapist, Victor at Lotus' dinner party. "I can deal with it just fine! I don't need him to do anything!"

Frowning sternly, he repeated, "Quit. You're being silly."

Giving him an outraged glower, I turned away from him and agitatedly tore off the hoodie he'd stuffed me into. I wanted to throw it, but since Three and Six were watching I dropped it beside me on the bed instead, then slipped off the blue lab shirt as well. Pulling my legs up onto the mattress, I let my left arm go lax and sulkily stared at the wall while James started removing my bandages.

Holding my breath, I attempted to remain in one spot when he touched the area around the incision, making it hurt even more. "It doesn't look too bad," he quietly remarked, wiping something on it. "A little red and swollen, however."

"Does that mean it's infected?" Heng asked anxiously, coming to stand behind us.

"Not yet, but it would be soon if we left it untreated."

Things were silent for a few seconds while he did something—washed it off, perhaps, since he kept wiping something cold and wet on it—then Heng spoke up again. "It doesn't look big…Is it deep?"

"Deep enough to get underneath the muscle." His hands left my arm for a moment, then came back. Heng suddenly held his breath, and an odd sensation started up where the wiping had once been. It felt like he was lightly pulling on my skin. It didn't hurt, though; the pain was quickly ebbing away.

I was starting to feel better, until Heng mumbled, "That's so nasty."

"What is?!" I demanded, attempting to twist around and look, but James shoved me back into place. What was he doing back there? Yanking off my skin? Heng hadn't gotten alarmed, so I had assumed James had been doing something _normal_ doctors did, but now I was extremely terrified.

"Don't move. I'm stitching it shut." Everything was quiet for over a minute, then the pulling stopped and he put something on that felt like a bandage. As he moved away from me, I gave a glance behind, then grabbed my shirt and hastily started putting it back on, not wanting him to do anything else. "The suture will dissolve in about a week and a half. Try to avoid using your arm until then. Also, I cleaned it, but I've got antibiotics you still need to take, and the optional painkillers."

"It doesn't hurt anymore," I informed, slipping into the jacket and straightening my hat.

"I temporarily numbed it for the stitches, but that will wear off in a few hours."

Nodding, I settled back into the bed and glanced toward the table by the window, where Three and Six were still eating their breakfast. "What about their arms?"

"I treated them last night."

"And Five?"

"Treatment isn't necessary; the kidnappers hadn't chipped him yet."

Hoping he was telling the truth, I nodded again and sighed, leaning back on the pillows as I closed my eyes. I was so exhausted. For the second night in a row, I'd woken up to the sound of Five crying at barely half-past three, and I hadn't been able to go back to bed afterward, which left me with only a few hours of restless sleep.

I also discovered, when I had attempted to go get Five more milk, that the boys and I weren't allowed to leave the room. The two guards posted outside the door had informed me that James insisted it was too dangerous for us to wander around the hospital, even with an escort. However, even if it was for my safety this time, I was extremely tired of being locked up wherever I went, and was very annoyed with it all. The small piece of the city I could see from the window was all I had, that familiar sight of the skyscrapers reflecting the morning sunlight. The whole world was right there in front of me, but it felt so far away and unreachable.

Then again, I had always felt somewhat disconnected from it.

A person who had never belonged there.

Never should have existed at all…

I jumped in surprise and whisked my arm to one side when someone touched it, eyes popping open as I stared in fright up at James. He gave me a tired frown and held up what was unmistakably an IV tube. "Don't you have anything better to do than play doctor?!" I snapped.

"Give me your arm," he sighed. "I need to attach this."

"I don't need it!"

"Yes, you do."

"I do not! Leave me be and quit making excuses to keep me here!"

"Al," Heng warningly interrupted, giving me that aggravating stern look again. "He's the doctor, you're not. If he says you need it, then you do. Let him do his job."

Absolutely enraged that Heng was still siding against me, I gave him the angriest glare I could muster and threw my arm at James. He let out another sigh and attached the tube to the base of my thumb, securing it with tape. Once the stand was set up, he informed, "You may leave after the bag empties," and left the room at last.

Rolling onto my right side, away from Heng, I closed my eyes and inwardly fumed at him and James both, hating getting pushed around. This was best for me, and that was best for me, and this other stuff—I was fucking sick of other people telling me what I was and wasn't allowed to do, because they thought they knew better. I wanted to get out of this horrible place as soon as possible. I wanted to go home, to get everything fixed up for the boys before I ran out of time. Since my father had apparently died right after I'd been kidnapped, he probably hadn't absorbed my assets into the company, so my bank accounts probably remained untouched, and I actually did have something to give to the Lins. I didn't have anywhere near as much money as I would have if I'd been the beneficiary in my father's will, but I knew Gui Wen would give me part if I asked, so I could still offer financial support for all three boys long after my death.

If I could just get out of here.

"It would be nice if you'd tone down the grouchiness," Heng said, walking around to the other side of the bed and laying down beside me. "He's just trying to help." He paused, maybe to give me room to answer, but at the moment I didn't want to talk to him or anyone else. "I know he was pretending to be one of the kidnappers, and I guess that's why you're so mad at him, but from what I've heard they would have kidnapped you even if he wasn't involved. Plus he kept them from killing you, right? But you're acting like he targeted you, not the real bad guys." There was another pause, longer than the first. "Sorry, if it sounds like I think I understand everything…I really don't. I have no idea. Since no one will tell me any details, I can only imagine how terrible it was…but it still wasn't _all_ his fault."

I knew it wasn't all his fault, but that certainly didn't mean I was ever going to forgive him. And the fact that I knew perfectly well that I was being childish and unreasonable simply made me even crankier. I just wanted everyone to go away and leave me alone.

Although I wanted to continue to grouse, a commotion outside the door made me sit up and attempt to look less sulky—I could hear Gui Wen's voice, and that probably meant Chen and Jiao weren't far behind. The door opened and in they came, completely taking me by surprise. "Gēge!" Chen called, smiling brightly as she set a diaper bag on the floor and baby carrier by Heng and my feet. Inside was Delun's newest pride and joy—Jin.

But the baby wasn't what had surprised me.

It was the fact that Jiao's stomach was so big, it looked like the weight was going to snap the tiny woman in half. How in the world was she managing to walk, or even stand up?

Jiao waddled up to my bedside and gave me as tight of a hug as she could manage. "Oh, Zian, I'm so happy you're back!"

"You had us all so worried!" Chen added, joining the hug.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I awkwardly replied, patting them both on the back.

Neither of them looked convinced, but before they could say anything else a small voice interrupted from the other side of the bed. "You're fat."

Turning toward the source of the insult, I gave Three a frown. "That's a very rude thing to say."

"But loo-o-o-ok!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Jiao's middle. "She's lumpy!"

Jiao seemed to be holding in a lot of laughter, and she cleared her throat, smiling warmly. "It's not fat. There's a baby in there."

Three's face became shocked and he slid downward until we could only see his wide eyes staring over the edge of the messy blankets. "You ate a baby?!"

"No!" Jiao denied, her voice shaking with amusement. "I'm pregnant. You see, babies grow in their mommies' tummies until they're big enough to live out here with everyone else."

Three straightened and crossed his arms, and although he was attempting to hide it, he was obviously embarrassed. "I knew that!" he huffed, sounding like he was lying. "I just never saw it before! Okay?! I know all about babies!"

Chen nodded. "We heard how smart you two are. A-a-a-and, we heard you really like puzzles, so…" She turned toward Gui Wen and took two large, bright yellow gift bags he'd been holding. "We brought these for you both!"

"I don't–!" Three snappishly began, grabbing hold of Heng's legs to scramble up onto the bed, but he caught my eye and paused, looking a bit guilty for continuing his rudeness. Six slid off the chair and hurried to the bed, climbing up after Three and curiously looking at the bag. Three put on an exaggeratedly regal face and said, "Thank you," as they each took a bag.

Several moments passed while the boys did nothing. Jiao leaned forward a little and murmured, "Go ahead."

Three and Six glanced at me, wearing confused expressions. "There are presents inside," I explained, causing both of them to look much more excited. Hastily they tore into the bags, bits of orange and red tissue paper flying everywhere. I gave Jiao and Chen apologetic looks, whispering, "They've never had gifts before."

"Oh. They must have thought we were just trying to give them boring old bags." Jiao laughed for a moment, though she and Chen openly wore sadness on their faces.

"Where are their parents?" Chen asked softly.

"Dead. The boys were born and raised in the kidnappers' care."

My answer seemed to have yanked their heart strings right off; both looked like they were about to cry. In stark contrast, the boys were little bundles of happiness as they pulled colorful boxes out of the bags and started waving them in my face, with excited orders of "Look at this, Seven!"

As it turned out, Jiao, Chen and Gui Wen had stopped at a toy store on the way here and had bought the boys hand-held game consoles and several complex three-dimensional puzzles, one of which they immediately tore into and started piecing together with Gui Wen at the table by the window.

With a sigh, Jiao finally sank down onto the edge of the bed and gave another smile toward the boys. "They're very lucky to have you…not that I'm happy you were kidnapped, but at least something good came out of it."

Laughing faintly, I nodded. "I feel lucky to have them as well. They gave me something to hold on to all year." Heng grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze as Chen patted my shoulder. Wanting to change the subject, I asked Jiao, "When are you due?"

Her smile stretched even wider as she put her hands on top of her stomach. "Around the middle of next month. It's a girl. Quon and I are naming her Lien Hua."

"Congratulations." Quickly looking up to Chen, I gave her a smile as well. "And you, too."

As they both gave thank-you's, Chen went over to the crib in which Five was snoozing away the morning, and she carefully rolled it over to us. "What's this handsome fellow's name?"

"He doesn't have a name yet," I replied, suddenly realizing I probably should have been thinking about one. "The kidnappers gave us all numbers, so that's what we've been calling one another."

"How about naming him Gao?" Jiao suggested. "It's what I wanted to name my baby if she'd been a boy."

"I like it," Heng chimed in.

I raised one eyebrow at her. "Isn't 'Gao' a bit pretentious coming from you?"

She gave me an annoyed look and crossed her arms. "What's it matter if it's pretentious? I just thought it would be cute if my baby and I had a similar name!"

"Well, why not save it in case you eventually have a boy?"

Shaking her head, she leaned forward a little to smile down at the baby. "No, you may have it. I have a whole list of names to pick from."

"Okay, then," I agreed, feeling a bit relieved that I wasn't being forced to look through baby name books.

"Do they only have numbers, too?" she asked, glancing toward Three and Six, who were currently scolding Gui Wen for working too slowly. At my nod, her face fell a little and she made a humming noise. "Do you have any names you like, Dib?"

Heng quickly started shaking his head. "No, don't ask me. I'm terrible at naming things."

"But you're their second daddy!" Chen pointed out. "You and Gēge have to pick names together!"

"Let's just have them pick names themselves later." At my suggestion, the others nodded and quieted down, then I straightened up and looked to the left when I heard the noise I had conditioned myself to listen for at all times.

Five—or, well, he was 'Gao' now—was inhaling deeply, which usually meant he was about to start screaming.

"O-o-oh, someone's awa-a-ake," Jiao cooed, immediately standing up and going to the crib when Gao let out a pitiful-sounding cry, wiggling his arms around. Her nose crinkled when she came to a stop, gingerly picking up the baby. "And someone needs a diaper change…When did he eat last?"

"Um, the last time he was awake…I think I fed him around four." I was about to ask to take him, but then remembered I'd used the last of the diapers earlier. "And we're out of diapers."

With a quick nod, she turned and started marching across the room. "Alright, I'll go get some more, and feed him, too, so you can rest."

"I'm going with her," Chen announced before I could stop them, unbuckling Jin from his carrier and picking him up. Giving a cheery smile to her baby, she followed Jiao and chirped, "Let's go for a walk, Jin!"

Uselessly telling them in my head that Gao wasn't allowed to leave the room, I watched as they disappeared out the door and started talking to the guards. The door closed behind them, but I could hear their muffled voices get somewhat argumentative before they stopped altogether. I expected them to return at once, yet half a minute passed and they didn't come back. Hoping they would be okay, I laid back on the pillows and sighed, feeling a bit relieved that I didn't have to change yet another diaper.

Trying to keep myself from falling asleep, I turned my head to look up at the IV bag. It was still nearly full. Wishing it would empty faster, I looked up at the ceiling and sighed again, listening to Three and Six as they chattered at Gui Wen. It was alleviating to see how easily they got used to new people. Unlike my awkwardness and fear around unfamiliar people, the boys had relaxed almost immediately.

"You wanna go to sleep?" Heng murmured, giving my hand another squeeze. I quickly shook my head and forced myself not to take my hand back, suddenly remembering I was mad at him. "Come on, you look really tired. Gui and I can watch the boys."

"I don't want to sleep," I irritably huffed, turning away from him. I was tired of all the nightmares. And after getting drugged and moved around over and over, I was terrified that something would happen while I was asleep, and I would wake up somewhere else, kidnapped again.

Heng let out a small sigh and let go of my hand, sliding off the bed and cheerily joining in on the conversation by the window. Feeling annoyed that he'd deserted me, I glared up at the IV bag, wondering if anyone would notice if I poked a hole in the bag, dumped its contents in the toilet, then put it back on the stand and pretended like it had emptied all by itself.

I was still plotting the bag's demise when people started loudly talking in the hallway. At first I assumed Jiao and Chen had returned, but the only female voice I could hear wasn't theirs, and was also talking in English. Exchanging bewildered looks with Gui Wen and Heng, I watched as Gui Wen went to the door, to see what all the commotion was in the hallway. Although it was noisy, there was no angry shouting or gunshots or anything, so I slowly tried to relax. After a few moments of much quieter conversation—something about a cousin was mentioned, although I made no sense of it—my cousins were all male, plus I doubted they cared enough to visit me in the hospital—Gui Wen came back into the room, followed by some blond, foreign-looking woman I couldn't recall meeting before, although she looked vaguely familiar.

She took a few steps into the room, then paused, her blue eyes drifting from the floor toward the top of my head. "You are bald!" she eventually blurted, sounding surprised. I stared at the woman, completely confused—how had she known about my hair situation when I was wearing a hat?—as well as annoyed that Gui Wen hadn't asked me before letting her in. I didn't want visitors, dammit. Especially not ones I didn't even know.

"Oh, thank you for pointing that out," I sarcastically replied before I could stop myself, "I had _no_ idea."

The woman's face flushed deeply in an embarrassed way. "Sorry, I was surprised, and I…I'm, I'm glad you are okay," she apologized, then looked around the room. Gui Wen gave me a reproving glance, probably for my rudeness, but said nothing.

Everything went silent for a while, then I asked, "Who are you?" since she was staring at Heng instead of introducing herself.

"Zian," Gui Wen cut in, looking somewhat perplexed as well, "this is Alice Meng. She used to be one of my students."

Feeling extremely annoyed, I looked back to Alice, wondering if it was yet another mistake of someone thinking I was Gui Wen. But then, why would Gui Wen, if he were hospitalized, be in a hospital on the opposite side of Taiwan from where he lived? That would be so impractical.

"Well, Alice Meng, why have you come to visit me?" I asked huffily, then paused and waited for a response. Her face gained a vacant look after a while, and my grumpy mood was starting to get worse. I loudly cleared my throat, hoping to jog her back into awareness.

She didn't notice.

"Alice?" I called.

She still didn't notice.

I looked questioningly at Gui Wen, and he shook his head. "She did this in class, too. The first few times I tried to get her to pay attention again, but eventually gave up." Trying to hold myself back from screaming at her, I quietly continued to wait for her to come back from wherever far-away place her mind had gone.

After what felt like years, finally she moved, stomping in Heng's direction as she demanded, "You are Dib, aren't you? How old are you?"

Heng seemed to be just as confused as I at the sudden interrogation. "Yes, I'm Dib, and I'm twenty-six," he slowly answered. How did she know his _Second_ _Life_ name? Perhaps they met at some point while I'd been gone. And, judging by how annoyed Alice looked, Heng had probably made her mad somehow, which wasn't surprising; Heng was very skilled at making people mad while he was Dib.

"So, I was right. You are the brat," she mumbled in a very irritated tone, then straightened and lifted her head in a superior way. "Well, even if you happen to be older than me, a brat will always be a brat."

He looked extremely indignant at getting called a brat, as if everyone didn't call him that all the time anyway. "Well, excuse me for being a brat!" he huffed, crossing his arms. He paused, his anger fading back into confusion. "Who are you, anyway?"

Ignoring Heng's question, she turned back to me. "I can't believe you disappeared like that. You gave me a big fright! Even though I went as far as offering you help!"

Through my endless bewilderment, I slowly shook my head, wishing she would just go away. "I don't remember that at all. And I'm sorry for worrying you. I'm…okay now." That is, if everything that had happened could leave me "okay."

Her face became pouty at my attempt at consoling her, and she lowered her head. "So, you just want to get rid of me." With a sniffle, she looked up again. "I'm greatly disappointed in you, Laoshi. I never thought you were this kind of person."

While she turned away from me, I could feel the blood drain out of my face at that one horrible word—Laoshi. Oh, good god. That title, that behavior, that face…she was Long Zhou Xia. How many more times was she going to take me completely by surprise? Well…now that I thought about it, Windy had seemingly hated Dib after his tantrum on the archery range, and Zhuo Xia had offered me help at that dinner party, for whatever reason…How had she even known I was here? Even though I wasn't hiding my return, only a few select people had been told.

Creepy woman. At least she hadn't brought Starlight with her.

Sighing deeply, I rubbed a hand over my eyes. "For goodness sake, Zh…Alice, you can't possibly have expected me to remember you when you've arrived like this," I tiredly told her. "Besides, I didn't have any way to contact you."

There was a moment of silence, then she faced me again and waved her hand. "That is not important anymore. Let bygones be bygones."

Gui Wen opened his mouth to say something, but she turned toward him and cut him off. "Sorry I never went back to the university, I faced a…erm…very extreme, familiar situation and I had to drop out," she quickly explained, blushing again.

He smiled politely and shook his head. "Well, I'm relieved to hear that you have a good reason for leaving, instead of dropping out because of laziness. Unfortunately, some students do that…It's a waste."

While Alice and Gui Wen chatted, Heng inched over to me and slipped back onto the bed, pulling his legs up onto the mattress. "You know her?" he asked in a whisper. I simply nodded, not wanting to talk about it.

He looked like he wanted to continue the topic, but he and the other two were distracted by a loud declaration of "DONE!" from the table by the window. The boys trotted over and began scrambling up onto the bed. "We're done with the puzzle! It was easy!" If not for the fact that I was used to how quickly the boys put things together, I would have been shocked to see the large model pagoda sitting over there, built perfectly, or so I assumed.

Six gave a surprised glance over to Gui Wen and Alice, then crawled over to me and tucked himself against my side. "Who's that lady?"

Three squished himself into the tiny space between Six and Heng, who shifted himself over so the boy had enough room to sit. "She's got such pretty hair!" His eyes went wide with adoration as he stared at her golden locks. I wondered if he actually liked her hair, or if he was just fishing for compliments out of a want not to be as rude as he had been earlier.

I was about to introduce them, but yet again, Alice started talking. "Erm…I…" She paused, then added, "I really am glad you are okay, Laoshi. I was worried that you…" Her voice dropped off, and although I waited for a continuation, one didn't come.

I gave her a small smile, hoping it would hide the fact that I wasn't okay at all. "Thank you…I'm glad as well. It's quite nice to be back." Sighing, I gave a look around the large hospital room. "Though it will be much nicer when they let me out of here."

For a few moments, she looked like her brain had disappeared again, then she curiously asked, "Laoshi, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, Go ahead." Dammit, when was she going to leave?

Intently staring at me, she lowered her eyes a little. "You know, Laoshi, I was thinking. I think it's really impressive that you could hide. I know that there are really many ways of going low-profile and vanishing, but…well…I was wondering if you disguised yourself. Maybe you grew a mustache or something? I know I would have grown a mustache if I was in your position…But then when I saw you, I noticed that you didn't have one. Could it be that you did grow one and they shaved it with your hair? I don't know much about medical procedures, but mustaches do seem kind of unhygienic."

Trying very hard to keep the look of disbelief off my face, I thought for a moment, wondering how I was supposed to explain about my baldness, and why she even wanted to know about my facial hair—or lack thereof. "Well, um…no, I didn't have a mustache. I wasn't in disguise at all." What in the world did she think I'd been doing all this time?

"What a pity," she said with a sigh, looking disappointed. There was an awkward pause as Gui Wen, Heng and I glanced at each other again—none of us seemed to know what the hell she was talking about—then she opened her mouth, but a phone rang. I felt a moment of panic, praying she wasn't about to pull a cellphone out of her bra, like the time she had been in my car. Thankfully, she took it out of her white purse instead, and put it up to her ear.

An angry voice came out of the phone, but I didn't bother to try to listen to what was being said. Whatever the conversation was about was probably just as random and weird as everything that happened around Alice. Quite a while passed while the person on the other end of the phone ranted into Alice's ear, and eventually she said, "But–" paused, and then said, "Fine," and stepped over to me, unexpectedly holding out the phone.

Although I really didn't want to take the phone, for fear of the person on the other end being just as crazy and bizarre as Alice, I still took it from her and put it to my ear, wondering who it was and what they wanted. "Yes?"

"_Mr. Min,_" some woman began, sounding surprisingly normal, "_I don't know how to apologize for this situation. I really hope our little flower didn't cause you too much trouble. You see, she is a good kid, but she has no common sense whatsoever and she probably is merging in a very delicate situation without knowing she is intruding. I am really sorry for whatever stupid thing she has done to trouble you._"

"It's fine," I assured. "It was unexpected, of course, but…um, the 'delicate situations' are taken care of already. Nothing was interrupted. At the moment I'm just waiting for my IV to empty, so I can leave the hospital."

She let out a sigh. "_So, she finally got herself a normal friend. What a relief…You are her friend, aren't you?_" she asked warily. "_If you aren't I can understand. She decides things pretty one-sidedly. You wouldn't believe how hard it was for me and my husband to make her stop giving us ridiculous honorifics while she called herself our 'humble apprentice' some years ago,_" she ended in an exasperated tone.

Friend…? When the hell had that happened? Not once had I thought of her as such, although I had to admit that she was much better company than a lot of people I had once considered my friends. And when she wasn't being weird and unpredictable, she seemed to actually be quite nice. I had gotten over Heng's oddities, perhaps I could try with another person, although Alice's oddities seemed to be far more numerous than Heng's…

"Yes, I'm her friend," I eventually decided. It was kind of nice to say something like that aloud. "And it seems I've fallen into the same situation as you. She keeps calling me 'Laoshi,' although my brief time as her teacher has long-since ended."

"_So, she also gave you a nickname…Annoying, isn't it? Anyway, sorry about this. She might not have interrupted anything, but she is a pain in the head anyway…I wish I could have done something to keep her from doing this kind of thing, but she never listens._" She sighed again. "_At least it's very easy to know if she is doing something weird; she only is late to an appointment when she is doing so._"

I frowned upon hearing that. "Mm-hm, weird things…That's not surprising. Out of curiosity, how long was she looking for me?" It really didn't matter now, but it would have been very nice to have been rescued—even if it was by the weirdo—earlier than I had been by the Americans.

"_Mmmm, hard to say. She is always getting into trouble, so, for my mental health, I try not to get into things that are not my business anymore. Looking after that impulsive oddball is taxing enough as it is. To think that I used to be a curious person._" A third sigh came through the phone and she continued to talk, but my focus drifted away from her when Heng poked the side of my head. I slapped his hand away, and slowly realized what Alice, Gui Wen and Heng were talking about.

That brat, Heng was telling embarrassing stories about me.

"Plus he put eggs in my microwave and they exploded everywhere. The mess was horrible!"

Feeling extremely angry that he was talking about _that_, I gave him a glare, but he was listening to Alice and didn't seem to notice. "You are lying! I can't believe someone could do something as stupid as putting eggs in a microwave!"

Stupid…? No one had warned me, so how the hell was I supposed to know eggs would explode in a microwave?

"No, he really did!" Heng laughed. "Put him in a kitchen and he's sure to find every wrong way to cook things. It's kinda piti–" His amused voice was cut off when I shoved him as hard as I could and he fell off the bed, landing on the floor with a loud thud. Quickly looking away and pretending like I hadn't done anything, I went back to listening to that woman talk, hoping she hadn't said anything important.

"_…she is beyond hope, but at least I can stop her from annoying you, since you seem to be a good guy…Well, I can't promise you anything if you are playing _Second Life._ You have met her there, haven't you?_"

"Yes," I replied. "She and I met in-game before we met in real life. I was forced to teach her archery."

"_Forced, huh? I have heard that she is really bad at it, but if it makes you feel any better, she is playing as an archer because their teammates forbade her to play as a magician. I don't really play those kind of games, so I don't know much about them. But, frankly speaking, if I_ did_ play them, I wouldn't get near her team, since I would end up worrying unnecessarily._"

I almost blurted that my reason for going nowhere near them was fear that they would do something horrible to me, but I kept that to myself. And Windy must have been an even more terrible magician as she was an archer, to have her teammates forbid her from using magic…

"_God, where are my manners?_" she suddenly exclaimed. "_I think I forgot to introduce myself! I'm the lawyer in charge of most of Lotus' legal procedures. You can call me Jiao._"

"I see. It's nice to meet you…Jiao," I said, then almost laughed as I tried to picture the "my" Jiao as a lawyer. That job would be much more suited to Mei Rong, a lover of arguments.

"_One more thing. I need you to keep this in mind when you talk with her. She is really dense, she doesn't get sarcasm, and if you try to joke around with her she will probably think you are being serious. Also, ___never___ agree to a favor before she tells you what it is, even if she comes crying to you, with tears in her eyes, claiming that it is a matter of life and death. Believe me, you would be better off running away before she drags you into her messes…Oh! Also, if you ever need help of any sort you can ask for help within Lotus. I can personally give you a hand if you don't feel like relying on that brat. You see, once she takes a liking to someone, she tries to help as much as possible, and…well, that kind of makes you family._"

"Thank you," I murmured gratefully. "At the moment I really have nothing with which I need help, but perhaps in the future something will come up. And I'm not sure how much it's worth, but of course the offer for help goes both ways; if any of you need something, I will try my hardest to be of assistance." That offer was completely useless, given that I had nothing, but I supposed I could pass it on to my uncle.

"_Well, I know this might sound a bit abrupt, but there is a little something I would really like to ask of you._"

"What is it?"

"_Well, you probably noticed already that our little flower is living a double life. She is Long Zhuo Xia and she is Alice Meng. I would really appreciate if you didn't mention it to anyone else, or try to pry. It…there is a really delicate reason for that, and trust me when I tell you that you would be wise to not dig into the matter. I can tell you all about it if you deem it necessary, but believe me, some secrets are not worth knowing._"

"Of course," I agreed. "I would hate to cause trouble for anyone linked to it." I already had enough trouble, especially right now. I definitely didn't need to add more.

"_Thank you, Mr. Min. That certainly takes a weight from my shoulders, which is a relief, with that troublesome…_" The woman's voice faded from my attention again when I heard Heng blurt something stupid and misleading about the fact that I had come back with a baby, which caused Alice to give me an extremely disapproving frown.

"I have to go," I quickly said into the phone. "Goodbye."

"_It sounds like she is at it again. Bye, and good luck._"

Ending the call, I tightly gripped the phone and stared in offense at Alice as she stared back, obviously assuming things. "It's true that I have a biological child, but I did not cheat on Heng. There _are_ ways of impregnating a woman, other than sleeping with her."

Heng seemed to have noticed the mess he'd just caused, and he hastily nodded. "He really didn't do anything. He had Gao through a sperm donation."

"I see…" Alice said, then nodded. "I…didn't consider that possibility." She looked at me, and seemed to be about to say something else, but then her eyes slid up over my head and she abruptly looked terrified, letting out a yell. "I'm going to be late!" She ran forward, snatched her phone back, then ran out of the room so fast she was practically a blur.

Her abrupt exit left me just as confused as ever, but at least she was gone.

Giving Gui Wen an annoyed look, I gruffly told him, "I don't want visitors."

He sent the look right back at me. "She told them she's our cousin, so they would let her in. What was I supposed to do? Tell them she was lying? What if they thought she was a suspicious person trying to kill you, so they decided to shoot her?"

Not knowing what to say—he was the smartypants, so he should have thought of something—I turned to look back at my IV bag, which was still aggravatingly full, so I turned toward the boys instead, but they had fallen asleep. Regardless of the fact that it was morning, they had also been woken up early several times because of Gao. Pulling up the blanket, I tucked it in around them, taking care not to wake them, then I looked up when the door opened. One of the guards came in, holding a large, decorated basket of fruit.

"This is from your cousin," he explained, setting it on the bedside table and lingering afterward. I looked up at him questioningly, wondering why he wasn't leaving. He gave me a stupid-looking expression of infatuation. "Do all the people in your family look like supermodels? Damn. She dating anyone?"

How the hell was I supposed to know?

"I am afraid I have not been keeping up with her personal relationships," I replied quietly, picking a small card out of the mountain of fruit, then I gave another look to the moron who was still standing by my bed, for whatever reason.

He leaned toward me and whispered, "You got her number?" Forcing back a sigh, I shook my head, and he let out a small curse word, turning to finally leave the room. What kind of idiot would be interested in a weirdo like her…For his own good, I hoped he wouldn't try to get in contact with her.

When the door closed, I returned my attention to the card. "O-o-o," Heng exclaimed, hurrying over to inspect the gift. The intricately woven basket was full of fruit so perfect-looking I sort of suspected it was all just a wax sculpture. Red and golden apples, oranges, pears, a bunch of bananas, and one whole pineapple were all carefully arranged amidst yellow ribbon and matching flowers. Heng pulled an apple out of the heap. "That was nice of her."

Opening the note, I quickly read through the script-like purple letters.

"_Get well, Laoshi!  
>PS: The fruit is not poisoned,<br>I promise. ^_^_"

Feeling absolutely horrified, I turned as fast as I could toward Heng, but I was too late; he had already taken a large bite. "Don't eat that!" I snapped, snatching away the remainder of the apple. There would be no need for such a warning if she hadn't actually done anything to the fruit. This was proof enough that I couldn't let down my guard even for a second.

"Don't be selfish," he scolded, looking annoyed as he continued to chew. "There's plenty for everyone."

"Spit it out!" I ordered, holding up the note. "She did something weird to it!"

Heng's eyes darted back and forth as he read the note, then he surprised me by laughing. "What the hell?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Gui Wen added, looking over Heng's shoulder. "From what I've observed, she's a decent person…a very bizarre decent person."

"If she wanted to poison someone, it'd probably be me," Heng continued, snatching back the apple. "After all, she and I did try to kill each other that one time…Since she likes you enough to give you a hug, I don't think you need to worry that she's plotting to kill you with a banana."

Not convinced that the fruit was safe, I forced them both to leave the remainder alone, refusing to let anyone touch it. Jiao and Chen eventually came back, with Gao much less smelly and hungry—apparently they had bullied the guards until Miranda agreed to escort them to the maternity ward. With a declaration that they had permission to skip their classes that day under the excuse that a "very important family member" was in the hospital, we all settled down and started chatting about what had happened while I'd been gone.

Jiao and Quon had gotten married, Mei Rong had gotten engaged, and there had been a huge mess of a war between humans and NPCs in _Second_ _Life_ that had spilled out into the real world, although none of my teammates had gotten involved; apparently only Gui Wen and his close friends had been.

The morning and part of the afternoon slipped past while we all talked, and finally my IV emptied. Waking the boys, we packed up everything and left, only stopping for a brief moment in the parking lot when Chen passed my _Second Life_ gaming helmet to me, telling me that Delun had told her to tell me that he was expecting a great deal of thanks for keeping it safe all this time. Saying our goodbyes, we parted ways with her, Jiao and Jin while the rest of us got into a large windowless van. The ride went rather smoothly, other than the fact that Three and Six wanted to run up and down the aisle between the rows of seats, which nearly caused Heng to have a panic attack as he ran after them, frantically attempting to keep them in their seats.

But finally the van came to a stop and the door was opened from the outside. Stepping out of the van, I gave a nod of thanks to Benjamin, who was holding open the door, then held my breath as I looked up at the mansion looming over me. It was both comforting and terrifying to be "home" again, a soothingly familiar place filled with memories just as horrible as the ones I'd been given at the laboratory.

"Al?" Heng faintly called. I turned to him, but his very round eyes were glued to the house. "Do you have a million siblings you never told me about?"

"No," I answered, sighing as I stepped away from the van and started up the wide stone steps, to the front door.

"Did you have a million servants, then?"

"No," I repeated, trying to fight back the embarrassed flush on my cheeks as he continued to loudly marvel over the size of my family's home. This was probably the first time in my life that I wished I wasn't rich. I had always avoided waving money around in front of Heng, always letting him pay for half of our date expenses and whatnot, but now it was like I was shoving the difference between our wallets right in his face.

Coming to a halt, money instantly faded from my mind when I put a trembling hand on the knob and tried to work up the courage to open the door. Through the decorative glass window, I could see that the entryway was unlit and empty, just as it had been last year. Although I had a whole team of military people here to guard the boys and I—there was also another team already inside, as Benjamin had informed me on the ride here—I was still afraid that something would happen again, the moment we would go inside.

Black masks and guns and the people around me falling down, dead…

"There's no one inside who isn't supposed to be here," Benjamin quietly assured, stepping past me and opening the door in my place. Yet again, he shoved me right through the door when I didn't move on my own. Heart pounding, I glanced around, waiting for people to start coming out and shooting at us, but everything remained as it was.

"Is that marble?!" Heng demanded, looking at the floor. I didn't bother answering again. "Wow, this is the best place ever to slide around in your socks."

"You know how to do that?" Six asked, looking surprised. "Seven taught us how in the halls!"

"I taught him," Heng informed in a learned tone. "You could say I'm a Master at sock-sliding." This declaration seemed to have made Three and Six raise their opinion of him drastically, and their faces shone with respect for the Master of all sock-sliders.

"I'll be down later," Gui Wen told the rest of us when Three and Six immediately removed their shoes and began displaying their sliding skills for Heng to watch. "I'm going to go have a look in my old room."

At our nods, he turned and walked toward the staircase on the right, leading up to the family's bedrooms. That familiar twinge of annoyance pricked at me as I was once again reminded of the distance at which I'd been kept in this house. Giving Heng and the boys a glance, I turned to Benjamin and Miranda. "Would you two watch the boys for a while?" At their nods, I took the path opposite the one Gui Wen had taken, quickly walking toward the staircase on the left.

"Al! Where are you going?!" Heng asked, and I heard him ask Benjamin to slide with the boys as he ran after me before I could even reach the base of the stairs.

"Upstairs."

"Do…Do you mind if I, um, come with you?"

"No," I answered half-truthfully. Really, I wanted to be left alone, but I also was terrified of going somewhere in this house by myself.

"Seven," Benjamin called, and I paused to look at him. "Don't wander too far. We have everything above the second floor locked up, so don't go up there. Also…there are security cameras set up on the grounds and in every room, even in the bathrooms and closets, so try to avoid giving us a show tonight, will you?"

Failing to keep my face from flushing due to his implications, I nodded once and turned away, starting up the tall staircase to the second floor. "Where are we going?" Heng asked, suddenly whispering as he took my hand and pressed himself to my side. "Your room?"

"Yes."

"Oh." His head swiveled around and a somewhat frightened look settled on his face. "This place is kinda scary…Looks like the kind of house that'd be haunted…" Gasping, he gave my hand a tight squeeze. "Do you think it might be haunted?! Lots of people have died here, after all."

"Who knows?" I mumbled disinterestedly as we cleared the top of the stairs. With what Heng had told me about what had happened to my unfortunate house staff, I had sort of expected there to be brown smears of blood all over the place, but it seemed that everything had been cleaned. The hallway looked as it ever had, except for the fact that all the lights were off.

Walking almost automatically, my feet took me straight to my bedroom door. I opened it before Heng could notice my reluctance, then stepped inside and looked around. After a quick inspection,it seemed everything in my office was exactly as it always had been, albeit the few pieces of furniture had been wrapped tightly in plastic covers to keep them dust-free, the blue curtains that usually hung over the two picture windows in the wall behind my desk had been taken down, letting the early afternoon sunlight pour in and brighten the whole room, and the boxes I had packed when leaving the Lin estate were stacked near the door, still taped shut.

"This is your room?" Heng asked, giving a critical look around. I didn't bother answering him, instead stopping by the boxes, setting my game helmet down on the floor and uncovering the box labeled "WARM CLOTHES" on each side. "Where do you sleep?" he continued while I opened the top of the box and started digging around in it. "There's no bed."

Once I had retrieved the winter hat Heng had given me, I put it on in place of the one Benjamin had provided, then straightened up and walked toward my bedroom door, wordlessly opening it and going inside. Heng followed me in. "Oh, there it is. Geeze."

Giving him a small glance, I sighed and tried to keep together my patience. "I don't suppose it's what you were expecting."

"Well, no," he affirmed, shaking his head. "I…I'd always pictured a dungeon or something…a tiny jail cell with rats and cobwebs and shackles all over. But this is like a fancy-schmancy five-star hotel. It's as big as an apartment…Geeze." While he started wandering around, I went into the closet and quickly shed Heng's hoodie and those blue lab clothes at last. After I'd put on some thermal underwear, denim jeans, several sweaters and a coat, I went back into the bedroom and placed myself by one of the windows, running my eyes over the stretch of even, green grass enclosed by that tall, castle-like, ivy-covered wall. How many times had I stood here over the years? How many times had I looked at those impassable barriers and wished that I had an escape?

But now…now there was nothing holding me back. That was a frightening thought. Nothing but my own memories were holding me down anymore. It was like I could step outside and simply drop off the face of the earth. I would just vanish. I'd finally vanish, like I should have a long time ago.

"Al?" Heng suddenly started poking my shoulder. Tearing my eyes away from the window, I questioningly glanced at him. He was wearing that worried expression again. "I feel like I've been talking to myself for the past five minutes…You okay?"

Exhaling out my nose, I brushed him aside and pulled the plastic cover off my couch, then sat down, leaning my head against the back and staring up at the pale green ceiling. "Why do you bother to ask when you already know the answer?"

I could see the frustrated look he had as he sat down beside me, but, thankfully, not as close as he usually did. "I thought you'd be a bit happier now that you're safe again, but you look even more miserable now than you did before you left."

"Part of me keeps wondering when I'll wake up," I murmured. "I'll wake up and still be trapped in that awful place, and I'll realize that this was all just another nightmare."

Heng gave me a confused frown, then seemed to be trying to smile. "If this was a dream—it isn't, just so you know—wouldn't it be a good one? After all, _I'm_ here." Placing his hand on top of mine, he wrapped our fingers together and moved a bit closer, but I kept looking at the ceiling, trying to fight the urge to lean against him like I always had before, taking comfort in his sturdy embrace. I had slipped last night, with all of those hugs and kisses, but I couldn't do that anymore. At least, not until I'd told him about the situation with my medicine.

"Are you gonna get married now that you're back?" he unexpectedly asked after a long stretch of silence.

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"Before you left you told me you had another fiancée picked out."

Sighing again, I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I was kidnapped minutes after I arrived home. My father and I didn't have a chance to discuss anything."

"You could arrange it now, though."

"The only reason I was engaged to Jiao was for my father and the airline," I snapped. "My father is dead, and the airline is my uncle's, thus there is no point at all in approaching someone else with a marriage proposal. Besides, with my family's reputation as horribly marred as it is, there's no one anywhere now who would agree to marry their daughter to me. I doubt anyone will even send a 'Get Well Soon' card."

…Except for that dangerous mental case, Zhuo Xia.

"That's mean. I bet there's plenty of families who wouldn't judge you by what your father did."

Feeling extremely annoyed, I shot him a glare. "Of all people, why are _you_ pushing me to get married?!"

"I'm not," he denied, grinning. "I was just afraid that's what would happen, but I guess I've got nothing to worry about." With a happy little laugh, he started moving closer again, but I leaned away from him and quickly stood up, taking several steps away from the couch.

"Don't expect things to go back to the way they were." The room went deafeningly silent for nearly a minute, and with each passing moment I became more and more terrified of turning around, so I continued to face the other way, crossing my arms and miserably staring down at the floor. I hated myself for hurting him yet again, but I would hate myself even more if I led him to think he and I could just take up where we left off last year.

"You're trying to break up with me again."

I wasn't sure if his flatly spoken words were meant as a statement or a question, but I answered, "That is your decision."

"You already know what my decision is, you idiot."

"Things are different now."

He went silent again, but eventually stood up and came to stand behind me. "The important stuff is still the same, isn't it? Maybe I seriously misunderstood something, but the way you treated me last night, I thought…I mean, it's been almost a year, but…it's _only_ been a year. Do you not love me anymore?" Heng sounded more hurt than I'd ever heard him before.

Each of his words were driving me closer and closer to tears, but I stubbornly held them back. "My feelings for you have not changed."

"Then what the hell is the problem?" he angrily demanded, pausing for a moment to take several deep breaths before he continued in a much calmer voice. "Your father's dead, you're not engaged anymore…What else is there?" He gently took me by the shoulders and turned me around. "Did I do something?"

Struggling to keep my eyes locked with his, I shook my head. "The problem lies with me this time, not with my father, you, or anyone else." Smiling humorlessly, I added, "The problem has always been me." I shook my head again. "Last year I honestly did leave with the intention to keep seeing you no matter what happened, and I wish I could keep that promise, but now anything I start with you will only be temporary."

His eyes narrowed in a bewildered way and he opened his mouth, but soon closed it again, as if he didn't know what to say. Thoroughly despising myself, I pushed on his shoulder and sat us both down on the wooden chest at the foot of my bed. Taking one of his hands, I dragged my thumbs over it and tried to force the explanation out.

After a few seconds passed, I slowly inhaled and looked at him again. "I'm dying." Those two short words made Heng look like he'd just been punched in the stomach several times. Feeling horrible, I looked down at our stacked hands and slowly murmured, "I can't inherit the airline, nor can I inherit anything else. I can't raise my son…I can't give you what you were expecting."

Heng didn't say anything, and I couldn't find the will to look up again. Part of me felt like apologizing for badly upsetting him for the millionth time, but since I didn't have the ability to control life and death it really didn't seem like something for which I had to say "sorry," so I didn't.

Several minutes went past while neither of us spoke. Heng's uncharacteristic silence was making me feel extremely uncomfortable, along with the fact that a peek at him had shown that he, shockingly, wasn't crying. Usually at a time like this, he'd have waterfalls gushing out of his eyes, but his devastated face was completely dry. "What's wrong with you?" he finally asked, his voice very thick, like he was having a hard time forming words.

"Nothing you don't know about already," I quietly answered, still staring down at our tightly clasped hands. His had started to shake. "Those pills I have to take…I have about thirty of them, and at the moment there is no way to get more. I can ration them, but however I do it I only have a short while—three months or so before they'll be gone."

"Your doctor was getting it for you, right? Ask him for more."

"He's dead."

"Where was he getting the medicine from?"

"He was making it."

"But he must have had a team or something!"

Heng's sharp tone made me flinch a little, and I gave his hand a light squeeze in a pointless attempt to make him calm down. "The kidnappers had a lot of it, but the Americans have taken it as evidence. It was difficult enough for them to get as much as they did for me."

"Those fucking bastards," Heng snarled, jumping to his feet. "They're just going to let you die?!" Feeling alarmed when he started for the door—I had no doubt that he was about to go downstairs and start a one-man riot—I quickly put myself in front of him and pushed on his chest, but I was like a gnat trying to stop a train.

"No, no! HENG, STOP!" I yelled, trying to hold him back, but he was simply sliding me across the floor. "IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT! THEY'RE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS!"

"IT _IS_ THEIR FAULT!" he bellowed in return. "THEY'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH! THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING THEY CAN DO!"

"THEY DID TRY HARD ENOUGH! STOP, DAMMIT!" I grabbed hold of his arm with one hand, and held onto the door jamb with the other. "THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE LIKE MY KIDNAPPERS; IT'S A BIG ORGANIZATION SPREAD ACROSS A BUNCH OF COUNTRIES! THIS INVESTIGATION WILL SAVE COUNTLESS LIVES! YOU CAN'T INTERFERE!"

Heng finally stopped fighting me and turned around, looking absolutely furious. "IF THE POINT OF THEIR INVESTIGATION IS TO SAVE LIVES, WHY THE FUCK CAN'T THEY SAVE YOURS?!"

"DO YOU THINK I HAVEN'T WONDERED THAT ALREADY?!" I screamed, tightly gripping his arm. Taking a deep breath to calm down a bit, I glared at him and gave him another yank. "There are people my father knew associated with my kidnappers. They'll soon know where I am, if they don't already. Simply being here out in the open is bad enough, but if the Americans gave me more medicine there would be a far bigger chance for an evidence leak, and they're not willing to risk that. You have to understand that what they're doing is more important than I am."

"It's not!" All at once, those tears I'd been expecting earlier suddenly started pouring down his face. "It's nowhere near as important," he denied shakily. "This last year was a nightmare…I thought I lost you forever. I don't ever want to think that again. There has to be some way to get more!" With an angry look, he shoved me away and snapped, "Why do you always have to give up so easily?!" and turned away, striding toward the door.

Helplessly I watched as he disappeared into the hallway, his footsteps gathering speed the farther away he got. Feeling frustrated that he still refused to listen to me, as well as hurt that it seemed he was blaming me for the situation, I went back into my bedroom and sat down on the rug beside my bed, drawing my knees up to my chest and laying my head down on them. Perhaps my exhaustion was amplifying everything and making it worse, but I couldn't hold back the sobs anymore.

I shouldn't have come back. Being here was just messing everything up all over again. I was nothing but a problem for everyone around me. That's all I ever had been, just a big mess that did nothing but cause trouble. Why couldn't those doctors have just killed me before any of this had happened?

Alone, deserted, and completely without any shred of hope, I cried into the muffled silence.

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><p><em>A hugemungus thank-you goes to Chicaalterego for helping me with another fun crossover! :D Be sure to read her fic, Lukewarm Ice, if you haven't already!<em>


	70. Return to Second Life

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**_*** This is not the complete chapter! __FanFiction is getting stricter about adult content sneaking its way into stories, so I have edited this to avoid the wrath of the moderators. However, you can find the complete, unedited version on my LiveJournal, Blogger or Archive._**_

_**_spishie dot livejournal dot com  
>tiggipi dot blogspot dot com<br>_****archiveofourown dot org / users / tiggipi**_

_**They are set to public, so anyone can view them. If anyone can't view them for some reason, please tell me and I'll repost it somewhere else. *****_

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><p>Although I had enough time to calm myself down, mostly, during Heng's rampage downstairs, it didn't seem to take long for him to come back, wordlessly striding across my bedroom. I didn't look when he sank down on the floor beside me, his breathing harsh and his body rigid. Even without a verbal explanation, it was obvious what the result of his efforts had been.<p>

Nothing.

Exactly as I had expected, but it was difficult not to feel disappointed. However, I understood why it had to be this way, and tried very hard to convince myself that it was for the best that they were being so careful. They couldn't allow any information about their investigation to spread. Any leaks would make it that much more difficult for them to infiltrate and eliminate the other laboratories. It would be that much more difficult to stop the deaths of countless more people. The hope that there would be no more tragedies like Five and Eight gave me fresh anger-edged strength and resolve to do anything, to sacrifice anything, in order to see this situation through to the end. Even if they would do nothing more to help me.

"They're stubborn," Heng finally said, his voice agitated. He took my hand a moment later and covered it with both of his own. "But don't worry…Don't worry. We'll figure something out. We'll go to a hospital and get you examined…and the doctors will fix you. We have plenty of time."

"I doubt the Americans will allow me to be examined," I quietly replied. After all, they considered the boys and I evidence as well. Anyway, even with how advanced medicine was these days, doctors probably wouldn't know what was wrong with me. My condition wasn't the result of a birth defect or a disease; it was cellular weakening due to experimentation, so unless the Americans released my medical records, no one would know how to fix me…if that was even possible.

"The Americans can fuck off," Heng growled, putting an arm around me and pulling me close. "Just 'cause they rescued you doesn't mean they're allowed to keep you from getting the help you need." He was quiet for a moment, then gave my hand a squeeze. "Remember that pill you gave Gui?"

It took me a second to remember, but then I nodded.

"Ugly Wolf took it to one of his friends, and Gui told us the guy said he'd analyze it and call them in a week…Two weeks went by and the guy didn't call, so Gui and Wolf called him instead, but the guy acted like he didn't know what they were talking about. Said they never gave him a pill. None of his coworkers knew about it either…It was really weird. D'you think it was the Americans?"

"Perhaps," I answered, feeling unsettled. I strongly suspected it had actually been my kidnappers, but since the guy was still alive, maybe it really had been the Americans.

Heng let out a snort and dropped his head to rest on mine. "The assholes refuse to help you, but refuse to let anyone else help you too…Well, I'm not gonna let them get in our way. I only just got you back, and I'm not gonna let anyone or anything take you away again."

A small ray of bright happiness broke through the thick gloom surrounding me, and I finally leaned against him, curling up to his side and hugging him tightly to myself. "Sorry I'm so high-maintenance," I mumbled, closing my eyes as I pressed my forehead to his neck. Through all the things that were happening, I was grateful beyond words to have Heng here. I didn't know what I would have done if I'd come back to find that Heng had moved on. The terror of the future was still there, but it was so much easier to deal with when I had him. I didn't really believe him when he said everything would be okay, but the fact that he had said it at all helped ease the anxiety.

With a chuckle, he lifted his arm to drape it over my shoulders. "I've always been prepared to put up with your little quirks."

"This isn't a little quirk," I corrected darkly.

"Fine. It's a _big_ little quirk." He laughed again, and I tried to smile, fighting to keep myself afloat in this endless sea of misery. Shifting a little, Heng let out a small sigh and turned his head from side to side. "So, what sort of fun stuff is there in this castle? Your own theater? Bowling alley? Roller coaster? Olympic-size pool? Fo–"

"I don't know if it's olympic-size," I interrupted, opening my eyes to look up at him, "but there's–"

"No way."

"–a pool in the–"

"No way!"

"–basement."

"I was joking!" Heng exclaimed.

"I'm not," I mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed again.

"Seriously?!"

"Yes…seriously."

"Geeze," he breathed, laughing faintly. "That's so cool…Creepy house, but cool, I guess…This place really is like a hotel. Shit, I didn't bring my swimming trunks."

"If you want to swim, there's probably some trunks in my father's room…if you don't mind using his. I don't have any or I'd let you borrow them."

"Mmm…e-e-eh," he mumbled reluctantly. All of the excitement faded from his face. "I'll pass, I think."

"They're only clothes," I huffed, pulling away from him and standing up. "Come on, let's go look. I wanted to go to his room anyway. Perhaps my keys and cellphone are in there."

"Al, we don't have to," he quietly replied, looking like he didn't want to get up.

"I _want_ to," I told him in annoyance, stuffing my hands into my coat pockets and looking away from him. "I need a distraction."

"Do you really think going to _his_ room is gonna do any good?" I glanced at him, but he was staring down at his hands, awkwardly fumbling with the zipper on his jacket. "I mean," he started again, taking a deep breath, "…I don't know, um, where…stuff happened…but going to that guy's room just…I don't know. It just seems like it'd bring your mood down even more."

Clenching my jaw, I looked away again and stared at the door. "If by 'stuff' you mean the beatings–" I paused and gave him another glance, to which he nodded once, "–there's no point in trying to avoid _where_ they happened, since they happened in a lot of places, including in here." I silently waited for a reply, but he continued to sit on the floor and mess with his zipper, so I turned and started walking toward the door. "I'll go alone, then."

The sound of Heng scrambling to his feet thudded around by the bed, and he caught up to me a few seconds later, looking a bit grouchy when he announced, "I'm coming, too…Don't wanna stay here by myself."

"Are you really that scared of ghosts?" I asked, taking his offered hand as we walked out of the bedroom.

He opened his mouth and took a breath, paused, then replied, "That's not it. I can deal with ghosts. I just…don't like it when I can't see you. Almost too afraid to blink, like you'll vanish while my eyes are closed." He gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

Faintly smiling, I tightened my grip and led him out of my rooms, turning left, away from the stairs. We took our time meandering down the halls and making our way to the other side of the house, treading quietly along the dark red carpet. Heng's amazement over the majesty of the mansion hadn't seemed to dim at all, and his round eyes were wide as he looked all around himself, reducing his embarrassing exclamations to breathy mumbles that, thankfully, didn't seem to require replies.

After over ten minutes—it wouldn't have taken nearly as long if Heng hadn't wanted us to stop and look inside every unlocked door we came across—we got to my father's rooms, and I roughly shoved the door open, trying once again not to show my hesitancy. Part of me expected my father to be sitting at his large desk, with his usual straight-backed poise and cold, expressionless face. But the cushioned office chair was empty. As in my own rooms, everything had been wrapped in dust covers and the curtains had been taken down.

"This place isn't what I pictured either," Heng said. "Sorta…thought it would be darker, or something. More evil lair-like. But it just looks like a normal room. Well, 'normal' for you fancy people." Part of me agreed with Heng. After a lifetime of seeing my father as a demonic dictator who did nothing but angrily order people around, it was hard to imagine him as an ordinary person, spending time doing ordinary things in here.

Shaking a little in fear, I strode forward and attempted to look courageous as I went to his desk, pulled the plastic off, and started opening his desk drawers. Although I felt very jumpy and nervous, like I was trespassing, I did a quick but thorough search of the desk, not finding my stolen belongings.

Standing, I walked over to his bedroom door and opened it up, cautiously looking around as I took a few steps inside. The room contained everything one would expect—a large four-poster bed, some red armchairs and a table arranged around the window, a dresser, two bookshelves stuffed with books and little trinkets. The one thing that caught my eye was a wide vanity table, which I could not, at all, picture my father using. He certainly made sure to keep himself looking nice, but…

Coming to a stop beside the table, I drew my eyebrows together and pulled off its plastic cover. Opening the top drawer, I glanced around the large selection of make-up that was messily crammed inside, as if whoever had stored it couldn't have cared less how it looked.

"Is this your mom's?" Heng asked, pulling open another drawer and quirking an eyebrow as he pulled out a rose-shaped bottle. The sweet, heavy smell of flowers quickly assaulted my nose when Heng squirted perfume into the air.

"I don't know," I replied quietly, sliding the drawer shut. Perhaps they were Hui Ying's, but I assumed my father had gotten rid of all of her belongings after she left. Or perhaps he'd had some woman he'd never told me about…But trying to imagine a woman who would like _him_ so much she'd leave some of her things here was nearly impossible. Who would want to be with such a cold, sadistic man?

Then again, I used to think no one would ever want to be with me, either…

Heng gave me a small look and put the perfume away. "Where is your mom? I don't think you've ever talked about her before."

Sighing faintly, I stepped toward the closest bedside table. "She died when she gave birth to me."

"Oh…Sorry."

"Don't be." I slid open the table's drawer and began to dig through the contents. "From what I've heard, she was an adulterous woman who would abandon her own children in the pursuit of men. I'm certainly not bothered by the fact that she wasn't around while I grew up; having one terrible parent was more than enough." Feeling more annoyed at the conversation than at not being able to find my cellphone and keys, I shoved the drawer shut and turned around. "Forget my things. I'll look more later. Let's just find the swimming trunks."

"Alright." Letting out a small breath, Heng followed me to the other two doors, which opened to reveal a bath and a closet. Quickly entering the latter, Heng and I began to search through all of the drawers and clothes hanging up along the walls. It didn't take long for us to find a large number of black trunks, but before Heng could see if they fit, he paused and looked toward the door, his eyes going wide. "Did you hear that?" he whispered, grabbing my hand and holding onto it tightly. I nodded in reply, leaning over to the left slightly to get a better look out into the bedroom. Soft footsteps and panting were coming from the office beyond. "What is it?" he continued in a fearful gasp. "A ghost?! Your father coming to kill us for taking his clothes?!"

"Be quiet." Taking a quick step forward, I flicked off the light and swung the door almost shut, then pushed Heng toward the back of the closet. Perhaps it wasn't wise to trap us in here, but the only exit out of my father's rooms was through the office—where the source of the sounds was. My heart started pounding as the muffled noises got louder. Someone whispered something. I began to search around myself, trying to find a weapon. All that was in here was clothes, and I highly doubted they would do anything useful in a fight against someone who most likely had a gun.

And combat training.

And armor.

And–

The door abruptly flew open, and Heng and I both let out terrified yells when something huge and hairy came jumping into the closet, knocking us against the wall. We both fell over as the thing stomped and jumped all over us. It took several seconds for me to realize what it was, but when I did I let out a relieved noise. Heng, however, continued to scream that it was a monster, waving his arms and legs around. Giving Gui Wen a very aggravated look when he appeared in the doorway, I stood up and dragged Heng to his feet.

"Did you have to do that?!" I snapped, shoving the large German shepherd away from myself. The animal playfully bounced from side to side, his long tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"I didn't know you two were in here," he defensively retorted, looking somewhat frightened himself. "He ran away when I turned him on, so I followed him." He firmly snapped his fingers. "Argos, heel!"

Argos gave him a small look, but didn't move until I frowned sternly at him, then, with his tail between his legs, he wandered out of the closet and sat down beside Gui Wen, who gave me a somewhat annoyed glance; it was Gui Wen's dog, but I had always been the one who the dog seemed to think was his "master."

"Where'd it come from?!" Heng demanded. Regardless of the fact that it was clearly not anything murderous and supernatural, he still looked terrified, to the point of shaking all over. What happened to his declaration, "I can deal with ghosts"?

"My room. He's a robot our grandfather bought for me when I was eight or so. Zian and I used to ride him around the house like he was a horse…until Father noticed, anyway."

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm my own booming heartbeat, I glanced between Gui Wen and the dog. "I didn't know you still had him." A very long time ago, I had stupidly decided the dog needed a bath—he hadn't—and I'd put him in my tub, not knowing that he wasn't supposed to get wet, and then he'd broken down, and of course my father had thrown a huge fit about it. From that day on, I hadn't seen even a single hair of Argos', and had assumed I'd completely ruined the poor dog. But here he was, looking exactly as he had nearly twenty years ago.

"Neither did I. I'd thought Father had gotten rid of all my stuff, but my room is full of my old things. Things I really don't know why he kept, like the clothes I had when I was a kid. Even my crib is in there, if you want to use it for Gao."

"Oh, thank you." I nodded a few times and sighed faintly. Crouching down, I plucked some swimming trunks out of the open drawer and handed them to Heng, then straightened and looked at Gui Wen. "He kept _all_ of your old clothes?" At his nod, I grabbed Heng and marched us both out of the closet, shutting the door behind us. "Then may we borrow some of your swimming trunks? Three and Six would probably like the pool."

"Take the trunks," he offered, "and anything else in there. I won't be needing any of it anymore."

"Not planning on having kids?" Heng asked, a playful smile twisting half of his mouth upward. "Things with Prince not going well?"

Gui Wen gave him a somewhat embarrassed glance and turned away to leave the bedroom. "Things are not 'going' at all," he mumbled in a discontented tone. "I can't lay my hands on a student."

"What's it matter if she's your student? You've been sexually harassing her pretty much every single night in _Second Life_ since you two first met," he pointed out. "Anyway, she won't be your student forever. Maybe you should keep the crib just in case so-o-omething happens."

They continued to throw playful taunts and aggravated replies back and forth as we walked down the hallway, toward Gui Wen's room, and I started to tune them out, once again filled with anger toward that stupid elf. While in the hospital, I'd heard all about Gui Wen's meeting with Prince in real life, and it made me extremely annoyed to hear that the stupid elf was one of my brother's students. Gui Wen had had so much anxiety and so many worries, yet the stupid, stupid, stupid elf had been in plain sight, right under his nose the whole time. I had no idea how Gui Wen hadn't noticed. After all, he was extremely intelligent. Perhaps Feng Lan looked completely different than Prince…A fat and hairy gorilla of a woman, who did nothing but eat tons of food and bully people.

My poor brother.

Once we got to Gui Wen's room, the stupid elf was immediately shoved out of my mind in my surprise at seeing that my father had indeed kept _everything_ of Gui Wen's. The spacious rooms, which had always been locked after Gui Wen had ran away, were packed full of toys and clothes and books. It was a shock to see, not because of the ridiculous amount of clutter, but because of the unexpected level of sentimentality that had been put in this room. Perhaps my father hadn't been as unfeeling as I had thought. He had always told me getting emotionally attached to things was silly, yet he had held on to all of this.

How many times had he come in here over the years and thought of his son? Wished he could see him again? Cursed me for making him leave? It made me feel somewhat guilty all over again, that old regretfulness for being the reason Gui Wen and _his_ father had been driven apart…or so I had used to think; I knew now that it wasn't my fault, but it was still difficult not to feel like I was responsible for the misery that had darkened this mansion.

Forcing all of that out of my head, I went downstairs with Heng and Gui Wen once we had two small pairs of swimming trunks for Three and Six, assuming they wanted to try swimming. And they certainly wanted to. Upon hearing the suggestion of learning to swim, it was a bit difficult to get them to stop undressing right then and there in the middle of the security room, where they had been playing with—dismantling—one of the computers. After taking Gao and his diaper bag, we went down to the basement, and Heng, the boys, and Gui Wen, who decided he wanted to join us, changed into their swim suits.

Soon Heng had the boys lined up on the side of the pool, and in an important voice he announced, "There are four rules you have to follow; rule number one, no using the pool as a toilet; rule number two, no drinking the water; rule number three, no running along the side; rule number four, no trying to drown each other! Now, repeat the rules!"

The boys, who seemed to have been giving him around two percent of their attention—the pool and all of the toys Gui Wen was throwing into the water held the other ninety-eight percent—quickly turned back around and looked guiltily up at him.

In an amused tone, Heng repeated himself over and over until the boys could recite the rules back at him, then they were allowed to get into the water. I seated myself on a chair nearby, with the grouchy-looking Gao on my lap and Argos laying at my side, his unblinking brown eyes fixed on the four in the pool. It was somewhat difficult to stay awake, but I forced myself to while the boys clumsily flailed around in the water, trying their hardest to follow Heng and Gui Wen's instructions.

Time passed swiftly in water fights, swimming lessons, and excited screams of "Watch this!" coming from the boys…and often Heng as well. I slowly relaxed into the chair, enjoying the lump of warmth on my lap and the playful atmosphere. The threatening situation we were in hadn't gone completely from my mind, but at least it was easier to ignore now. Watching them all happily play in the pool was soothing, and made me happy as well. The boys were finally be able to live like normal children. They'd definitely be okay after I was gone. Everyone and everything would be okay.

That evening, I changed into my pajamas and tiredly shuffled across my bedroom, climbing onto my bed and flopping down face-first, completely out of energy. After getting barely any sleep the past few nights, it was almost impossible not to fall asleep the moment I hit the bed, but I somehow managed to crawl upward until my head had found the pillows, and I let out a long sigh, letting myself sink into the squishy mattress.

Through the haze filling my mind, I heard the bathroom door open and a light turn off, and quick footsteps approached my bed. I bounced up and down a little when Heng made his way to where I was, and the smells of shampoo and toothpaste filled the air when his warm body pressed down on mine. Hands roamed up my sides and a somewhat perverted-sounding chuckle was breathed into my ear. I faintly thought about making him leave me alone, but was too tired to move. A light tugging lifted me upward for a brief moment when Heng pulled the blankets out from under me, dragged them down, and then dropped them again, covering me up after Heng had slipped in beside me.

Although he continued to cuddle with me and nuzzle my cheek with his nose and kiss me, I was still falling asleep anyway, but jolted back into wakefulness when a series of loud knocks crashed through the room, and Three's voice called, "Seven? Seven?! SE-E-E-EVEN! WHY'S THE DOOR LOCKED?! OPEN THE DOOR! SEVEN! SEVEN!"

Nearly half an hour ago, I'd bathed the boys and put them to bed in the guest room next to mine, hoping they would leave Heng and I alone, but obviously my plan failed…Oh well. My bed was plenty big enough for all four of us to stretch out comfortably.

Growling over all of the pounding and yelling coming from my office, Heng huffed, "Damn cock-blockers," and quickly climbed out of bed. His feet stomped across the room and I let out a long sigh as the door opened. "What?"

"We're sleeping in here!" Three firmly announced, as if his purpose wasn't known already.

"We brought pillows!" Six piped in.

"Why can't you sleep in the other room?" Heng grouchily asked.

"…It's dark in there," Three hesitantly explained, sounding like he had only just thought up the excuse.

"It's dark in here, too," Heng pointed out.

"I, um, I don't like the wallpaper!"

"You can't even see the wallpaper when it's dark. Besides, that has nothing to do with sleeping."

"…SEVEN, HENG'S BEING MEAN AGAIN!"

Good god, just let me sleep…

Heng let out a shoosh noise and two loud squeals erupted as the door shut loudly. At first I thought he'd locked them out, but then I heard "Fine, you two can sleep in here, but be quiet, okay? Al's really tired."

Hypocrite.

"Okay," they both whispered. I felt all three of them climb into the bed, and the boys quickly laid down, one on either side of me. Heng, however, kept moving around. Cracking open my eyes, I questioningly glanced over at him, wondering what he was doing, and slowly realized he was putting on his gaming helmet. After adjusting the goggles, he leaned toward me and slipped another helmet onto my head, smiling as he murmured, "Goodnight," and gave me a quick kiss as he turned the helmet on.

My eyes immediately shut all on their own, and all the pain and weariness weighing me down abruptly was gone. Bright light pressed against my eyelids and made me see a dull red, but I didn't open them yet. Sitting quietly, I listened for several seconds—birds chirping, insects buzzing, a summery breeze whispering past. Letting my eyes open, I breathed the warm, sweet-smelling air deeply and glanced around myself. I was seated in a large oak tree near one of Infinite City's gates. The green leaves surrounding me ruffled in the wind and made the golden sunlight flicker around me. Taking another deep breath, I stood in one fluid motion and smiled, quickly twisting and stretching, thoroughly relishing the feeling of finally being inside my avatar again. _Second_ _Life_ was the only place in which I had ever physically felt _right_.

**"Zian,"** Gui's voice popped into my head, **"come to the castle. The western conference room."**

After he gave me directions, I replied,** "I'll be there soon,"** and stepped away from the thick trunk, out onto the swaying branch. Looking downward, I felt a small thrill go through me from the dizzying height. Holding my breath, I let myself fall and watched the ground rapidly zoom toward me. Snapping out my wings, I beat them hard and lifted myself up again, the wind tearing the breath out of me as I shot upward into the bright blue sky. Once I'd gotten to a good altitude, I let myself slip into a leisurely glide and smiled happily. The amazing, weightless feeling of flying was one of the things I'd missed most while I'd been in the lab. The taste of freedom. It was completely incomparable.

Doing a few twists and loops just for the fun of it, I directed myself toward the city, chasing a few birds along the way. Within a minute, I had cleared the wall and was swooping toward the western side of the castle. Slowing myself, I turned to look in the windows, scanning the interior for Gui, and soon I spotted him. Climbing in through the window rather than entering through the door, I ran my eyes over the group of people—Gui and my own team—huddled together with their backs to me, staring at the door. Everyone was hidden behind the chairs and table that filled the middle of the conference room.

What were they doing, planning on jumping out at me?

Feeling amused, I made as little noise as possible when I dropped to the smooth stone floor and leaned back against the wall, pulling in my wings and crossing my arms while I waited for someone to notice me. Drawing my eyebrows together, I ran my eyes over everyone's backs again and mentally did a headcount.

Gui, the four Lin siblings, Quon, the triplets, even Brushy Butt…but no little brat.

Where was Dib?

Maybe he was hiding somewhere else…probably planning to jump out later and scare me a second time.

"Where is he?" Wei Bo hissed impatiently after several minutes had passed.

"I don't know," Gui mumbled. **"Zian, are you almost here?"**

When he started repeating the directions, I rolled my eyes and stepped forward, not bothering to be quiet anymore. I came to a halt right behind him, and he questioningly glanced over his shoulder, then let out a shocked yell and twirled around. His reaction scared everyone else, and screams started echoing through the room. Wincing at all the noise, I took a step back when they all stood up and started yelling at me for ruining the surprise.

"Sorry," I said unapologetically when Wei Bo angrily shook me back and forth. When the commotion had died down, and I'd greeted Avila, Quon, and Dib's brothers, I gave another look around and asked, "Where's Dib?"

I had barely finished speaking when someone grabbed me from behind, and although I had prepared myself for a surprise attack, I could barely suppress my startled jump—whoever had grabbed me was way too big to be Dib. In fright, I took hold of the person's arm and flipped him over myself, slamming him to the floor and breathing heavily, glaring down at…

Heng.

A beautified version of Heng, with Dib's blond hair and blue eyes.

Feeling confused, I let go of him and took another step back as he sat up and gave me a wounded expression. "Geeze! You didn't have to throw me, you jerk!"

"What have you done to yourself?" I demanded, trying very hard not to scream at him.

My cute and little, itty bitty, teeny tiny Dib was gone…

Looking a bit embarrassed, the Hulking Dib Monster's eyes started roaming around as he toyed with his fingers. "Well, remember how Gui said people could remake their avatars when _Second Life_ got messed up…? I kinda…did." At my angry frown, he defensively added, "I was tired of being little, okay?! It was really inconvenient! **You're the one who didn't want to have sex in-game 'cause I was so small!"**

My face immediately began to burn when what was probably his real reason for the change surfaced. **"Well, what the hell did you expect?! If you had been on the receiving end, you would have gotten horribly injured! And if it was the other way around, you wouldn't have been able to reach!"**

**"Hey! If my penis had been real-life-sized, it woulda looked super weird! I had to shrink it!"**

Giving him another glare, I turned to stomp toward the door, waving a hand at everyone else's "See you later's." What the hell did it matter if we couldn't have sex in-game? There were plenty of other ways to enjoy ourselves without penetration. And now that he was huge, he'd ruined all chances of getting lots of time alone together; I wouldn't be able to carry him anymore, and he'd have to ride on a horse with everyone else.

"Al, come on!" Dib called and ran after me as I went out the door. "Don't be so mad!"

"I'm not mad," I growled, sulkily stomping along the wide passageway outside the conference room.

"You are too!"

"I'm disappointed," I corrected, giving him a frown as I turned the corner, heading for the main entryway of the castle. "Perhaps it didn't matter much to you, but I liked flying together. And now we can't anymore."

"Well, I bet we can work something out…like, um…" He ran around in front of me and wrapped his arms around my neck, jumping. On reflex, I grabbed him under the legs, so he didn't fall. With a soppy smile, he batted his eyelashes, puckered up his lips, and said, "You can carry me like a be-e-e-eautiful princess! And in this position we can kiss any time!"

Immediately throwing him on the floor, I stepped around him and angrily hurried away, trying to ignore the looks I was getting from the other people in the hallway. Hastily calling, "Wait!" Dib ran after me and suddenly seized me by the shoulders. "I have another idea!" He put one foot on my back and started climbing upward. I had to lean far forward and put a hand on the wall to avoid toppling over as he sat himself down on my shoulders. I'd had no problems at all carrying him like this before, but now my knees were threatening to buckle underneath the heavy, awkward load. "See? You can still carry me like this!" Taking two handfuls of my hair, he flicked them as if they were reigns. "Giddyup, horsie!"

In extreme irritation, I grabbed his ankles and shoved them upward. With a surprised yell, he fell over backward and crashed to the floor behind me.

"You jerk!" he repeated, sounding like he was trying not to laugh as he scrambled to his feet. "Okay, wait, I have another idea."

"I don't want to hear it." Ignoring his excited expression, I turned and continued down the hallway.

"This one's really good!"

"I don't wa–"

He took hold of my shoulders and pulled me against himself, and I attempted to shake him off, thinking he was going to climb on me again, but then a wall of gold suddenly blocked my line of sight. In bewilderment, I stared hard at the obstruction, then lifted a hand and touched it. Warm and soft feathers the same bright color as Dib's pretty hair shifted under my fingers. Twisting around, my eyes widened as I took in the completely unexpected addition to his avatar. With a wide smile, Dib stretched his wings out and flapped them, lifting himself a few centimeters off the floor before dropping down again.

"Good idea, right? Now we match!"

My face twisted with anger as I mentally measured the distance from wingtip to wingtip. They looked like they were bigger than mine. "You copycat!" I snapped, feeling very annoyed. I had enjoyed being the only one who could fly; it forced him to depend on me. All the times I'd needed to rescue him, albeit being somewhat inconvenient, had made me feel important and necessary.

And why the hell hadn't he simply told me he had wings, rather than making me think I still had to carry him?

That brat.

Dib gave me an indignant look as he crossed his arms. "So what if I copied?! Being an angel is better than some other race, right? This clears up the flying problem and the–" Pausing, he looked around the hallway, then took my hand and pulled me into a smaller, empty passage. "And the _other_ problem," he ended quietly, his cheeks turning pink. His eyes looked back toward where we'd come. A few people passed by the intersection without turning, so he relaxed a bit and sighed. "Even if you're mad about it, I just didn't want to be small anymore, okay? I mean, it was fun for a while, but I didn't like having to rely on you all the time. Wanted to start pulling my own weight in the team, you know? Wanted to…grow up, or something." With a tender smile, he lifted a hand and brushed it over the side of my face, pushing some of my hair over my ear. "Now I can protect you, too…even if it's just in a game."

Dammit, it was hard to stay mad at him when he was being mushy.

Feeling my face warm, I turned and awkwardly walked away, resuming my trek to the castle entrance. Dib seemed to think I was still angry—I wasn't, but I wanted revenge for getting climbed on—and he nagged me nonstop all the way outside. Pretending like I couldn't hear his frantic pleas for me to forgive him, I extended my wings and shot off the ground. His last yell of "STOP IGNORING ME!" was eliminated almost completely by the wind rushing past my ears.

**"YOU JERK, GET BACK HERE!"** he bellowed over the messaging system. I gave a brief glance downward, suppressing a smile of amusement when I saw he was zooming after me, a determined frown on his face. Focusing all of my attention on escaping, I spiraled up and up and up, trying very hard not to laugh as he continued to yell things at me. Giving a burst of speed, I slipped over a cloud and quickly scanned the sky, then turned right and flew as fast as I could toward a very dense cloud. Halting myself once I was inside, I held my breath and listened while Dib noisily flew past my hiding spot, letting out a frustrated scream of "WHERE'D HE GO?! **A-A-A-A-AL, YOU BUTTHEAD!"**

Covering my mouth to hold in the laughter, I waited a minute, then sped up my wings a bit to peek out of the top of the cloud. He was already quite far away, heading south. Letting myself chuckle at last, I folded my wings against my back and started to fall. The moisture that had clung to me began to fly off in tiny drops as I fell faster and faster.

**"A-HA! THERE YOU ARE!"** Dib triumphantly declared, letting out a long-winded battle cry. Within a second, he had blasted through a cloud and was zipping toward me, yelling the whole way. Twisting around to see where I was going, I continued gathering speed for a few seconds, then leveled out and began flying toward the nearby river. Only once I had flown far enough away from Infinite City that there were no players around did I let myself slow down to a leisurely pace.

While I waited for Dib to catch up, I ran my eyes over the river bank, trying to find a nice, secluded spot. Smiling, I selected a muddy area right by the water, surrounded by steep banks, cattails, and lots of trees. No one would be able to see us unless they were right on top of us. Earlier, Heng's plans for tonight had been as clear as glass, but Three and Six and my own exhaustion had interrupted. So, now that we were somewhere the boys weren't, and I was full of energy…

Turning around, I watched the silver and gold blur that was Dib come flying down from the sky. Bracing myself for the impact, I took a deep breath and grabbed Dib the moment he was within reach. Using his momentum to flip us over, I retracted my wings, gathered up all of my mana points, and released the energy in an explosion of wind that blasted us downward, toward the river. Dib's surprised scream was silenced when the spell forced us under the clear, warm water. Cutting off the flow of magic once we'd sank to the rocky bottom, I gave Dib a smirk and began dragging him to the bank, scattering fish as we went.

When we got to the surface, I dropped Dib on the muddy ground and sat myself down on his waist. While he coughed up some river water, I slowly unbuckled my arm's bracers, put them in my pouch, then took off my belt and laid it on the ground nearby. Leaning forward when his breathing leveled out, I put my hands on his shoulders and stared down at him.

"Geeze, Al," he wheezed, coughing a few more times. "What–"

"Don't move," I quietly ordered, forcing him to stay where he was when he tried to sit up.

Eyes going wide, he looked from side to side, then looked down and up. "What?!" he demanded in a scared tone. "Is there a bug on me?! Is it a leech?! Get it off! Get it o-o-o-off!"

"Shut up and stop moving," I growled, tightening my grip. He finally froze, squeezing his eyes shut and letting out little whimpers. Slowly releasing my hold, I slid my hands down his arms, my fingers searching for the buckles that held his armor in place. It wasn't until I'd almost gotten his breastplate off that he opened his eyes again and gave me a confused look.

Not stopping, I pulled the lightweight armor over his head and dropped it off to the side, then started unlacing his leather jerkin. Seeming to realize what I was doing, Dib's mouth quirked with a smile and he commented, "Doing a pretty thorough search for bugs, huh?"

At my little grin, he lifted his hands and began unbuckling my top, but I snatched up his wrists and pinned them to the ground. "Don't move."

Looking somewhat annoyed, he stuck out his bottom lip. "Why not?"

"Just don't," I mumbled, leaning down when I removed his jerkin and tossed it aside. Slowly kissing him, I slid my hands over his arms, taking the bracers off his forearms. Once his top half was completely bare, I lightly kissed him one more time before pressing my mouth to his jaw, neck, and down to his chest as I began undoing his belt. The damp, smooth and hairless skin was far more taunt and firm than it had been when he'd been tiny, but it was still the same golden tan color, and he still smelled sweet, like pie. I could feel his wildly booming heartbeat through my lips as I continued downward, his breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps the lower I got.

I was happier than I had been in a long time as the night went on, passing in a blur of skin rubbing against skin and the sounds of ragged breaths tearing through us as we tangled ourselves around one another. It was all much more rough and wild than anything we'd done before, needy and urgent, and with a somewhat desperate undertone.

We laid down on the muddy bank afterward, and I leaned against him, sliding one hand down his trembling arm, contentedly resting my head on his wide chest, absently counting the drips of water that rolled down his skin. I'd missed him so much. Being so close to him again made me feel like I was floating up in the clouds. And knowing that he felt the same only added to my elation. After having pointlessly spent my whole life chasing after the affection of my father and Gui Wen, it was an amazing experience to be the one being pursued. To be wanted and needed. To really be loved.

But regardless of my happiness, the wondering thought of how many more times we would be able to be like this unwantedly entered my mind. There was so little time left. Three months, perhaps four. It was nowhere near enough. Then again, even an entire lifetime probably wouldn't feel like enough. The hollow assurances I'd been giving myself over the past few days, my weak attempts at trying to convince myself that he and everyone else would be okay once I was dead, they were all fading rapidly, leaving nothing but fear and regret behind.

Perhaps they really would be okay…but I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to go.

"Are you okay?" Dib asked, raising a hand to run it through my hair. His gentle touch made me feel even worse.

Trying to stop shaking, I moved upward and buried my face in his neck, hugging him as tightly as I could. "I love you."

I could feel him smile as his arms wrapped around me again and he gave a kiss to the side of my head. "I love you, too. So, so much." We were both quiet for a few seconds, then he murmured, "I always will."

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><p><em>I find it hard to believe that I've reached 400,000 words with this chapter. o.o It doesn't feel like it's been that long since I hit 300k, lol. Ahhhhhh, just goes to show how much fun I've been having. The time flies.<em>

_***** Again, this is not the complete chapter.  
>Please follow the links up at the top if you want to read it in full. ***<strong>_


	71. Revelations and Gunshots

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

__**Note **_**_******– ******_**_Another chapter in which I regret not having multiple viewpoint characters. ;-; So much excitement could have been had at the end. *sigh*____

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><p>I woke the next morning feeling extremely chipper and refreshed. After a year of nights filled with restlessness, nightmares, and sometimes children, it felt amazing to get a solid eight hours of uninterrupted, restful sleep. A solid eight hours of uninterrupted, restful sleep while at the same time having near-non-stop sex with the man I loved. Definitely one of the best nights I'd had in a very long time.<p>

Bathed, clean-shaven, and dressed in warm and comfy clothes, I went down to the kitchen to make some tea while Heng and the boys took a bath together. Stifling a yawn, I swung open the kitchen door and came to a halt a few steps inside the enormous room. I'd been inside the Lin's kitchen plenty of times, but this one was bigger, and the only time I'd been in here was when I was a child, running around the house at random.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I began opening cupboards and drawers, attempting to map out the room in my head; I didn't have servants anymore, so I had to take care of myself from now on. I didn't doubt that Heng would insist on doing the cooking—we had simply gotten take-out last night—but I certainly didn't want to use him as a replacement servant, and was determined to pull my own weight. After ten minutes of wandering around, I filled an electric kettle with water and turned it on, gathering up a tea set while I waited for the water to boil. Dragging a stool over to the cupboard, I sat down, stifling a yawn while I picked through the selection of tea I'd found.

When the water was beginning to simmer, I looked up when someone came through the door. "Delivery," Benjamin announced, lifting Gao in his baby carrier.

"Thank you for watching him," I answered, standing and taking Gao from him. "I hope he wasn't too fussy."

Benjamin let out a slight grunt as he stretched his arms out, shaking his head. "As much as any baby. Miranda had a lot of fun with him, though. An' he ate already, just so you know."

I looked down at the baby, noting his annoyed expression, which was probably due to the bright blue dinosaur hat he was currently trying his hardest to take off. Carefully setting him on the floor, I sat on my stool again and pulled the winter hat Benjamin had given me out of my coat pocket. "Here," I offered, holding it out to him. "Thank you for letting me borrow it."

"Yeah, no problem." He waved it at me and turned, walking back toward the door. "G'night."

"Goodnight," I replied, turning back to the electric kettle and watching the steam pour out of the spout while Benjamin left, going off to sleep somewhere after a night of Gao-sitting and whatever else he and his team had been doing. Reaching down, I picked up the baby carrier by its handle and set it on my lap. Smiling in amusement at Gao's clumsy attempts at undressing his head, I lightly tugged on one of the soft white spikes on top of the hat, loosening it for him.

With an angry noise, he finally managed to slip out of the ridiculous-looking hat, and it toppled down, coming to a halt on his lap. Quickly snatching it up, I stuffed it into my pocket, out of his sight, and began to unbuckle him from the carrier. "It's alright now. The dinosaur isn't eating your head anymore," I soothingly murmured, resting him against my shoulder and gently rubbing his back. Unable to stop smiling, I rocked him back and forth. He was so soft and squishy and warm and cute. When I'd first met Dib, I'd thought it was nice to hold him like this, having a cuddly little kid, but having a real baby—_my_ baby was completely different.

My baby.

My son.

My adorable and tiny son.

Even though he wouldn't remember me and someone else would soon be in my place, I was still happy to be able to be a daddy while I could. I felt like I'd finally done something right.

Giving Gao a kiss on the cheek—he let out an annoyed-sounding squawk—I carefully shifted him over a bit and looked back to my kettle, which was starting to whistle. Turning it off, I placed everything I needed onto a tray and buckled Gao back into his carrier. I picked him up in one hand and propped up the tea tray on one hip, slowly making my way out of the kitchen, through the dining room, and into the entryway.

Loud screams and shouts, unmistakably coming from the boys and Heng, were echoing about the enormous room, and I chuckled slightly as I listened. It took me a while, but I eventually managed to get to the top of the stairs. Looking up, I watched in amusement as the boys, who were riding on top of Argos, waved plastic guns around over their heads, chasing after Heng as he ran screaming down the hallway, heading away from me.

Hurrying into my room to avoid getting caught up in the game while I was carrying tea and a baby, I pushed the door shut with one foot and went to my desk, sliding the tray on top. Putting Gao's carrier onto an armchair, I dragged it over to my desk, then retrieved my computer from the boxes by the door.

A loud crash made me look toward the door while I was setting up all the equipment. Heng came racing into the room, followed closely by the boys and Argos. "A-A-AL!" he screamed, running in circles. "SAVE ME!"

I didn't have time to reply before the boys mercilessly shot foam bullets at his back over and over and he dramatically fell down, playing dead.

"TIME FOR THE VICTORY DANCE!" Six yelled, jumping off the dog and to the floor. Three quickly followed and they began prancing around Heng's 'corpse.' The capes the boys had made out of white bath towels flew around in the air behind them as they spun around and around, cheering and whooping. They were wearing their swimming trunks again, as well as what looked like some of Gui Wen's old belts, which had toy swords stuffed into them. They also had Heng and my gaming helmets on their heads, thankfully with the _Second Life_ cartridges taken out.

After their victory dance was finished, they rushed over to me and began talking at the same time, babbling about all of the "cool stuff" they had found in Gui Wen's room, and about the game they'd just been playing, and what they wanted for breakfast—apparently Heng had promised them pancakes—and what they wanted to do after breakfast, and what they wanted to watch on TV, and a million other things I couldn't understand because they kept drowning one another out.

They were interrupted soon, however, by Heng's loud order of "GET THEM!" and they whirled around just in time to see Argos come leaping across the floor.

With a scream of "IT'S A REBELLION!" they escaped behind my chair and ran back out into the room, scampering out the door. Argos was right on their heels, barking playfully and bumping them with his nose.

Breathing heavily through his laughs, Heng slowly walked after them, calling back to me, "I'll come get you later."

"Alright." Giving him a wave as he closed the door, I sat down to continue setting up my computer. Once I had everything hooked up, and had started seeping the tea leaves, I returned Gao to my lap. Smiling again, I watched as the grumpy frown faded from his face as he closed his eyes.

So cute.

Tearing my eyes away from him, I leaned forward opened an internet browser on my computer, directing it to a news page I used to frequent. Typing my father's name into the search bar, I browsed through the numerous articles on him until I found what I was looking for—reports on what had happened last year.

Although I hadn't heard any details from Gui Wen or Heng about what my father had done to get himself in trouble with the police, I had assumed it was something horrible and illegal, but I hadn't expected it to be as horrible as it was. The first article was about the deaths of my grandparents. My grandmother's suicide was mentioned, but mainly the article was about the murder of my grandfather, who my father had told me had gotten shot and killed when by chance he'd been caught up in a gang fight on the way to work. According to the article, however, the gang fight was just a cover set up by my father and one of my father's friends.

Along with that article was several about the murders of my house staff, and quite a few more exposing a great deal of illegal activity going on between my father and his friend, which included drug dealing, human trafficking, the sale of illegal weapons, among other things. And the articles just kept coming and coming, story after story of things my father had done to countless people, many involving murder and blackmail.

I hadn't known my opinion of my father could have been worse, but it sank lower and lower the more things I read, until I couldn't stand to look at any of it anymore and closed the browser window, leaning back in my chair and sighing. Every time I thought I was starting to understand that man, something else appeared that threw me completely off.

This was the man who I'd lived and breathed for my whole life, the man I'd wanted to be proud of me, the man who I'd looked up to when I was a child. I had done everything he had ever asked of me; it frightened me, wondering just how far I would have gone for him, had I continued to follow in his footsteps. What would I have done for him in my fight to gain his acknowledgment and love? Would I have helped him do these things? Would it be my name on these news articles? Leaving behind a trail of carnage and bloodshed, all for the sake of gaining a modicum of attention from him. I prayed I wasn't so hopeless.

"I'm not, am I?" I asked quietly, staring down at Gao, as if he could answer me. Like I hadn't said anything at all, he continued to lay quietly, his eyes half-closed. Smiling at him, I gave the top of his tiny head a light pat and went back to my computer, feeling thankful that Gui Wen and I hadn't ended up like my father and Zhong Yu. Many times in the past I'd been very much tempted to hold everything my family had done to me against them—to a certain extent, I supposed I had—but it simply wasn't worth it to hold on to such things, laying stagnate in hatred forever. Though, seeing as how I had the support of quite a few people who really cared about me nowadays, perhaps if my father and Zhong Yu'd had people like that, they would have been happier people, too. Maybe…Well, probably not; they both seemed like lost causes, whichever way their lives may have happened.

With a faint sigh, I slowly sifted through a tiny portion of the billions of emails that had piled up over the last year. I was interrupted, however, when Gao let out the wettest, loudest, and longest fart I'd ever heard; I was fairly certain my chair had shaken a bit. I got up and gave him a disgusted frown. He didn't look too happy about it either. As the smell began to grow, I hurried to my bathroom and laid him down beside the sink, quickly digging through the spare diaper bag I'd put in there last night. Once I had arranged wet wipes, a new diaper, and a change of clothes nearby, I reluctantly unzipped his bodysuit, undid his diaper, and inspected the damage of his latest bowel movement.

"How…" I began, staring in disbelief as I lifted him up. His whole back was covered in the stinky, runny mess. "How in the world did you get it all the way up there?!"

"Eh, a-a-ah," he replied, scrunching up his face and looking very annoyed.

Sighing deeply, I rolled up my sleeves and turned on the faucet, running warm water over a bath sponge; wet wipes were no match for this. "What is the point of putting you in a diaper when all the stuff just oozes out?" I asked, lifting him up and gently cleaning him off. He let out several cries, obviously not enjoying his bath. "It's no use complaining," I told him. "If you didn't want to be washed, you shouldn't have exploded all over yourself."

"Wa-a-a-a!"

"No, I _won't_ stop."

"A-A-A-AH!"

"Next time, think before you poop!" Rinsing the sponge, I poured some baby wash on it and returned to scrubbing him, ignoring all the noise he was making. "I must have spent a fortune already on diapers. At this rate, there will be no money left to save for you and your brothers. You hear me? You are pooping away your college fund! Pooping it away, one diaper at a time!"

Once he was clean, I began to dry him off, laughing faintly at his hiccupy wails. "It's alright. It's almost over." Giving his forehead a kiss, I unfolded the new diaper and gave the baby a thoughtful glance. "I wonder why there are no diaper-changing robots…or are there? I've never heard of any. Perhaps all of the scientists in the world are too busy making clones like us, and have no time for making diaper-changing robots, hmm? It seems building robots would be less of a hassle than creating clones, doesn't it? Well, when you're older, you should study robotics, create a robot that changes diapers, and then dedicate it to me and all of the other poor parents who have to do this disgusting job. Okay?"

"A-a-ah."

"Good. I'm looking forward to it." Tucking him into his fresh clothes, I threw away the diaper, cleaned up the bathroom, and picked him up, giving him another kiss as I made my way through the bedroom, and out into the office. Not feeling like going back to my computer, I picked up the baby carrier and went downstairs. Heng gave me a somewhat startled look as I entered the kitchen, setting down the carrier by the table and hurrying over to the stove, where Three and Six were wildly waving around spatulas.

"Not done yet?" I asked, giving Gao a few rubs on the back when he let out a sleepy noise.

"Um…no," Heng quietly replied, vaguely shaking his head as he stared down at the pan.

Glancing between him and the cooking pancake, I quirked an eyebrow, wondering what was wrong with him, then turned to the boys. "Would you two please help me set the table?"

"But we wanna co-o-o-o-o-ok," Three whined, gripping his spatula a bit tighter.

I thought about forcing him to help me, but nodded. "Very well, Chef Three. I am looking forward to eating the delicious pancakes you and Chef Six and Chef Heng will make."

"And, and I'll eat some!" Six cut in, looking worried.

I widened my eyes. "What? They're not all for me?"

"No-o-o! Only one!" Three huffed, then paused. "Or maybe two. But not the rest! You have to share, remember?!"

"Ah, okay. I won't eat all of them, then." Inwardly laughing at their relieved expressions, I turned back to Heng. "Heng, I think that's burning," I quietly told him, noting the change of the smell. He didn't move. Feeling confused, I stepped closer and nudged his arm. He jumped slightly, and gave me a small look. "It's burning," I repeated, jerking my head at the pan.

"Oh." Quickly turning back to the stove, he flipped over the pancake. "I'll eat this one."

Watching him for a moment, I moved a little closer again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he told me, his tone completely unconvincing.

"Really?" I pressed.

"I said I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

Backing away at the annoyance in his voice, I nodded and forced a smile onto my face. "Okay, sorry." Going back to the table, I gave him a small look while I put Gao in his carrier. Heng was still frowning as he stared down at the pan. What had happened to put him in such a bad mood? Perhaps he'd had another run-in with the Americans while I'd been upstairs.

Trying to push the worry from my mind, I quickly began gathering up plates and utensils, neatly arranging it all on the small table while the other three continued to cook the food. By the time they'd made a mountain of pancakes, I'd heated the syrup, and had cut up some fruit, putting portions of it in small bowls at each chair. After a quick trip upstairs to collect the tea set, we all sat down and had a rather cheery meal, although to me Heng's sudden change in mood was obviously forced.

When we'd all stuffed ourselves, the boys ran off to play in the security room again—apparently the poor computer they'd been dismantling yesterday wasn't boring yet—and I poured Heng and I fresh cups of tea as I gave him a concerned glance. His eyebrows were furrowed again.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.

Letting out a sharp sigh, he shook his head and sipped at his tea. "Nothing."

Starting to feel annoyed, I frowned down at my cup. "Something obviously happened." When he kept silent, I leaned over the table and took one of his hands. He flinched slightly, almost too slight to notice, but notice I did. "Why won't you tell me…? After nagging me all the time to tell you every little damned thing, you–"

"It's really nothing," he insisted, sighing again as he drew his other hand over his eyes. "Nothing happened. Nothing's wrong. Don't worry about it, okay?"

In frustration, I tossed his hand back at him and sat up straight, taking a drink of tea just for something to do.

Several minutes passed in awkward silence, then someone came in through the door. Looking up, I barely managed to keep the scowl off my face when James stopped near the table. "The rest of our squad should be here this afternoon. I'll need to borrow you for a while, Zian, when they arrive. My superiors feel uncomfortable letting you and the August boys wander around with so much confidential information, and want us to alter your memories to avoid any slips. We have a man coming who will perform the hypnosis." At my alarmed look, he smiled faintly. "Don't worry, we won't get rid of anything other than the incriminating information about what happened, and the changes we'll be making will be small. After all, the brain isn't a computer—you can't simply delete things; we'll just switch the identities of your kidnappers, change their motives, that sort of thing. Little nudges to make you think you remember something else. You'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" I asked, not feeling convinced. What if they damaged my brain somehow, and I ended up in a coma or something?

"Yes." He gave a confident nod. "We've done this many times before, with very few mistakes." I was extremely reluctant to agree to this, but doubted they would let me refuse, so I didn't argue and simply continued to drink my tea. Seeming to be content with my silence, he nodded once again and looked at Heng. "Don't go anywhere. You have a few things that need to be altered as well."

"What are you talking about?" I sharply demanded. "Heng doesn't know anything."

He glanced between us for a moment, then quietly replied, "He was eavesdropping outside the bathroom earlier when you were talking to Gao. Try to avoid mentioning the cloning experiments, even when you think no one can hear, okay? You never know who may be listening." With a light "See you two later," he turned and left the kitchen, but I hardly heard him through the terrified thoughts exploding inside my head.

He knew.

He knew.

Oh god, he knew.

No wonder he looked like he did…No wonder he kept looking away from me, jumping when I touched him, refusing to talk to me. He knew.

Far too afraid to look up at him again, I stared unblinkingly down at my lap, clutching my shaking hands together as my whole body began to tremble. He knew…and judging by his reaction, it was not good. Not good at all. Did he hate me now? Was he afraid of me? Did he think I was disgusting, just like my father had?

"I'm sorry," Heng murmured, and I jumped slightly when he stood up and began walking toward the door. Shaking even harder, hot tears began to pour down my face as I listened to the door shut. He was leaving…He was leaving me. No, no, no, no, god no. Oh, fuck. What was I supposed to do now? He was gone. He hated me. How could I have been so stupid to think he'd want to stay with something like me? I was such an idiot. Why the hell had I said those things to Gao?

It was all over now.

I'd ruined everything.

Bending forward, I didn't even try to calm down as I continued to shake and cry, biting my lip to keep myself from screaming. However, I couldn't hold it in when Heng abruptly reappeared, crouching down in front of me. He flinched at the loud noise I'd made, but didn't move. In terror, I quickly looked away from him. I couldn't see him well through my tears, and I didn't _want_ to see him well. I didn't want to see what his face looked like.

"Al," he quietly called, leaning over to one side in an attempt to enter my field of vision, but I immediately looked farther away. "Hey, calm down." I wanted to cover my ears. I didn't want to hear what he was going to say. He was going to reject me.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, and my shaking increased again, making my teeth chatter. "I…I didn't mean to eavesdrop. Well, I mean, actually I did, but I was just…I came up to tell you we were about to start making the pancakes, and you were in there talking to Gao. I thought it was cute, so I wanted to listen…but I didn't know you'd say…that."

A few moments went by in silence, then he started talking again. "Was a surprise…Well, duh, it was a surprise…How the hell could I not be surprised after hearing something like that? But, um, it explains a lot." There was more silence, then he startled me when he yanked my chair around, so I was facing him, but I looked away again as fast as I could, still feeling terrified. "Al," he murmured, pulling on my hands, "look at me."

I shook my head twice, very hard, trying to shove his hands off mine.

"Come on, look at me," he prodded. I didn't reply, silently biting back all my miserable sobbing. "You don't have to be so scared," he whispered, gripping my hands harder. "This doesn't change anything. Nothing's different at all."

"How the fuck is nothing different?!" I snarled, gritting my teeth as I continued to pull my hands away. "I'm a failed experiment…A disgusting thing. An imitation of a human. There's no way it doesn't bother you!"

"A clone, or a robot, or an alien from outer space, or a jellyfish who got magically transformed into a human, or whatever, it doesn't matter; you're still the same person you've been this whole time," he huffed. "And don't call yourself a 'disgusting thing'!" He smacked the side of my head, lightly but still roughly. "You big idiot, quit tearing yourself down all the time!" He smacked the other side of my head. "Quit being so negative!" And another smack. "It pisses me off!"

I involuntarily let out a squeak when he yanked me to the floor and hugged me so tightly I couldn't move. Still shaking uncontrollably, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried very hard to stifle my gasping sobs. Smashing my face into his chest in my continued refusal to look at him, I forced out, "I jus-st don't want y-you to ha-hate m-me!"

"If you found out something like this about me, would you hate me?" he quietly challenged.

"No!" I denied immediately.

"Then why the hell do you think I would?" he continued, sounding angry. "Geeze. You're so irrational sometimes…How many times do I have to tell you that I love you until you'll finally believe me?"

Hoping that question was rhetorical, I didn't answer and silently began to calm down, still shuddering and crying. I was trying so hard to believe him, and I wanted to so badly, but trying to tell myself that there was actually a person who would accept me just sounded too good to be true. After a lifetime of being hated, it seemed ridiculous that there would be someone who would actually love me, no matter who or what I was. No matter how many times he attempted to persuade me, I doubted I would ever be completely convinced.

"It really doesn't bother you?" I eventually whispered, still too scared to venture any looks at him. Perhaps I didn't completely believe him, but it still felt nice to hear him say it.

"It doesn't," he replied, and I felt him kiss the top of my head. "And sorry for acting weird earlier. It's not that I was rethinking anything, I was just…trying to put it all together. Trying to answer questions I'm not allowed to ask and stuff. But like I said, don't worry about it." His hand brushed over my hat and came to a stop on the back of my head. Finally feeling the terror ebb away, I slowly looked up at him. Even though I was trying so hard to stop crying, the tears just kept gushing out as I took in his warm smile. The relief nearly made me pass out. When he kissed me, I squeezed my eyes shut and leaned into him, willingly and hopelessly losing myself in the soft push of his lips. It was over way too fast, but I didn't complain when he pressed his forehead to mine and murmured, "No matter what, I promise that I'm always going to love you. Nothing's gonna change that. And even if you don't believe me yet, I'll say it over and over and over until you do." He kissed my cheek, then hugged me again.

We stayed like that on the kitchen floor for quite a while, not talking to one another, just snuggling. The aching tension that had been twisting inside of me for so long began to unwind and allowed me to relax a great deal more. Everything I'd been looking for, all of the love and acceptance…it was right here. I'd finally found it. Regardless of the doubts still nagging at the back of my mind, it felt like my morning was a thousand times brighter as he held me in his arms.

It wasn't until over an hour had passed that we finally detangled ourselves and got off the floor when Gui Wen texted Heng and told him he was about to arrive; he'd been staying at the Lin house rather than here. It was a short visit; he dropped off the legal documents he'd promised to bring for me, collected a few things from his old room, then left again to fly back to T City.

After putting Gao in the security room with the boys, Heng and I started to wander around the house, exploring rooms and quietly talking. Although James hadn't wanted me to say anything about the investigation, I told Heng about the other boys; he was going to have his memory wiped, so what did it matter? He didn't ask any questions anyway, and seemed to be content filling in the blanks with his own assumptions. It felt extremely good to be able to finally unload all of it, rather than keeping it all hidden and pretending like it hadn't happened.

We eventually made our way into the library, and Heng gave a long look around, his eyes once again going wide. "Wo-o-ow, this is huge," he murmured, pulling me toward the closest shelf. "Got aisles just like the library at college…So many books…I'm kinda surprised you guys have paper books instead of electronic ones."

"We have those as well," I corrected, "but my grandfather preferred these."

Heng let out a humming noise and glanced from book spine to book spine as we walked down one of the aisles. "What are you gonna do with all of it?"

Sighing faintly, I stared down the long shelves. "Since Gui Wen said he doesn't want any of it, I suppose I'll just sell it all. Clear out everything and see if anyone wants to buy the house, or have it torn down and just sell it as an empty lot. Then I'll add the money to my savings and what Gui Wen gave me of our father's will, and put it all in savings for the boys."

With a light chuckle, Heng plucked a book off a shelf and inspected the cover. "They'll be set for life."

I watched for a moment while he flipped through the pages, then I took a deep breath and braced myself for whatever annoyance he was about to unleash. "I want to give you a portion as well…if you would agree."

He gave me a look of disbelief. Slowly putting the book back on the shelf, he opened and closed his mouth a few times. "…No, just give it to the boys. I don't need it."

"I still want you to have it."

Backing up, he shook his head. "Al, no."

"Why not?"

"I…I've never wanted anything like that from you."

Smiling at the worry that had filled his expression, I stepped forward and took his hands. "That is why I offer it to you." When he shook his head again, I gave his hands a squeeze. "I'm not asking you to go out and waste it all on fancy clothes, and an expensive car, and a castle, or whatever. Just keep living in whatever way makes you comfortable. And I know you're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, so please don't think I'm offering you charity, or…or treating you as a gigolo, because that's not it. I just want to be able to help you even when I'm not here anymore."

Frowning reluctantly, he looked away. "I don't know."

"It would have eventually been yours anyway," I pointed out, "if we'd had the chance to take _us_ to the next level." Letting go of his hands, I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning against him and giving him a light kiss. "Moving in together…even getting married someday. Pooling our resources would have been natural. 'What's mine is yours,' and all that."

His face had turned bright red at the word "married," and I kissed him again, smiling against his mouth. After I had asked "Please?" several times, he finally let out a sigh and looped his arms around my waist, letting himself grin a little. "Okay, okay, I'll take it. But it's all going into the triplets' school funds and stuff."

"That's fine," I murmured, feeling relieved. As a person who had never needed to handle matters involving money, I had no idea what sort of difficulties, if there were any, that Heng had been dealing with since his parents' deaths. It made me happy to know that I was useful to him, even if it was in a way that he didn't particularly want.

Brushing my hands over his soft hair, I smiled up at him and gave him one more kiss before resting my head against his shoulder, contentedly soaking in his warmth. A light push surprised me a bit, and I carefully stepped backward as Heng pressed me up against one of the shelves. While his fingers squeezed my hips, I dropped my eyes to his chest and stared at it, starting to feel a bit shy again, my mind flooding with recollections of last night. Hours and hours spent tangled together on that riverbank.

Simply thinking about it was making me want to do it again…but here in real life, I wasn't sure if my aching toothpick of a body would be able to withstand anything so rigorous, and the boys still had our gaming helmets—they'd probably get in the way if we tried to go to sleep, anyway—so I supposed I had to wait until tonight, when we would have lots and lots of uninterrupted time together.

Trying to shove all of that out of my head before my body started doing things I didn't want it to yet, I took a few deep breaths and attempted to calm down. It really didn't help that Heng was giving me a very seductive stare while pinning me to the shelves…and his hands were roaming lower and lower…and his face was getting closer and closer…

Catching familiar movement out of the corner of my eye, I shoved Heng away from myself as hard as I could, causing him to tumble backward into another shelf, and I whirled around to the left at the sound of a muffled gunshot, my heart pounding in fear as pain exploded across the right side of my face. There was a loud smashing noise behind me as the bullet that had grazed my cheek hit something.

The helmeted man at the end of the aisle quietly aimed his large gun at us again.

Someone elsewhere in the room yelled my name, but I grabbed Heng and began running as fast as I could in the other direction. There was a shout, a crash, and the sound of another gunshot, but I didn't turn to see what had happened. Heng and I reached the end of the aisle, then skidded to a halt as another man cut us off. On reflex I moved in front of Heng in an attempt to shield him, but the man fell down when a bullet sliced clean through his throat and another punctured his helmet. He crumpled on the floor at our feet, and a pool of blood began seeping out of his wounds, spreading across the hard wood floor.

"You two okay?"

I almost screamed when I heard the voice, and whirled around in terror, watching as Miranda hurried up to us. Not answering, I turned around again, watching as one of the other Americans rushed up through the aisles and knelt beside the body. For whatever reason, he pulled a small saw out of his pocket and put it to the dead man's neck.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Heng demanded. "He's dead already!"

Eyes going wide, I looked away, feeling sick when the man began cutting, and I barely noticed when Miranda started dragging Heng and I back down the aisle. "Where are the boys?" I asked, wincing at the searing pain in my cheek and attempting to make her and Heng move faster as we entered the main area of the library. What looked like half of Benjamin's team were fanning out in the room, guns held at the ready. More shots were fired, both here in the room and somewhere else in the house.

"Safe," she replied, rushing us out into the hallway.

"What's happening?" Heng tightly squeezed my hand when we came to a corner and Miranda carefully peeked around it.

She held up a finger for silence and continued to lead us downstairs. Within a minute we had reached the security room. Miranda shoved us inside, then went back into the hall and shut the door behind us. Hoping she would be okay out there, I took several deep breaths and turned to look around. Benjamin and James were both barking orders at quite a few people seated at computers along the wall, but when they noticed we were here, James hurried over and grabbed my arm, dragging me over to a table and chairs in the corner.

"What the fuck's going on?" Heng snapped, sounding just as frightened as I was.

James pushed me into one of the chairs and opened a first aid kit that was on the table, quickly pulling out several things. "Exactly what we knew would happen," he quietly replied, carefully cleaning the cut on my face. "They came after Zian and the boys…However, we weren't expecting them to be able to break through our computers' defenses and tamper with the security cameras. They caught us by surprise a bit, but we're getting the upper hand."

"Where are the boys?" I repeated, attempting to lean to one side and inspect the room. Other than Benjamin and his row of computer minions, it looked like there was no one else in the room.

"Don't move," James ordered, shoving me back into place. He gave a quick point toward a door on the opposite wall, then went back to tending to my newest injury. "There are some beds in there. Three and Six fell asleep on one about an hour ago, and we put Gao in there with them when we noticed something was wrong. There are no doors connected to that room other than the one in here, so they're perfectly safe.

"Is this your only wound?"

"Yes."

"Heng, were you shot?"

"No, I'm fine," he shakily denied, still tightly holding onto my hand. "Wh…why the hell are you guys cutting their heads off?" Fear and disgust filled his voice as he posed the question. "I mean, he tr-tried to kill us, but…but what the hell?!"

Sighing deeply, James shoved a second chair at Heng and kicked at his ankle until he sat down. "They would get back up if we didn't."

"How?! You blasted a hole into his head already!"

"They've been experimenting with the medicine used for the April series," he quietly answered. "Zian's body is so weak it will quickly break down on a cellular level if left alone, but the pills force his body to repair and replace damaged and dead cells. In other words, it causes his body to heal itself at an accelerated rate. They've altered the pills so the rate of healing is ridiculously fast, even for fatal wounds. So, before they get a chance to heal, we need to…prevent it."

"But…but even if the guy's body healed, he'd still be dead," Heng pointed out in bewilderment.

James gave a somewhat cautious glance over his shoulder—none of the other Americans were paying us any attention—then turned back around and continued even more quietly. "I suppose it doesn't matter if I tell you now…I managed to get some data from another section of the lab while I was undercover. They were experimenting with a computer chip meant to be implanted in the brain. The scientists could send commands to the chip, which in turn would send electrical signals directly into the brain, and control the body of the implant receiver. We don't know for sure, but it's possible that these people have been chipped. If they have, there's a risk that their bodies could still be controlled elsewhere, so even if the previous owner of the body is gone the body will still get back up and continue what it was doing before."

"Zombie cyborgs…This is so messed up," Heng whispered, looking thoroughly terrified. I wasn't sure what he was frightened at—he was probably imagining some sort of horror movie scenario—but I was far more terrified at the question of who the scientists' test subjects had been…Perhaps that's where Five and the others had gone before being dissected, and the men and women used as well.

"Perhaps you will support our cause a bit more now and not harass us for doing our jobs," James commented, giving him a small glance as he stuck a large bandage on my face.

"No," he immediately denied, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna stop until you help Al."

Giving a faint laugh, James began to pack up the first aid kit. "Well, you don't have to harass us any longer."

"You're making him more medicine?!" Heng demanded, giving my hand an extremely painful squeeze.

"No, we're not." James shut the box and straightened up. "Go into the other room until we have this sorted. Once it's safe, we'll be flying both of you and the boys to someone who can help Zian. You already know them, so it should be a nice little trip."

I stared in confusion at James' back as he turned and went back to the row of computers. "Who?"


	72. An Unexpected Savior

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>After waiting nearly two hours, listening to Benjamin and James order their soldiers around, the commotion quieted slightly. By the sound of things, the Americans had regained control of the security system, emptied the house of the intruders, and were in the process of chasing down the vehicle in which the people had come. In the lull, a man I didn't know by name who was carrying some bags—the diaper bag that had been in my bath, Heng's bag, and two that looked like they had come from my closet—came barging into the room, told us Heng's brothers had been taken into protective custody, silenced all of Heng's demands to contact them, and urged us to follow him.<p>

We gathered up the boys' belongings they'd scattered about the security room, then Heng carefully took one boy in each arm, moving as gently as possible so they didn't wake, and I picked up Gao in his carrier as we left the rooms, heading toward the back of the house. Leaving through a rear entrance, I was slightly surprised to see three military helicopters parked on the patio, which had been cleared of the decorations, lawn furniture and umbrellas that had always been there before.

At the loud, choppy noise of the blades spinning overhead, both boys immediately woke up and gave a disoriented, groggy look around as they clung to either of Heng's shoulders, mumbling inquiries about what was going on and rubbing their eyes. With a few calming words, Heng hefted them up a little as he climbed into the helicopter at which we'd been directed, and helped them get strapped into the seats. Within moments I had been seated beside them, the man holding all of our bags had tossed them into what I assumed was a cargo hold, and the door had been shut, causing the sounds of the blades to fade to a soft, rhythmic thump. My heart, which hadn't stopped pounding ever since Heng and I had been shot at in the library, slowed a tiny bit when we took off.

Tightly gripping Heng's hand, I briefly shut my eyes, but immediately reopened them when images of that dead man's decapitation surfaced. After playing _Second_ _Life_ for so long, there was little I hadn't seen in terms of graphic violence, but bearing witness to something like that in real life was terribly revolting. I wondered if the hypnotism that would be performed on me would be able to erase such an unforgettable sight. Feeling nauseous again, I averted my gaze to the window and watched as the cityscape disappeared into the somewhat hazy afternoon sky, and the whispered bits of conversation passing between Heng and the boys slipped from my attention as I once again began to wonder who it was the Americans were taking us to meet. James, probably in a want to "surprise" me yet again—I was coming to hate surprises, especially ones from him—had refused to say anything, regardless of how chatty he'd been for a moment in the security room.

Thus I was left to wonder all on my own.

Given he had said the person was an acquaintance of mine who would be able to help me become healthier, I had immediately started to mentally list every doctor I knew. However, it was a very short list, especially because the majority of the people in it were now dead. The remainder were a handful of people I'd met at social events over the years, and there was also Gui Wen's coworker and teammate whose real name I couldn't remember at the moment. Ugly Wolf seemed very unlikely, and I knew too little about the rest to make any decisions, so my musings went on.

But whoever they were and whatever James' plans, I didn't allow myself to get hopeful. After everything that had happened, it was rather easy to keep myself from becoming optimistic. I didn't want to be disappointed yet again if something went wrong and it turned out that there really was nothing that could be done to fix this pathetically weak body of mine.

I didn't have a way to tell the time, but it didn't seem like much had passed before the helicopter began its descent to who-knew-where. A brief inspection out the window showed me a sight close to what we'd left behind—a densely packed city. But however similar it seemed, I didn't recognize the layout of the streets, or the appearance of any of the buildings. Letting out a faint sigh, I leaned back in my seat and waited for us to land.

Soon, with a bump and a shudder, we stopped moving and I heard the helicopter power down. After a brief pause, the rest of the occupants of the helicopter—three men I'd seen several times now but hadn't asked their names, and James, much to my annoyance—emerged and had us unstrap ourselves, ushering us outside when the door opened.

Leaning against Heng to avoid getting blown away by the wind, I held Gao's carrier close to myself to shield him from the worst of the gusts and squinted at my surroundings. All three helicopters had landed on the enormous helipad of a skyscraper. In the limited area I could see around the building and the helicopters, there were no landmarks I recognized, so I looked to the Americans as they piled out of the other two helicopters and immediately organized themselves.

We were taken inside and hurried to an elevator. One group of Americans went first, then when the doors reopened Heng, the boys and I were all crammed inside the small compartment with the man who had our bags, and James, who pressed a button labeled "P," then rapidly entered what I assumed was a password into a keypad that appeared on the screen. Without a sound, we began moving downward. I had an urge to interrogate James some more, but doubted he would say anything yet, so I kept my silence and let the boys nag him instead.

Only a few seconds passed before we stopped and the doors slid open. We stepped into a hallway, and were led into a nice, cleanly-decorated office, with calm colors, bonsai trees, and wide windows giving us an unobstructed view of the city outside. One building in particular—a famous tourist attraction—caught my eye and I finally realized where we had been taken—T City. Why we'd been taken here, however, was still a mystery.

At our entrance, four people stood from their seats on some comfy-looking sofas arranged around a low coffee table on one side of the room. James strode forward and politely greeted a man I'd never seen before, who looked to be around my father's age, but my eyes were snagged by the sight of my brother hurrying forward.

Was _he_ the person James had cryptically mentioned? How the hell was Gui Wen supposed to be of any help? Having that ridiculously high intelligence of his didn't mean he magically knew everything about medicine.

"Zian!" he anxiously called, once again yanking me into a far-too-tight embrace. "Are all of you okay?! What happened to your face?!"

"We're fine," I assured, wishing he would calm down. "I got grazed by a bullet, but–"

"Bullet?!" he repeated loudly, then switched to English as he turned to the man who was currently putting down all of our bags. "What the hell were you people doing while my brother was getting shot?!"

I inhaled to stop him, but James' calm voice interrupted. "I apologize for the wound. We should have been more careful. But please come sit down. If you want, you can fight with us more after we've finished."

The look on Gui Wen's face told me he was definitely going to take James up on the offer. He obediently quieted as we went over to the sofas. However, a tug on the end of my coat made me stop after a few steps and look down. "I'm hungry," Three announced, giving me an expectant stare as if he thought I'd be able to produce a meal for him out of nowhere. I was somewhat embarrassed to finally notice that he was still wearing the clothes from earlier—multi-colored swim trunks and a white bath towel cape.

"Me too," Six chimed in.

I was about to reply, but James interrupted yet again as he pressed a finger to the little communication device on his left ear. "Bring food for four, and heat a bottle." There was a brief pause, then he turned to us. "Your lunches will be brought up in about ten minutes."

Crouching down, I patted both boys on their shoulders. "Until the food comes, you may go play with your toys; I packed them in the blue and gray bag. Just try to be quiet, okay? Heng and I have some important things to discuss with the people over there."

"Okay," they replied in unison, then hurried over to the pile of bags. Straightening, I sighed faintly and tightened my grip on Gao's carrier as we walked forward. Giving a bow to the man James had greeted, I smiled politely at him as he gave me a warm grin.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said cheerily. "I am the chairman of _Second Life_."

What did he have to do with anything?

Why were there no _doctors_ anywhere?

"Min Zian. Nice to meet you," I quietly replied, trying my hardest to keep my confusion hidden.

"I believe you know my daughter," he continued, gesturing toward one of the other people.

My face automatically twisted into a scowl when I turned and found the real-life equivalent of Lolidragon staring at me with her usual annoying, pushy expression of mischief and obnoxiousness. "I'm Long Shui Han. It's so-o-o-o wonderful to finally meet you in real life, Zian," she gushed, extending a hand. Although I didn't want to, I briefly wiggled her fingers up and down, hoping it would pass for a handshake.

While Heng and Shui Han exchanged brief greetings, my attention was once again stolen by Gui Wen, who had a very excited look on his face. I watched in bewilderment and slight embarrassment as he wildly began pointing and gesturing at the fourth person—a skinny and rather plain young woman who looked vaguely familiar. Glancing back at Gui Wen for an explanation, I inwardly groaned upon noticing the unmistakable word "Prince" he was mouthing, and went back to staring at the woman, this time with a cold glare. She gave me a twitchy smile in return. Feng Lan was certainly a lot different than the hairy gorilla I'd expected…but that made me no happier.

This was all just damn wonderful. James had _not_ taken me to see a doctor who would be able to help me; he had taken me to see some old man, the stupid thief, the stupid elf, and my stupid brother. Unless Shui Han was a doctor—for obvious reasons, I highly doubted it—there wasn't anyone remotely useful in the room. This trip was looking very pointless. Well, at least we were safe—if only temporarily—from those murderous maniacs.

Pieces of small talk were passed between the seven of us as we sat on the couches. While I was unbuckling Gao from his carrier, Six hurried up to my side and told me, "Seven! The Super Warrior Helmets aren't in the bag! We ne-e-e-e-ed them!"

"The what?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

He bounced up and down impatiently on his tip-toes, but before he could explain, Heng let out a chuckle as he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "He means the gaming helmets."

"Oh, those." Quickly extracting Gao from the carrier, I picked him up and followed Six back to the bags, watching in exasperation as he and Three proceeded to toss the contents of the bags all over the carpeted floor, all the while saying, "See?! They're not here!"

"I suppose we left them in the security room," I replied, running my eyes over the mess.

"What'll we do?!" Three mournfully inquired. "Now we can't transform!"

Having no idea what to say to that, I turned around and looked toward Shui Han's father; why worry about having left the helmets at home when we were at a gaming company? "Long-zhuxi, do there happen to be any spare gaming helmets here my sons may borrow?"

"Yes, there are." He gave a wide smile to the boys. "And plenty of games as well! What would they like to play?"

"They just want to wear them," Heng replied, amusement filling his voice.

"Oh, I see! Imagination!" He gestured toward the boys as he walked toward his desk, and pulled a thick folder out of one of the drawers. "We have several models they may pick from."

The boys hesitantly looked up at me, and I gave them both light pushes toward the desk. "Go ahead, he'll get you new ga–" I barely caught myself before I said the wrong thing. "…He'll get you new Super Warrior Helmets. They'll be just as powerful, if not more, than the other ones."

With widening eyes, they let out excited noises and hurried forward, their towel capes flapping around behind them, and I was filled with the urge to laugh.

My sons were the most adorable children in the whole world.

Attempting to keep a straight face, I went back to the couches and sat down, arranging Gao into a more comfortable position. "You and Dib sure haven't wasted any time, have you?" Shui Han asked, a smirk-like smile on her face. "Got yourself a set of twins and a newborn already."

Refusing to give her the satisfaction of a reply, I looked toward James. "So, why have you brought us here?"

"I told you already," he answered promptly, crossing one leg over the other and keeping his eyes fixed on Shui Han. "I have a request for you, Long Shui Han."

She really was a doctor? No way. There was no way in hell I'd let someone like that operate on me.

"What is it?" she returned, taking a very uncharacteristically dainty sip of tea from the flowery set that was arranged on the low table between us.

"Due to certain circumstances, I need to make use of the research from Long Dian."

Oh, thank god, I was mistaken…Then again, I didn't want James to operate on me either, especially if he was going to use the research of Shui Han's maniac cousin, who, from what I'd heard, was little better of a person than the scientists who had kidnapped me.

Shui Han's face immediately darkened into an expression I'd never seen her wear before. Sadness, hurt and anger flashed across her narrowed eyes as she set down her teacup and crossed her arms. James had obviously said something very wrong. "You came here to 'make use' of Dian-biaoge?" she coldly inquired. "You want to tear open all my family's wounds?"

"Those are not my intentions."

"Please leave," she dismissed, looking away from us.

"Why do you need the research?" Gui Wen cut in, looking somewhat unsettled himself. "Lolidragon's family can't just release that information to the public. It's very likely that it would be abused in the same way as before."

"We're not 'the public'; unlike what you seem to be thinking, we want as few people to know about this as possible," James replied quietly, then looked toward Lan as he continued, "and besides, you're planning to use his research anyway, aren't you?"

She hesitantly glanced between us. "We're not using it for no good reason. It's for our friends."

"Then you should have no problem with our request. Zian is dying." At those last few words, Gui Wen immediately looked horrified and began demanding answers, but James simply kept talking over him until he quieted. "You remember his medication, don't you, Gui Wen? Well, he only has a limited supply—no, even if the supply was unlimited, I doubt he likes being completely dependent on pills." I shook my head when he paused. "It would be an all-around better solution to simply give him a new body, which is where the Long family's help comes in."

"Wait a minute," I cut in, feeling alarmed. "You want to stuff me into an artificial body, like her cousin?"

"That is part of the basic plan," he affirmed.

"I don't want to," I immediately rejected, giving him an angry look. "Gui Wen told me about Long Dian, about what the doctors he used had accomplished, and I certainly don't want that sort of invincible body for myself!" The thought of living forever was nearly as frightening as dying young…Having to watch everyone around me grow old and die while I simply kept endlessly living and living and living.

"I understand your hesitation."

"You obviously don't, if that's your plan," I huffed at him.

"Al, shoosh," Heng ordered. "Let him explain."

"Thank you," James murmured, making me feel extremely annoyed. Clearing his throat, he continued. "As I said, that is _part_ of the _basic_ plan. If it was the complete plan, I wouldn't be here. What I want to do is use the data my team has to create a _real_ body—a perfect copy of your body as it is now, minus all of the health problems." I began shaking somewhat as I realized what he was suggesting—cloning me again. Even if it would save me, I felt sick at the thought of it.

"What do you need my family's help for if you didn't come here to have us make him an artificial body?" Shui Han asked, still looking rather upset.

With a light sigh, James folded his hands over his lap. "The people who kidnapped him are still after his life, so I was hoping you would be able to help us keep him safe while we're growing the new body." He paused a moment. "The part of the data I need from your cousin's research is how to insert Zian into _Second Life_. If we hide him in there, we won't have to worry that he'll be harmed while we finish rounding up the last of the kidnappers."

"You want to trap me inside of a game?" I slowly asked, even more terrified than before.

"_Hide_, not trap, and only temporarily," he added, raising an eyebrow at me. "I've never played the game, but from what I know of it, it certainly doesn't sound like you would have anything to complain about. We'll be sure to give you daily, if possible, progress updates, to keep you informed of how things are going. Once the body is grown, we will hook it up to the machines they have here, synchronize you with the body's brain, and simply stick you both together."

Simply?

That didn't sound simple at all.

Falling silent while Gui Wen began asking questions, I attempted to make sense of all this in my head. I obviously didn't want to die, but I also didn't want to be stuck inside _Second_ _Life_ for who knew how long. And would James and his people actually be able to grow me a new body? They had a lot of data to use, and that data had proven itself time and again with how many clones had been successfully created, but…all of those had been babies, and I most certainly didn't want to start my life over from birth. Had they ever created a full-grown adult before? What if the body didn't grow right? What if they wouldn't be able to sync me with the body? What if the people from the lab somehow found out I'd been put inside _Second_ _Life_ and they deleted me?

But in the end, what did it really matter if something went wrong? I was going to die anyway. Wouldn't it be better to die while fighting to live, rather than simply giving up? Wouldn't it be worth all of the risks and complications if that meant it might be possible for me to be able to live a normal life with Heng and my sons?

I took a deep breath and looked up at Heng. He looked extremely relieved and excited, which made me feel a bit less frightened. It seemed he and I had both decided it was a good plan. Mostly.

The conversation slipped back into small talk when the lunches and Gao's bottle—and the all-important new Super Warrior Helmets, of course—were brought in, and then we began our discussion again, now with the chairman present as well. Once we had filled him in on what we'd been talking about and had asked him if he would help, he looked very somber, but not unwilling. "What my nephew did was terrible," he quietly said, holding his teacup in both hands and watching the boys messily eat, "and it's hard to discuss all of this so soon. But it relieves me to know that we can do something good with Dian-er's research. Whatever my company can do to help you, Zian, I am willing to do it."

"Thank you," I murmured gratefully, then took a drink of the hot tea I'd been given. My thoughts briefly flew to Windy the Weirdo, remembering she had also offered me help, but I stopped myself before I could start wondering just what it was she would have done. It definitely would have been something ridiculous and bizarre. Sighing faintly as I forced myself to refocus on the current situation, I turned to look at James. "Do you really think you will be able to make me a new body?"

"Yes," he answered confidently. "But if not, we will simply try again."

"How safe will I be in the meantime?" I continued, directing it toward the Longs as well. "The kidnappers are very resourceful, and might find out where I've gone. If that does happen, will you be able to stop them from erasing me?"

"We can back up your data in several different places," Shui Han assured. "If they do manage to delete you, we'll have other copies of you somewhere else. Also, after what Dian-biaoge did to _Second Life_, we have strengthened security to make sure no one else will be able to hack into the system and mess with the game, but we can strengthen it even more if you think it's necessary."

"If you don't mind, my security team can take a look at it," James suggested.

"Go ahead," the chairman agreed, nodding.

"What about the boys?" I asked James, holding Gao a bit tighter. "What will you do with them?"

"I'll do what you were planning—send them to live with the Lins," he replied. "We'll have our team move in secret to their estate with the boys, but we'll act like we're keeping the boys somewhere else, which will hopefully draw any unwanted attention away."

"I don't want to drag the Lins into this."

"We're not dragging them. They already agreed."

Anger flared up yet again at his answer. When the hell had he arranged it? And why the hell hadn't he talked to me about it beforehand? That asshole…First he lectures me about how much danger I was putting other people in by going back home openly, and now he yanks a whole family into the crossfire.

"I refuse to allow this if an incident like earlier today will happen."

"We won't let anything happen to them," he replied with unshakable confidence. "The holes in our defenses were intentional; if I may remind you, you ignored my warnings about how dangerous it would be, and chose to try and catch their attention. I know you no longer trust me, but I hope you can believe me even a little when I tell you we will keep them safe."

Looking away from him, I stared down at Gao while he happily slurped away at his bottle. I was torn between my determination to keep myself from lowering my guard around the traitorous bastard, and my desperate want for my children to be protected in my absence by a team of people who were so obviously capable. Eventually the latter won the fight. "Do it, then," I shakily told him. "But if you let any of them get even a scratch, you will pay for it."

"Fair enough," he softly replied, sighing faintly as he leaned against the sofa.

The remainder of the day flew past as we made plans for inserting me into the game—although I wasn't ready for it at all, James wanted to do it tomorrow, to hide me as soon as possible—then Heng was finally allowed to call his brothers and make sure they were okay, and once he was finished he and I had a nice little dinner with Gui Wen and Lan. I found Lan to be slightly less idiotic than Prince, although she was still quite air-headed. But however much I disliked her, accepting their relationship was easy when I saw how happy Gui Wen was. His eyes rarely left her face throughout the whole meal. After everything that had happened to him, whether it was related to our family or not, he certainly deserved that happiness.

After that, Heng and I were taken to a four-room hotel suite we were sharing with the boys, who were already asleep in one of the two bedrooms by the time we arrived. Heng and I went to the other bedroom, and I headed straight for the bath, wanting to hurry and go to bed. As I began to undress, I let out a faint hiss of discomfort as I carefully lifted my left arm to slip out of my sweater; in all of the commotion, I'd forgotten about the incision on my shoulder, but now it was starting to hurt again. I could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on as well, my mind spinning with the events of the past day. Perhaps it would take time for the news to sink in, but I didn't feel any more hopeful than I had yesterday. Being allowed another chance at life…

Pausing as I dropped the final shirt on the floor, I gave a glance at the door when I heard a soft knock.

"Mind if I come in, too?" Heng called.

Turning toward the mirror, embarrassment filled me at the sight of my scarred and scrawny body. My physique had been nowhere near perfect before I'd left, but now…it was downright hideous. Ever since I'd gotten back, I'd avoided undressing around Heng, but I supposed I couldn't escape it forever.

Feeling extremely reluctant, I replied, "Come in," and turned away from the door, keeping my eyes away from the mirror. The door opened and closed as I shakily worked at my belt buckle, attempting to gather up a shred of courage as I murmured, "I don't mind if you want to bathe as well, just behave yourself." I was way too achy to do anything more than kiss, so he had better keep his hands to himself…Assuming he would even want me after seeing what I looked like under all the clothes. In the future I would definitely have to exercise more. Perhaps the new body would finally give me a chance to have all the muscles I wanted, unlike this one, which lost weight and muscle nearly faster than I could keep up.

"Yeah," Heng quietly replied. The exaggerated disappointment I had expected—or perhaps the disgust—wasn't there. He sounded like he was crying. Dropping my belt, I gave him a confused glance over my shoulder.

What the hell—he _was_ crying. Serious crying, not the childish tears he forced out when he didn't get something he wanted.

"What's wrong?" I demanded, stepping toward him in alarm. I lifted my hands and put them on either side of his face, carefully brushing away the warm drops as he let out a choked sob and tried to speak, but didn't seem capable of forming words yet. Regardless of how much time we'd spent together, these extreme mood swings of his still unsettled and confused me, and probably always would.

A few seconds passed, then he met my eyes and, with quite a bit of effort, said, "Ju…just a few…centimeters." His eyes dropped to the large bandage on the right side of my face, covering the long gash from my mouth to nearly my ear, and he started crying even harder. "You would have been killed…if he'd shot just…just a bit…" His words got choked by the tears, and he looked down, squeezing his eyes shut. Attempting to come up with something comforting to say, I pulled him into a tight hug, feeling like a moron for not noticing how shaken he'd been after the shooting. Why the hell did he always pretend to be okay?

"You almost died," he whispered, taking a few choppy breaths. "All that blood all over the place…I thought you were going to die…I was so scared."

"I'm fine," I assured. "It's just a scratch."

"I know it is!" he weakly replied, pulling away from me and putting his hands on his face. His glasses were pushed out of place as he rubbed at his eyes. "But I can't stop thinking about what _could_ have happened! I can't stop imagining you getting your brains blown out, just like that other guy!"

Having no idea what I was supposed to say or do to calm him, I simply stood still, feeling helpless, and watched him cry. Nearly a minute crawled past, and he slowly leaned back against the door, sniffing and wiping his face off. Taking another deep breath, he blinked several times, but continued to look downward. "I thought you were just being jumpy and paranoid. Thought the Americans would just quietly take care of it, and we'd be fine. I didn't think they'd come sneaking up on us like that, especially not in broad daylight."

Smiling humorlessly, I shook my head slightly. "That's how they did it when they took me."

Sniffing again, he finally looked up. "Sorry. I was acting like a stupid tourist…Let myself get all excited over the house, and I didn't take the danger seriously at all."

"They would have come regardless of what we were doing," I quietly pointed out.

"But you might not have gotten shot."

Trying to suppress a sigh, I pulled him into a hug again. "Whatever happens to this body doesn't matter anymore, especially not a tiny scratch like this. I'm just relieved you and the boys aren't hurt."

"Physically hurt, anyway," he mumbled into my shoulder, hugging me back. "I don't think any amount of hypnotism and memory switching and whatever will make today go away. That was the scariest stuff I've ever seen."

My mind still drew a blank when I attempted to think of something with which I could comfort him. I briefly thought about trying to lighten the air by jokingly asking him if it was scarier than getting chased around by Brushy Butt, but felt like the mood was wrong for silliness, so I kept my silence and continued to hold him until his tears dried up and he stopped shaking.

Time seemed to slow down after that, and it was difficult for Heng and I to fall asleep, since we didn't have our gaming helmets or _Second_ _Life_ cartridges with us. Heng eventually gave in to his tossing and turning and went to ask James if he had any sleeping pills, which he did, and soon he was completely passed out, his face still strained and anxious even in sleep. Not wanting to take any of the pills, I spent the night quietly alternating between watching him and staring at the wall, my mind completely occupied with everything that was going to happen.

It felt like it took an unnaturally long time, but eventually morning came, and after a quick shower and breakfast in our hotel room, James told Heng and I it was time to go back to the _Second_ _Life_ building. Crouching down in front of Three and Six, I smiled as warmly as I could and told them, "I have to go away for a little while."

They both immediately looked extremely alarmed. "Go where?!" Three demanded.

"The people Heng and I were talking to yesterday have a way to make me better."

"I want to come with you," Six informed, stepping forward a little.

"Me, too!" Three quickly agreed.

"I'm afraid you can't come with me," I softly said. Both boys immediately burst into loud pleas, but I shook my head. "You can't. I'm sorry."

Six's eyes got a bit teary, and his face scrunched up. "I don't want you to go away!"

"It's only for a while," I murmured, smiling. "And we'll still be able to talk to one another indirectly."

"How long?" Three asked, looking afraid.

I glanced at James, but he shook his head. Quickly looking back at the boys, I fought to keep the smile on my face as I answered, "I don't know yet, but as soon as I do, I will tell you. Until I get back, you two and Gao are going to go live with some very good friends of mine—that lady you met the other day at the hospital, Lin Chen and her family. I'm sure you'll have so much fun, the time will go by fast, and I'll be back before you know it."

"It won't," Six disagreed, sounding uncharacteristically grumpy.

"Don't you like Chen?" I asked, feeling worried as my mind began to race in an attempt to think up somewhere else safe they could go.

Looking down, he nodded once. "Yeah, but…but I don't want to live with her. I want to live with you."

Oh, dammit, I was going to cry.

"And you will," I assured as steadily as I could, "but not yet." Raising both of my hands, I brushed one over each boy's cheek, then put them on their shoulders. "Don't worry. I'll come back."

"Promise?" Three pressed, staring hard at me.

Nodding, I smiled a bit wider. "Yes, I promise I'll come back. But until I do, you two be sure to try to be on your best behavior; be polite and respectful, and do as you're told."

They both gave half-hearted agreements, still looking just as miserable as before.

Pulling them both forward, I hugged them tightly. "I'll miss you both very much." My eyes started watering and burning when their little arms wrapped around me in return, but I didn't let myself cry, for fear that they would think that I had lied and wasn't actually coming back. Giving them both kisses on the sides of their heads, I leaned away from them and smiled once more as I stood up. "I'll see you again soon."

"Bye, Seven," they mumbled, looking like they were trying very hard to appear brave and confident, but it wasn't working at all due to the large amount of tears pouring down their red faces. Attempting to leave fast while not looking like I was escaping, I strode out of the room with Heng, James, and several of the Americans, desperately wanting to turn around and run back to them when I heard their crying intensify as the door shut behind us. Leaving them for an unknown amount of time was so much harder than I thought it would be, but there was no way around it; _Second_ _Life_ had age restrictions, as the chairman had informed us yesterday when the boys had joined in on the gaming conversations and had begged me to let them play as well.

Soon we were at _Second Life_'s headquarters again, in a room on one of the lower levels used for game testing. James, looking extremely tired, silently observed as several _Second_ _Life_ employees, as well as his own subordinates, gathered up some complex-looking equipment. Taking off my coats, I nervously sat beside Heng, trying to keep myself from shaking. A small part of me was relieved James had found a way to help me, but most of me was terrified that something would go wrong. If something did…these might be the last few moments of my life.

While the people worked, James made his way over to where we were sitting and looked down at me, sighing faintly. "We're almost ready."

Giving one jerky nod, I wiped my sweaty hands off on my pants and tried to take some deep breaths. "Do you have any guesses as to how long will it be until I…wake up?" I quietly asked.

He gave a glance back at the others. "Other than the time we'll need to prepare, possibly nine to ten months—the duration of a normal pregnancy—but since we're going to grow an adult body, not a baby…we don't know for sure. We'll let you know as soon as possible. Would be a lot quicker if you wanted an artificial body, but, well, I can't blame you for choosing a real one."

After a brief pause, he cleared his throat and looked back at me. "This might sound odd, but do you mind if my team and I have your body once you're not in it anymore?"

I gave him a suspicious frown. "What for?" He wasn't going to dissect it, was he?

"Continued bait," he answered. "If you agree, I want to put one of those chips in your brain—the chips I told you about yesterday. It will be easier to lure the kidnappers in if we actually have 'you' there. All we have to do is keep injecting your body with the medicine, and, hopefully, it won't decompose or anything. Hopefully," he repeated, not sounding very confident.

That sounded…That…The thought of my body walking around all by itself like…well, as Heng said, like a "zombie cyborg" was…

There were no words to describe just how bizarre that was.

It took me several seconds to get my mouth working again, but I eventually nodded and said, "Go ahead and take it. I won't be needing it anymore."

…I felt like I was giving him an old pair of pants or something.

"Thank you," he replied, smiling faintly. "We'll take as good care of it as we can."

Having no idea what to say to that, I nodded again and mumbled, "Yeah," as he excused himself and went back to supervising the others. I pointlessly wiped my hands off on my pants again, fearfully watching as the preparations continued.

"Nervous?" Heng whispered, taking my slippery hand in his. He was sweating just as much as I was.

"Terrified," I corrected, not bothering to try to hide how hard I was shaking.

"Everything'll be fine," he assured, sounding like he was trying to comfort himself as well. "You'll be…This'll go well. Not to get morbid, but, um, Long Dian trapped lots of people inside _Second_ _Life_ before, so these guys know just what to do. It'll be fine. I'll definitely login every single night, so you won't get lonely. And…and I'll look out for the…for the boys, too, so don't…worry about them."

Abruptly he let out a huge sob and started crying, yanking me into a hug. Ignoring all of the glances we were getting from some of the other people in the room, I gripped him as tightly as I could, forcing myself not to cry too. As Heng had said, however doubtfully, they knew what they were doing.

I was not going to die.

I was _not_ going to die.

I would live.

I'd live to be a rickety old geezer with an army of grandchildren, achy joints, scraggly white hair, more wrinkles than I could count, and a weird hobby that everyone made fun of.

Attempting to fix that future in my head, I looked up when James called to me. Breathing deeply, I took a moment to fight with Heng's arms, which seemed to be glued to me, then stood once I'd managed to make him let go. I almost collapsed, but managed to stay upright as I walked across the room, jumping slightly when Heng got up to chase after me and grabbed my hand, covering the last few steps at my side.

Pausing a moment, I ran my eyes over the cushioned reclining chair they had set up, and the gaming helmet with tons of wires attached that James was holding out to me. My trembling made the chair rattle and shake when I sat down. Tightening my grip on Heng's hand, I sat up a little to put on the helmet, then leaned back again, watched as everyone's heads turned toward a man at a computer, then I stared up at Heng's completely soaked face.

As the call came that everything was ready, he bent down to give me a very wet and salty kiss, then pulled away a bit. "See you soon, Al."

I smiled at him and murmured, "Yeah, see you soon."

With one last breath, my eyes closed all on their own, and my mind went blank.

* * *

><p><em>The honorifics used are as follows:<em>

_Zhuxi = Chairman (Please tell me if this is incorrect. There were so many choices, and I went with the shortest one. lol)  
>Biaoge = Older male cousin<br>Er = An endearment_


	73. King of the Crows

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

* * *

><p>Deep breaths, matching the rhythm of the tiny wisps of wind trailing their way through the dark, leafless boughs of my tree, filled and emptied my chest as I stared downward, my unblinking eyes fixed on two figures sporadically disappearing and reappearing as they clumsily walked through the hazy fog. Energy pounded through me, giving me little thrills of excitement I always felt when I was hunting my prey.<p>

How many times had it been now that people had trespassed in my forest? I had lost count. Of course, I was sure tales of my magnificence were told throughout the lands, so I was never surprised when there were intruders in my domain, but the people never seemed to really have any purpose here, as if they'd gotten lost. Most simply wandered around for several days, picking the sidus berries that grew here and killing my minions, then, if they even survived, leaving again afterward, but sometimes there were brainless morons who came to challenge _me_.

In all my many years ruling over the majestic and beautiful Ebonwood, all who came here with the intent of killing me had either run or died. No one had bested me in battle.

And no one ever would.

Smiling in amusement, I soundlessly slipped from branch to branch, always keeping my eyes locked on the two weaklings below while they stumbled over the rocks, tree roots, and thorn bushes that covered the ground and made it nearly impossible to walk, unless you knew the paths through the trees.

The minutes passed by while they noisily tramped along, their shiny armor clanking loudly. They were extremely stupid if they thought that armor would help them. A few bites from my shadow wolves, and the armor would bend and break, serving only to harm the wearer as they would be squashed between the heavy metal plates that would become so mangled they were impossible to remove without a great deal of effort. And then my crows would begin to swarm, pecking and clawing every bit of exposed skin, tearing the idiots to pieces while I would watch from above, perhaps shoot an arrow or two to speed up the process of cleaning the riffraff out of my forest.

Once they had gotten a good distance away from the edge of the forest, and were no longer able to escape easily, I sent the silent call to all the shadow wolves who were nearby, rather than waiting for them to notice the intruders on their own. It had been several days since we'd had a fight, and soon I could feel them approaching from all directions, their eagerness to hunt again giving them speed and focus. Soft flapping sounds filled the air as crows began to land in my tree, watching with me as the black shapes darted through the trees, making the ground shake, and surrounded the two below, who had drawn swords and were looking fearfully about themselves as the thudding and pounding got closer and closer.

The battle was over in a matter of moments. My crows and I didn't even have to help my wolves as they tore apart the trespassers. Less than a minute after it began, the screams of pain and fear ended when twin pillars of light brightened the area, shooting upward into the dull gray sky, then everything became dark again when they faded, leaving two lines streaking across my vision for several seconds.

But soon those faded too.

"Pathetic," I mumbled, staring in annoyance down at the bloodied ground. There was no sport at all in picking off these…these damned _pansies_. When would a _real_ challenge present itself? So many of the creatures that wandered into Ebonwood were so weak and boring. So few were able to take a stand against the dangerous environment. None were worthy to be called my adversary; from the mightiest beastman to the lowliest halfling, thus far none had the skill to do more than merely scratch at me and throw insults, like a frightened chipmunk barking at a threat as it runs away to hide in a hole until danger has passed.

Adjusting the feathered mask covering the top half of my face, I turned to smile as one of my crows hopped onto my branch and stared at me with its glistening black eyes, letting out several soft noises and ruffling its sleek feathers. Replying swiftly, I straightened and called to the rest of them. Immediately, the forest was filled with loud flaps and energetic caws as I took off into the foggy, warm air, surrounded by the murder of enormous crows as we lifted ourselves to the treetops for a nice little flight, leaving the wolves to hunt down any other creatures that wandered into my wood.

Regardless of the lack of interesting happenings, I supposed didn't mind much. Between the fights, I still had my crows and wolves to keep me company, and the forest to tend. It was a simple life. Simple, but nice. And although I did gain a great deal of enjoyment from spreading a terrifying reputation amongst the areas surrounding my forest, these moments of quiet tranquility were very enjoyable as well, not to mention relaxing.

The days continued to pass as they always had before; I spent my time keeping the paths between the trees clear of fallen branches, stones and thorns, so my wolves didn't get hurt; harvesting sidus berries for food and planting new bushes; settling squabbles between my underlings; repairing my nest; killing anyone and everyone who had the misfortune of entering Ebonwood; and hoarding any belongings the people dropped in their panic. The cluster of trees in the center of the forest where I had built my nest was lavishly decorated with my collection of interesting objects I had picked up over the years, many of which were obviously very valuable and were the target of some of the trespassers. But thus far, only two or three groups of people had survived long enough to get to my nest, and none had been able to steal any of my treasure from me.

Over a fortnight went by before more intruders appeared in Ebonwood. This time there were quite a few of them, and they looked to be far more prepared than many who had come here. However, the fact that they were not making any effort at all to hide their presence made me disappointed. They were either very stupid or overconfident…or both.

Probably both.

Taking my usual place in the trees, I watched as they walked along single-file, loudly talking to one another but keeping a close eye on their surroundings. Good. They actually had focus. Perhaps this would be a fun battle for once. With the size of their group, it would last longer than a few seconds, unlike the last several fights I'd watched.

My eyes shot upward when I heard a branch snap nearby.

They were in the trees as well.

Hastily gathering up my magical energy, I shifted my body into shadow and slipped downward, toward the ground, watching as an enormous gray squirrel bounded from tree to tree above me, carrying three two-legged creatures of unknown races on its back. Hiding myself behind a tree trunk, I let my body reform and took a breath, stepping silently over the jutting roots, watching as the end of the group's line passed me by.

Once the last person had gone past, I fell into step behind him. He was one of the usual armored warriors, a human by the looks of him, with a broadsword hanging by his hip, and a shield across his back. Regulating my breathing, I took the opportunity to listen to the group's conversation in a want to discern their destination.

"This place is so creepy," a man several places up the line observed, and I happily ruffled my feathers in pride at the compliment; I went to great lengths to keep Ebonwood looking frightening and intimidating.

"How far in do we have to go?" the man right in front of me called, sounding like he didn't want to be here. The terror edging his words only made me happier as I continued to strut along behind him.

"Not far," a woman's voice far up the line replied. "His nest is in the center, but he patrols the edge every night, so we should be able to find him pretty easily."

I inadvertently smiled with eagerness while I listened—they had come here to fight me, and had actually done some research about my habits, rather than wandering aimlessly. Well, hopefully they had properly prepared themselves for the immense challenge that was my magnificent self.

Just to have some fun and play with them a bit before I called the wolves, I purposefully stepped on a large stick. It let out an audible crack as it broke underneath my boot. Immediately, everyone tensed and began looking around themselves, but I shifted into shadow and melted into the scenery as the man I'd been following turned to look behind himself. Moving myself into a tree, I reformed my body and summoned my bow. Plucking a feather out of my wing, I put it to the bow and drew it back, forming the feather into an arrow as I aimed at the human.

Releasing the dark arrow with as little energy as I could use, I watched as it struck the man's shield, and he let out a scream, pulling out his sword and swinging it at nothing while the arrow crumbled away, leaving a scratched dent in the red-painted metal.

Bright lights suddenly flared to life all the way down the group's line as torches were lit. Ignoring the rest of them for the moment, I continued to play with the human, jabbing weak arrows at him from one direction, and then another, sometimes throwing sticks at him as well. Although his reactions were extremely funny, I eventually got bored with him, so I threw a log at him and knocked him out, then hid myself in a different spot when the rest of the group gathered around him protectively. Not a second later, a yellow glow filled the center of the cluster, then the man's voice screamed, "DAMMIT! WHY'S HE ONLY TARGETING ME?!"

They had a priest with them. Interesting.

Making as much noise as possible, I began moving farther into the forest, pausing every once and a while to listen and be sure they were following. After a few minutes, I watched as the glow from their torches got brighter through the fog, then I slipped down to the ground, sending out the silent call to the wolves. Soft rustling noises came from above when the crows began to gather in the trees. Smiling up at them, I shifted into shadow and reformed behind that man. Unsheathing one of my knives, I resisted the urge to chuckle when I poked my black blade at the man's exposed neck, drawing blood as I made a tiny cut.

The human let out another scream and whirled around, swinging his blade, but I shifted, letting the sword pass right through my middle. Reforming, I grinned at the terror in his eyes, feeling the rush of adrenaline pound through my body, sharpening my focus and adding to my energy.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" the man bellowed. "STUPID TWIG! DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME!"

Twig…?

I had been called many things before, but "Twig" had never been one of them.

For some reason, I found it extremely insulting, and I was filled with the urge to lop off his head for calling me something so silly and disrespectful. However, before I could do so, the group surrounded me. I prepared myself to fight, but, much to my surprise, none of them attacked.

"Aeolus," a voice called, sounding oddly gentle. I turned to look at the golden-haired angel who had spoken. There was caution on his face, but he didn't seem to be particularly afraid of me, which was confusing. Part of me loathed the idea of harming a fellow winged creature, but it had to be done. Waiting for the opportune moment, I warily watched as he stepped forward, his empty hands outstretched, perhaps to show me that he wasn't armed.

What a moron.

"We came here to–" the angel continued, but I didn't bother to let him finish, knowing what he was going to say: Pillage my treasure, steal my sidus berries, break my trees, kill my crows and wolves. The same thing that everyone did. But in the end, all that would happen was what would always happen—they would die.

With loud growls and roars, over a dozen shadow wolves burst through the trees, scattering and tearing the trailing fog that surrounded and filled Ebonwood. Letting out the loud call, I jumped into the air and took flight, smiling as my crows began to swarm, diving down to attack.

"GET TO THE EDGE!" someone hollered, and disappointment made me frown deeply as the whole group began running away. Spineless cravens. It made me very happy to be so feared, but this level of cowardice was completely ridiculous. Feeling extremely annoyed that my fun was trying to leave, I began chasing after them, determined to kill at least one before they escaped the forest. I wasn't going to let people think they could trespass in my domain without any repercussions.

Guiding the wolves and crows as they attacked, I summoned my bow again and shot dark arrows—using much more energy than before—at the legs of the intruders closest to me. None of my arrows hit their targets, stopping short when they were blocked by some sort of magic shield. Rolling to one side to avoid a large fireball, I angrily wove through the trees and gave a blast of energy as I aimed my bow at the head of the magician who was burning my home. However, the arrow I released once again crumbled into nothing before it had gotten anywhere near the magician.

Catching up to her, I let my bow fade and pulled out both of my daggers, dropping to the ground and dashing the last of the distance on foot. She glanced over her shoulder, eyes wide, and shot another blast of fire at me with her large staff. Shifting through the flames, I reformed on the other side and swiped one of the black blades at her neck, but my dagger was parried by a female elven warrior's nandao. Twirling around, I slashed one blade at her, and used my other to block the sword of that human warrior I'd been following earlier.

Thrusting my right dagger at the man's neck, I jumped into the air and flipped over him to get out from between the two warriors, stabbing my other dagger into the gap between the pieces of his armor on his right arm. He let out a grunt of pain as I tore the blade out, flicking little drops of blood through the air as I swung the dagger again. Turning quickly, he lifted his blade and my dagger struck the flat of it, glancing off the smooth surface. While I readied my other dagger, he slashed at my shoulder, almost catching the weapon on my cloak, and my eyes narrowed in bewilderment.

Something was odd about these people. I had expected them to try and stop me, but they were only attacking me one at a time, and their aim was extremely terrible. All of their blows were completely missing my vital parts, which is what everyone had always tried to damage before. It was like they weren't even trying to kill me, and I found their lack of effort insulting.

Jumping into the air, I sheathed my daggers and summoned my bow, tearing out two feathers and shooting them at the man. He lifted his shield and managed to block my attack, but was thrown backward into a tree by the force of it. But then he got to his feet, turned, and ran again. Feeling even angrier than before, I made to fly after him, but my attention was snagged by that giant squirrel as it leapt from tree to tree nearby. Baring my teeth, I left the human to the wolves and crows, and began chasing that rodent instead, pulling out another feather to shoot when an archer on the squirrel's back aimed a crossbow at me.

A blast of water from a magician also seated on the squirrel sent my arrow flying in the wrong direction, and I quickly dropped a meter to avoid the bolt that the archer had shot at my wing. Regaining my altitude, I shot several more arrows, but they were all deflected by the streams of water. Fury made me scream as the air began to lighten, signaling that the edge of the wood was close. However, I was quickly catching up to the fat, gray animal, and I tossed my bow aside, letting it disappear. Extending my clawed hands, I grabbed hold of the squirrel's fluffy tail and yanked on it. The squirrel let out a squeak of surprise when it fell short of the branch it had been trying to jump to, and it clumsily tumbled through the branches, breaking several before managing to get its footing again.

Digging my fingernails into the squirrel's rump, I pulled myself up onto it, ignoring it's squeals of pain, and unsheathed my daggers as I jumped at the archer. There was a loud noise when the crossbow was shot, followed by pain in my left wing, but I ignored it as I stabbed both blades at the archer's chest. He leaned to one side, letting out a yell when my daggers sank into his right shoulder. As I started digging them around, a large amount of water slammed into me, and I fell backward out of the tree, losing my grip on one of my daggers.

By the time I had gotten back to my feet, the squirrel was several trees away. Tearing the bolt out of my wing, I threw it away, pushed my mask back into place, and resumed my pursuit with ever-increasing outrage. Shrieking at the wolves and crows, a sense of urgency filled me as the empty land outside of Ebonwood appeared. Completely determined to kill something, I blasted forward with a dizzying amount of speed, my eyes locked on the squirrel as it jumped over the last few trees, extending its legs as it glided through the air and left the forest. The wolves wouldn't be able to help now—something kept them from stepping past the tree line—but the crows and I could still fly after them.

If I could have, I would have stopped when I left the trees, but I was going too fast and could only watch as a spike of purple-colored magic energy shot upward from a glowing design on the ground and drove itself into my right wing. Screaming in anger and pain when I felt several bones break, I summoned my bow and shot several feather arrows at the dark elf magician that had hurt me, but all of my attacks missed due to the fact that water, fire, arrows, and a great deal of other things were being lobbed at me from all directions.

That angel, who was standing off to one side with the warriors, yelled something that sounded bizarrely like "Don't hurt him!" but a women screamed "Shut up, you moron!" at him in return and the attacks continued with only short respites when the crows would mass together and swoop down to attack.

Fear, something I rarely felt, began to edge its way into my mind as I dodged this way and that, suddenly realizing that they hadn't been trying to escape; they had lured me into a trap. More of them had been waiting for me outside the forest, where the shadow wolves couldn't get them and I had no darkness to hide myself.

Shooting all the arrows I could at them, my magic draining at an alarming rate, I paused and looked up when black feathers suddenly began floating down around me. Several crows had shielded me from an attack coming from above, but I didn't see any foes up there.

That one moment of distraction, it seemed, was all they needed, and I was knocked to one side as magic hit me over and over. I screamed at my remaining crows to go back to the forest, not wanting any more of them to die, and I tried to follow them, but all of my energy began to drain away and I fell to the ground, landing hard on my stomach. Gasping for air, I tried to get up, but I could do nothing more than feebly crawl a few centimeters before the people had surrounded me again. Hatred coursed through me as I stared at their boots, utterly humiliated by this defeat.

Shrieking in rage, I struggled as hard as I could when several of the people took hold of me and flipped me over onto my back, pinning me to the grass and taking away my last dagger. I didn't have enough strength left to fight them off, and with fear I watched as the angel and a red-haired elf woman came to the front of the group. Glaring up at the angel's oddly sad face, I watched as he pulled out a knife with a red blade, then glanced at the elf. "Any place in particular I'm supposed to stab him?"

"The heart," she replied.

He slowly nodded, then alarmingly stepped closer and knelt down beside me. Struggling against the people holding me down, I tried my hardest to get away from that blade he was holding, but more people grabbed me until I could hardly move. Pushing my black cloak out of the way to bare my chest, he hesitantly looked toward my face. "Sorry…this is probably gonna hurt a bit."

In one last act of defiance, I spit at him, then looked away, prepared to die. Sorrow and regret took over. Hopefully my crows and wolves would be okay without me. My nest would probably be looted and torn to bits. That fire would probably spread and burn a lot of the trees and sidus bushes I had tended so carefully. People would laugh at my memory, the king of the crows overtaken at last…

Although I'd been expecting him to kill me at once, he exclaimed, "E-e-e-ew!" and smacked the side of my head. "Bad Aeolus! No spitting!"

In extreme disbelief that someone would treat me in such a disrespectful way, I recovered from my stunned silence and resumed my struggles, yelling, "YOU DARE HIT ME?! I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES, YOU DAMNED COWARD!"

"Dib, hurry up," that human warrior snapped impatiently.

With a reluctant look, the angel sighed and lifted that knife again. Terrified, I continued to flail around, trying my hardest to break free, but they were all too strong. One more murmur of "Sorry," was all the angel said before he stabbed me, shoving the knife into my heart all the way to the hilt, and I screamed in pain. It felt like the knife had shattered inside me. Closing my eyes and yelling, heat traveled from my chest, through my arms and wings, down to my legs, and into my head as well.

Abruptly, the pain was gone, leaving me breathing heavily and staring up at the slightly foggy sky. The faces staring down at me looked curious and expectant, then everyone turned to the angel, whose bright blue eyes were out of focus and staring into space. Blinking once, he looked down at me and smiled in a very idiotic way. "It worked!"

A loud string of relieved noises spread through the group, and everyone let go of me. "Fi-i-i-inally, we can go back to the city," that human grumbled, straightening and walking away. "Next time you write a quest, Lolidragon, make it shorter! Took us two damn weeks of running all over the continent to find that stupid knife! I still don't get why you didn't just give Twig to us!"

"I told you, you idiot! I couldn't just _give_ him to your team!" the red-haired elf snapped. "That would be completely unfair to the other players! Be happy I made it so easy! I even gave you guys tons of hints!"

"It was anything but easy! You know my team and I hate this forest, so why'd you put him here?!"

"Shut up and stop whining! This place was just convenient, okay?!"

In extreme confusion, I looked away from the arguing pair, staring down at my chest. There was a lot of blood all over me, but that knife was gone, as was the wound. I looked up again when a hand was extended. The angel was still wearing that stupid expression. "Come on. Let's go."

I had a very strange, unexplainable urge to do as he told me, but I managed to squash it. Smacking his hand away, I rolled over and attempted to resume my crawl back to the forest, but he grabbed me and yanked me to my feet, dragging me away from the trees. "UNHAND ME!" I yelled, hitting him as hard as I could and trying to fly away, but although my wounds were healed, I still felt extremely weak. "I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

"Behave yourself," he scolded, hitting my head again. "No killing people."

"A LOWLY CREATURE SUCH AS YOU HAS NO RIGHT TO GIVE ORDERS TO A _KING_!" I screamed, struggling as he continued to effortlessly pull me along.

"You're my pet from now on," he triumphantly announced, "so as your new master, I _do_ have the right to order you around. Now stop that squawking. If you're good, I'll buy you a bag of bird seed or something."

My mouth closed on its own when he said "stop," but I forced it open again and shrieked, "DON'T PATRONIZE ME!" These nagging urges to do as he told me were making me extremely angry.

The angel halted me when we got to the rest of his group, but I continued to hit him and demand to be released. That human warrior gave me an extremely annoyed look and said, "Dib, knock out His Loud-Mouthed Majesty, would you? I don't want to listen to that all the way back to the city."

Fear began to rise again as I looked around, suddenly noticing everyone was climbing onto mounts. The angel pulled me toward a large horse and I tried my hardest to yank myself out of his grip.

They hadn't come to kill me.

They were kidnapping me.

"LET GO OF ME!" I screamed, clawing at his armored hands and digging the heels of my boots into the ground.

Sighing heavily, he gave a rough yank and I tripped, falling to my knees in the long grass. "San, could you take some more of his energy? Maybe he'll go to sleep or something."

"Sure, Dàgē," a voice replied, and I looked up to see the magician on the squirrel lift his staff at me. I suddenly felt more of my strength drain away, and I began trembling, going completely limp and toppling over, unable to hold myself up anymore. The angel retrieved a length of rope from the saddlebag of the horse, securely tied my hands behind my back, used another rope to tie my feet together, then picked me up.

"Geeze…you weigh less than Al," he murmured, pausing a moment as he gave me a glance and bounced me up and down a few times. Not explaining himself, he placed us both on top of the horse. Hatred for these people filled me completely while I ungracefully flopped around, my reputation as the fierce and unbeatable king of Ebonwood crashing down around me as the angel held me against himself with one arm and snapped the reigns with the other.

What was the purpose of humiliating me and abducting me from my home? Were they going to take over my forest? That was going to be impossible—the wolves and crows would kill anyone who entered the trees, unless I told them otherwise, and I would never do that. Well…the angel already had ways of forcing me to do things against my will, so perhaps they were taking me somewhere where they could perform even stronger magic and put me completely under their control.

The trip didn't seem to take long, but that was probably due to the fact that I kept losing consciousness. When all of the horses—and that squirrel—came to a halt, the angel gently dismounted and lowered me to the grass. Other than small patches of trees and a lake, the only other thing was a large city nearby. Turning away from it, I gave a look back the way we'd come, despair filling me when I saw no sign of my home. We must have come far to not be able to see my enormous, magnificent forest.

As quick as I could, I began putting together a plan of escape in my head. First, I would have to find some way to separate myself from these barbarians, so I looked up to intently watch and listen. "…back to the office at around six or so," that red-haired elf said, looking at the angel and smiling in an amused way. "We just have to alter a bit of the coding, then he'll be your Al again."

"Did you really have to make him such a jerk?" the angel grumbled, giving a glance to me. "Coulda just left him as himself."

"Leave that pushover pacifist alone for two weeks, while tons of people want to kill him for loot?" She snorted. "If I hadn't given him another personality, he would have let himself be murdered over and over."

Sighing, the angel shrugged one shoulder and mumbled, "Yeah, the idiot probably woulda done that…But can't you go to the office _now_?"

…This conversation was completely impossible to follow.

"No way! I need my beauty sleep!" Flipping her ponytail over her shoulder, she turned away from him. "It's only for one night, so put up with it!"

"Fine. See you guys later."

Calling goodbyes and waving, four of the people rode away on their horses toward the city, but nine stayed. I stared hard at the angel as he sighed again and crouched down in front of me, giving me a very discontented frown. "If I untie you, will you act up?"

"No," I replied honestly. Force obviously wasn't going to work, so I was going to be sickeningly accommodating to get on their good side, and then slip away when they lowered their guard.

"Re-e-e-eally?" he pressed, sounding suspicious of me.

"I said I would not," I snapped coldly. "You dare insult my honor?!"

Sighing a third time, he pulled an orange potion out of his pouch, then began untying the ropes. "Do anything we don't like, and we're gonna tie you up again." Not answering, I silently watched as he pulled the ropes off, then tossed the bottle at me. "Stamina potion. Drink up."

Staring at the bottle for a moment, I glanced up at him, then picked it up and took out the cork, giving the orange concoction a sniff first before taking a cautious sip. Seconds later, the bottle was empty and my whole body was tingling and buzzing with fresh waves of energy. The sweet yet sour flavor of the drink still filled my mouth and I stared unblinkingly at the bottle, as if it would refill itself and give me more.

"Looks like he likes it," one of the elves observed, giggling slightly. Feeling embarrassed that she was laughing at me, I smashed the cork back into the bottle and stood in one graceful motion, tossing the bottle back at the angel and crossing my arms over my bloodied chest.

"Your king demands a bath!" I declared importantly, expecting to be taken to a bathhouse at once, but instead I was promptly smacked in the face with a handkerchief and a canteen.

"A bath, Your Majesty," the angel replied with exaggerated and obviously fake respect. I began yelling at him for treating me so improperly, but everyone ignored me, which only made me a million times angrier. They started conversing amongst themselves like I wasn't here at all, so I sulkily frowned at them and turned away, inwardly cursing all of them while I used the water from the canteen and the tiny cloth to scrub off all of the blood on my chest.

After I was as clean as could be with such a pitiful washing, I dropped the dirty handkerchief and empty canteen at the angel's feet and strode toward the others, crossing my arms again and giving them all stern stares. "Although I am not pleased about this situation, I shall graciously allow all of you to become my subjects, since you went to such great lengths to acquire my attention." Silence followed my generous offer, and I smiled faintly. Whirling around toward that city, I continued firmly, "For my first command as your new king, I–"

"I call a vote!" someone rudely interrupted, and I turned furiously to see who it was. The dark elf who had broken my wing was standing up in his saddle, his hand stretched out over his head. "Who here wants the ass to be king?" He put his hand down, and no one said anything. After a pause, he raised his hand again. "And who doesn't want him to be king?"

All hands went up; even that fat squirrel raised a front paw.

Attempting to suppress my outrage at their disagreement, I sighed out my nose and dismissively waved a hand. "You are just peasants who know nothing about true leadership. You may not agree with me now, but I will make you see just how much you need my direction—the firm hand of an experienced ruler! Now then, as I was saying earlier–"

I was once again interrupted when that human warrior stomped up to me and gave me a shove. I nearly fell over, but managed to recover. Stretching out my wings and puffing up my feathers, I curled my hands into fists and stood straight, glaring at the man. "YOU DARE–!"

He shoved me again. "I never thought I'd say this to _you_ of all people, but SHUT UP!" he bellowed. "You're not our king, you fat-headed moron! We're all teammates, not servants whose purpose is to wait on you hand and foot! Quit trying to order us around!"

Absolutely flabbergasted at his insubordination, I attempted to come up with a retort, but I was too surprised, and the chance to speak disappeared when he turned and stomped back toward his horse. He swung himself onto the saddle, and raised a finger. "Now, as the team leader, _I_ say we–"

There was a collective outburst of "Shut up, Wei Bo," and the lively conversation started up again, leaving me standing off to one side, silently fuming. Crossing my arms, I stepped a few paces away and glared at the scenery, giving up on trying to control them, but I still listened intently.

"Well, what should we do now?"

"I want to train! I didn't get any of the action earlier!"

"That's your fault for only being able to punch things."

A fight suddenly broke out, and I couldn't help but give a tiny peek of curiosity. Two people were smacking at each other on top of that squirrel. The angel stepped toward them and hit them both on the head. Although the sight was somewhat amusing, I felt extremely annoyed that he had treated me, a king, the same way as those uncivilized hooligans.

"Quit arguing and start suggesting locations, then. Somewhere with mobs that aren't powerful, or aren't aggressive; I wanna try out Aeolus' special attacks."

"I bet they're super-powerful," another elf declared in an excited tone, smiling briefly at me before she turned her white mare and followed the squirrel as it began bounding away over the grass, its three passengers yelling things back at the rest of us. My feathers ruffled in a pleased way as I began picturing myself doing amazing stunts and tricks and being showered with praises. There were so many things I could do to astound them, and perhaps they would clap for me and give me another one of those delicious orange…No! No, no, no, I was getting distracted. I had to focus, and use this to my advantage.

Applause and tasty potions could wait until after I had squashed them all into submission.

Hardening my face, I gave a frown at the angel as he gestured toward the horse on which he and I had ridden. "I have no need of a horse," I told him loftily, stretching my wings out in a want to intimidate him with how large and impressive they were.

"Get on," he huffed, crossing his arms. "I don't trust that you'll follow on your own."

Poofing out my feathers in annoyance, I almost screamed at him that I wanted to fly, not ride, but swallowed it all and forced myself to stomp forward, trying very hard to look graceful and elegant as I clumsily mounted the horse, stiffening nervously when the angel climbed after me and sat down, reaching his arms around me to take the reigns. The horse began trotting forward, following the others, and the angel let out another soft sigh.

Several awkward moments passed by, then he said, "Hey, turn around for a second."

Once again, I barely stopped myself before I snapped at him that he had no right to order me about, but I managed to hold it in. "What?" I demanded, twisting around, and then I flinched so hard I almost fell off the horse when he unexpectedly reached for my face and took my feathered mask off.

He suddenly stopped breathing, his blushing face frozen in an extremely surprised stare, which was completely expected, with how incomparably beautiful I was. The intensity of his gaze was making me somewhat uncomfortable, but I didn't avert my eyes, keeping my mind focused on using any and every opportunity to manipulate these kidnappers. And so, just to mess with him, I leaned toward him a little and murmured, "Well? What is it?"

My mask was suddenly smashed back over my eyes and nose, and the angel's mouth began moving in a way that made it look like he was yelling something, but no noise came out. There was a brief pause, then he silently said something else, putting a hand on his face. "Don't you dare take that mask off," he eventually commanded, his voice strained, "especially not in the city."

"It's _my_ mask, I'll do as I please with it," I replied, whirling back around and smirking, feeling superior now that I knew a way to get the upper hand. This would be easier than I thought.

He whispered something that sounded like "That damn thief," but I didn't ask him to clarify what he meant, so on we rode in silence.

Half an hour passed before the group came to a stop in a hilly area with large molehills dotting the ground. The angel—Dib, I finally learned was his name—had me display, for whatever stupid reason, my physical capabilities as I effortlessly slaughtered several of the enormous brown animals, then we moved on to my magic, and it was then that I had the chance to escape, when he asked me to do my "special attack, Obscure," as he called it, although I wasn't sure why he felt the need to give names to what I was doing.

Raising my arms and letting my magic spread out, I gathered up all of the moisture in the air and ground, condensing it into a thick fog that covered quite a bit of the area. While everyone was marveling over what I had done, I simply walked away from the group, taking flight once I had emerged from the cloud. Heading back toward that city, I stifled my amused laughter, wondering how long it would take them to notice.

Nearly a minute went by before Dib's voice exploded inside my head, demanding to know where I'd gone. Ignoring him, I increased my speed, and within ten minutes, I reached the city.

While I was trying to decide where I should go to find a map, my attention was caught by the large castle in the center of the city. Flying toward it, I carefully inspected it, circling about the spires, then curiously peeking in through the windows.

Moments later, I almost crashed into a wall, my eyes glued to a large, very shiny throne that looked like it was made almost entirely out of gold.

I wanted it.

Oh, I wanted it so badly…

Taking a deep breath, I slipped in through the tall window, dropped to the stone floor, and glanced around the silent, empty room. Smiling, I hurried over to the chair and delicately laid my hand on the armrest, trailing my fingers over the soft, red velvet cushioning and the intricate carvings, taking care not to let my claws leave scratches. Sitting down in a want to see how comfy it was, I smiled even wider, then stood and inspected it some more. It was breathtaking—a true work of art no matter which direction I looked at it.

Obviously, the only person whose beauty and majesty matched this chair was _me_.

No one else was worthy of such a glorious seat.

Within a few seconds, I had dragged the extremely heavy throne halfway across the room, heading for the window through which I entered. Giving a grunt, I yanked it to the wall and paused for a moment to rest, brushing my hair out of the way and smiling triumphantly.

…But then the room's double doors crashed open and several people yelled, "THERE HE IS!" while someone else indignantly exclaimed, "He's stealing my throne!"

In surprise, I glanced at the people racing toward me—it was the four who had helped kidnap me—then I grabbed the chair and tossed it through the window, jumping out after it. Catching it before it hit the ground, I let out a chortle as I flapped my wings as hard as I could to stay aloft, carrying my prize away from the castle.

After stashing my new throne in a tree outside of the city, I returned and followed the smells of food, feeling hungry after straining myself so much. Dib was still screaming at me in my head, but I ignored him as I strutted along the cobblestone street, looking this way and that as I soaked in the sights and sounds of the city. I had seen pictures of places like this in books that trespassers had dropped in Ebonwood, and had always been curious as to what it would be like to visit such places. It was exciting, I supposed, but I quickly decided that I preferred my dark and secluded forest over this bright and crowded city filled with so much sensory information, it was making me feel somewhat disoriented.

My nose led me along a warm, delicious-smelling scent trail, which soon took me to a large, very crowded area of buildings arranged in a circle, with a fountain placed in the middle. Feeling annoyed that it seemed I would be pushed all over the place while I continued to follow the tasty smell, I lifted my hand and closed my fingers around the corner of my mask, slipping it off and fighting to tune out Dib's non-stop yelling.

Four people in front of me immediately crashed into one another and fell down. Stepping around the mess, I put a faint smile on my face and gracefully strode forward, letting my wings and cloak billow out behind me as the crowd parted, letting me pass without any trouble at all. Continuing on my search for the source of the amazing smell, I wandered around the area until I came to a halt, inhaling deeply and staring down at the round, golden brown loaves of bread which were arranged in neat little rows and stacks on a wooden rack in front of one of the shops.

Attempting to suppress the urge to salivate all over myself, I extended my free hand and gingerly picked up the biggest, tastiest-looking loaf I could see, then gave my most enchanting smile to the woman sitting on a low chair next to the shelves. "My…_friend_, Dib, will be here shortly to pay."

I didn't know if she accepted my word or not, but I didn't care. Turning away from her, I elegantly made my way back to the road from which I'd come, ignoring all of the people who had started to follow me. Several clever slips through alleys and random buildings got rid of my followers, and with an extremely amused smile, I put my mask back on and took flight, hiding on one of the roofs to eat my meal in peace.

The bread was heavenly. A thick, crispy crust sprinkled with seeds, with warm, moist and spongy insides, and a slightly sweet buttery taste. I took my time savoring every mouthful, throwing little bits and pieces to some sparrows that had landed beside me, their cute and beady little eyes staring curiously. When my stomach was comfortably full, I tore apart the remainder of the bread, spread it about on the roof for the birds to enjoy, and flew back to the castle, landing on the tallest tower to give myself a full, unobstructed view of the entire city.

Looking from rooftop to rooftop, I began to feel somewhat overwhelmed as I tried to decide the purpose of each building. I needed a map, quickly; Dib and his team would soon arrive. Of course, I had no doubt I would be able to hide from them as long as I needed, but it would be much easier to simply avoid playing hide-and-seek with them entirely.

While I made my assessment of the city, my thoughts wandered to the future, and how I would go about preventing something like this from happening again. In the past I'd had no trouble at all defending my home against small groups of intruders, but my crows, wolves, and I were obviously too—I loathed to use the word, but we were too _weak_ to fend off the larger, more powerful groups such as these people. We needed help.

Several men in matching armor and uniforms marching along one of the roads caught my eye. Patrolling guards. The city's military force. They certainly looked as though they would be able to fend off anyone who attacked.

Now, how did one go about acquiring an army…

Well, that was an easy task. All I had to do was take off my mask and people would flock to me by the millions. My beauty alone wouldn't be enough to gain their loyalty, but I had to start somewhere.

Stretching out my wings, I smiled and fell forward off the castle tower, fixing my very short but very important checklist in my mind.

First, find a map.

Second, gather an army.

Third, collect my throne.

Fourth, go back to Ebonwood.

Flapping my wings a few times, I lifted myself over the castle walls. Flying low over the roofs, I scanned the fronts of the buildings, looking for some sort of sign that there was a place that contained maps. After a few minutes of searching, I landed in front of a building that had a painted wooden relief of a scroll of paper and several books hanging above the open door. Marching inside, I removed my mask and ran my gaze over the interior of the shop. There were quite a few rows of shelves, so to save myself some time, I walked around the people at the counter and came to a halt beside the shopkeeper, loudly clearing my throat. "Take me to your selection of maps at once."

The man turned to me, looking somewhat confused for a moment, then his eyes went wide. "Aeolus?"

My chest swelled and my feathers ruffled happily upon hearing him say my name. He knew who I was…My existence was known even to a lowly shopkeeper. All of my efforts of spreading my reputation far and wide had worked.

"Yes, I am King Aeolus," I affirmed importantly, standing up a bit straighter.

His eyebrows went up slightly. "King? What, did you beat Prince in an arm-wrestling match for the throne or something?"

"There was no contest; I simply took it," I corrected, feeling extremely proud of myself.

The man gave an alarmed look toward his customers, and then stepped closer to me. "You stole the throne from Prince?!" he whispered, sounding shocked.

"Yes." I puffed up my chest a bit more.

He smacked a hand over his mouth. "That's why the Socks asked him to go somewhere earlier?! You distracted him to take over Infinite City while he was gone?!"

I paused for a moment, wondering why I hadn't considered that possibility. "Take over the city?" Rolling that around in my head for a few moments, I gave a decisive nod. Although I was already king of Ebonwood, a city would be easy to handle as well. Plus with the army I was about to amass, I could easily find a person, or perhaps several persons, who would be worthy of the task of helping me manage both territories.

This wonderful opportunity opened a door in my mind, leading into a bright and glorious future. With the underlings I would gain from here, I could take over even more places…Towns, cities, wilderness…All of Central would be mine to rule—and then, the whole world. I would be feared and respected by all…No one would dare kidnap me again, or smack me on the head, or talk down to me. I would take revenge on the people who had humiliated me.

Crossing my arms, I smiled. "Yes. A brilliant goal…but first things first. Give me a map," I firmly ordered, suddenly remembering why I'd come in here. World domination would have to wait.

Hesitantly, that man glanced toward the door leading into the back of the shop, and then smiled widely at me. "Yeah, yeah, maps…Uhh, I've got a really great one in the back. Follow me!"

Nodding, I put my mask back on and strutted along behind him as we entered the small back room. He hurried forward, shoved some books and scrolls off a chair, and pushed it toward a small table. "Please sit while I look!" he suggested, waited until I had taken a seat, then clasped his hands together and asked, "Would you like to have some tea?"

"Bring me a map," I commanded angrily. "I've no time to waste on tea."

He gave a jerky nod and chuckled nervously. "Okay, I'll be right back then. Jing and I keep the best maps upstairs…locked up, you know, wouldn't want anyone to steal them." Clearing his throat, he backed away toward a door, gave another frightened, "Be right back!" and disappeared from view.

Sighing in annoyance, I leaned back in the chair and tried to quell my impatience. It would be fine…I'd be home again in no time at all. I'd be home with my precious crows and wolves…I'd put much more effort into paying attention to them. I'd preen the crows' feathers with utmost care, and I'd scratch the wolves in their favorite spots behind their ears and on their stomachs. I'd get them all their favorite foods. I'd protect them. I wouldn't let these people kill them anymore.

Several minutes went by and that man didn't come back, so I stood and irritably went to the door, throwing it open and starting up the stairs. "What is taking so long?!" I demanded, reaching the top and pausing in bewilderment. The room, which I had thought was storage, was a small living space. There were no maps in sight.

That man wasn't here, either.

I slowly stepped across the quiet room and stopped by the open window overlooking the street. Rage and alarm exploded inside of me when I saw all thirteen of the people who had kidnapped me all charging down the road, toward the store.

That damned shopkeeper had ratted me out.

Exhaling slowly out my nose, I turned and calmly went downstairs. Once I had emerged in the back room, I stood on that chair, took an oil lamp from where it had been hanging on a hook on the ceiling, and then looked about the stacks of books on the floor. Taking the glass chimney off of the lamp, I picked up a scroll, set it to the burning wick, and then dropped it. The yellow flames crawled across the thick paper, rapidly curling it into blackening crumbs. Throwing the lamp as hard as I could, I watched as it shattered, spraying oil everywhere. Once I was sure the fire had spread nicely, I went to the front of the shop and repeated the process with the lamps in there, and then exited through the front door, leaving the shop to burn.

When I heard the flapping of wings, I looked up, watching as Dib landed on a roof across the road. The goofy smile he'd been wearing earlier was gone, replaced with a glare of outrage as he spread his golden wings wide, a scimitar gripped in each hand. The street was soon filled with the sound of clanking armor, stomping feet, and angry shouts as I was surrounded. They would attack. That magician would drain my power. I would be helpless, tied up, humiliated all over again.

I didn't resist when they did; they were all morons, so I had no doubts at all that I would be able to escape again later. Promising that they would keep me under control this time, the nine took me to their "team chambers" in the castle, and Dib shut us in a room together. Plopping me down on the bed, he sat on the floor, stretching his legs out on the red carpet and leaning against the wall, keeping his weapons unsheathed.

"Why'd you set fire to Kekkaishi and Daoshi's bookstore?" Dib demanded after a long stretch of silence. "They didn't do anything to you."

Keeping my eyes locked on the ceiling, I quietly replied, "Nor did my crows and I do anything to you, yet you invaded our home and attacked us, damaging quite a few of my trees in the process."

"You attacked us first," Dib snapped. "Don't blame us for defending ourselves."

"Don't you dare play the victim," I coldly ordered.

"I'm not. We weren't going to do anything."

"You're a liar. You and your friends are just like everyone else, trespassing in Ebonwood to slaughter my friends and steal my belongings. I heard you all talking on the way back, how you want to return to my forest later and loot my nest before anyone else has the chance."

"T-that…that's…" He let out a sigh and fell silent, and his armor clinked together a bit when he moved. "We went there because I need your help."

"Help?" I echoed, giving a harsh laugh. "With what? Gaining reputation? Kidnapping a king certainly would do that, wouldn't it? I suppose you and your friends have told everyone the dramatic tale of how you bravely battled the king of Ebonwood and bested him, and are now holding him prisoner."

"That isn't it."

"Don't bother trying to cover up your intentions with lies. I believe nothing you say," I bitterly told him, using all of my energy to flip myself onto my side, to face the wall. The blankets smelled like him. It was making my stomach churn.

"I'm not lying," he insisted. "I really do need your help!" Loud metallic clanking crashed through the small room as he approached the bed. "You see, there's a person…the most important person to me, he's in trouble and you're the only one who can help him! That's why I had to bring you here!"

"You think I am an idiot who would believe something so blatantly false?!" I yelled. "From the moment you took me from my home, you have done nothing but treat me as a prize! Had your 'most important person' really needed my help, you would have told me immediately, yet you spent all of today giving me stupid, pointless orders and mistreating me! Not once did you ask for my help! You should have come to me on hands and knees, showering me with gifts and begging me!"

"I tried to ask you in the forest, but you attacked us before I had the chance! And I'm asking you now!"

"I'll never do anything to help you or your cohorts. Go find someone else to save the person, because I won't."

"Fine, be that way, stupid!" he snapped, standing up and giving the bed a rough kick. "But you're gonna help me whether you want to or not, so whatever!" With four heavy thuds and many grumbled insults, he left the room, slamming the door shut behind himself.

…What a moron.

Flipping myself over onto my other side, I quickly used my fingernails to begin slicing through the ropes tying my wrists together. It took a while, but eventually I managed to cut through, then tore off the ones around my legs, untangled my wings from the nets in which they had wrapped me, and jumped out the window. I was only able to flap my wings a few times before I crashed to the ground, unable to summon enough energy to keep myself airborne any longer. Crawling across the short grass and colorful flowerbeds, I paused a moment to rest, breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?!" Twitching in surprise, I looked up to find a woman I'd never seen before hurrying toward me. I stiffened, prepared to fight her off, but instead of attacking, she knelt down beside me and put a hand on my arm. "Are you injured somewhere?"

I put on a helpless face and murmured, "Do you have a stamina potion?"

"Yes, I do," she quickly replied, opening the pouch on her hip and removing one of the orange potions, quickly holding it out to me. She watched in silence as I drank it, suppressing a sigh of relief as energy pounded through me again. "What happened to you?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed in a worried way.

Biting back my guilt, I lifted myself off the ground, smiling at the woman as I leaned toward her, slipping a hand onto the side of her neck. "Thank you for the help," I quietly said. I could feel her heartbeat accelerate quite a bit, and her face flushed as she stumbled over a response.

A second later, my hands and forearms were covered in warm, thick blood, and the woman was laying on the ground, her throat ripped out and her head twisted around so far that several discs in her spine were completely crushed and broken. With a flash of white light shooting up into the sky, she vanished, leaving nothing but an empty potion bottle and a pool of blood behind.

Killing her made me feel repulsed with myself; the act made me little better than the barbarians who invaded my home, but I doubted asking her to keep her silence about me would be any use. It was obvious, judging by what happened in the bookstore, that no one in this city could be trusted. And if taking the life of one innocent person meant I could leave without any trouble, then I was willing to take it, even if I would regret it afterward.

Clenching my jaw, I straightened and flew out of the garden, landing again once I'd left the castle; although the sun had set, I would still be easy to spot in the sky. Using the alleys and smaller roads, I made my way south, shifting into shadow and hiding every time I saw someone. Finally, nearly half an hour after I'd left the castle, one of the city gates came into view, and I quickened my pace in alleviation, dashing toward my freedom. I still didn't have a map, but that didn't matter. I would find my way home eventually.

My escape was once again hindered, however.

I heard him before I saw him, the steady and swift flapping noises muffled by the wind whistling past my ears. Refusing to be distracted from my goal, I didn't look up to see the exact location of the angel, keeping my eyes locked on the open gate. However, irritation slowed my steps when I saw the thick gate of stone begin to slide shut, most likely on Dib's orders. Jumping into the air, I gave up escaping on foot and instead summoned my bow, prepared to murder again if the idiot continued to get in my way.

Raising myself up above the city, I glared at Dib as he crossed his arms. "Why the hell can't you stay put and behave yourself?!" he huffed. "Geeze! You're harder to handle than a room full of screaming kids! Shoulda just left you in the forest!"

Furious that he was acting like I was the one in the wrong, I plucked two of my feathers and put them to the shadowy bow limb, drawing them into arrows and shooting them at him. One missed, but the other struck his left shoulder guard and he got knocked backward, spiraling off to one side and crashing into a chimney. Picking himself out of the shattered brick and mortar, he whined, "O-o-o-ow!" and stood. "You jerk! Stop shooting at me!"

"I will stop when you let me go home!" I snapped.

"I told you, I need your help, stupid! You can't go back!"

"DIE, THEN!" I screamed, shooting arrow after arrow, rage fueling my determination to get rid of him. With a frustrated noise, he unsheathed his scimitars and swiftly used the flat sides of the blades to smack my arrows away from himself as he agilely twisted and dodged. All of my deflected arrows soared in all directions, crashing through windows and blasting apart walls, but I ignored all of the destruction I was causing.

Shifting my body into shadow, I slipped downward and edged around one of the houses, attempting to sneak up behind him. However, my plan was foiled when a shout from the ground broke through our focus, and several wooden arrows zipped past, narrowly missing my wings. Changing my course, I turned away from Dib, flying as fast as I could toward the line if city guards standing in the large, open area just inside the city gates. Tossing aside my bow, I extended my hands; although my daggers hadn't been returned to me, I still had my fingernails, which I kept as sharp as any blade.

Not bothering to stop myself, I flew head-first into the line of armored men, knocking several of them over. Grabbing one by the front of his armor, I threw him toward a nearby building's window, then circled back around to attack again while the man crashed through the glass and disappeared into the house. Clobbering one man with my right wing, I snatched up another and flew upward, throwing him at Dib before diving downward again.

Shifting right before I was impaled on a sword, I reformed myself behind the man, took his helmeted head in my hands and twisted it around, just like the woman from before. With a crack and several pops, I tore his head completely off and threw it at another man as the body fell down and turned into light. Dib landed beside me and angrily swung both of his scimitars, but I flipped over backward, kicking a man in the head. Shoving him out of the way, I stole his sword, killed him, and turned back to Dib, raising my new blade to block both of his.

My one-sided fight against Dib and the guards continued for quite a while. I lost track of the time as my foes continued to multiply and I steadily ran out of magic and energy, the sky becoming dark overhead as my body slowed, my movements becoming clumsier and less controlled in my exhaustion.

Before I could dodge, a net was thrown over my injured wings, a rope around my neck, and a chain around my ankles. Forced to my knees, I gasped for air and stared down at the shattered bits of displaced cobblestone. Sweat and blood ran down my face, stinging at my eyes and making it difficult to see. The deep breaths rattling through my throat steadied me slightly, but I pretended to be completely overwhelmed and continued to look downward as if I had submitted.

"Given up yet?" Dib's irritating voice asked from somewhere in front of me. When I gave him no answer, he let out a long sigh and there were several scuffing sounds as he moved his feet. "Geeze, look at this place. Yu Lian is gonna be so pissed when she logs in again tonight. Plus there's all the people you just made lose levels. Ah-h-h, geeze…we're gonna be in so much trouble. What kind of excuse am I s'pose to give them when they ask why you suddenly went crazy? I bet Prince's fans are gonna give us hell for this. They already hated Al enough, but now they've actually got a reason to have him thrown out of town! Dammit, you asshole! All you had to do was sit quietly in a corner somewhere until morning, but no-o-o-o! You just ha-a-ad to go on a killing spree and tear up the city!"

"You're the one at fault for not considering I wouldn't 'quietly sit in a corner' and accept my kidnapping," I coldly replied, using the conversation to buy myself some more time for energy restoration. "Whatever happens to you and your friends is no concern of mine."

He sighed again. "What's it gonna take to get you to behave?"

"Let me go home."

"I told you, I need your help. I can't let you go back."

"And I told you, I won't help; even if you use force, I will not cooperate."

Other than the sounds of the guards shifting in their armor, crickets, and the nighttime breeze, there was only silence for several seconds. "You're gonna help anyway," he eventually replied, then paused for a while longer before adding faintly, "It's past six…Should be happening soon."

"I will _not_ cooperate," I repeated snappishly.

"You don't have to," he murmured, and I finally whipped my head back to glare up at him. I had been expecting smug superiority for having managed to bring me to my knees yet again, but his face was blank, almost sad.

But that made me no less angry at him.

"YOU BASTARD!" I screamed, struggling against the restraints, but the guards tightened their grips. "YOU THINK THAT BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE BESTED ME IN AN UNBALANCED BATTLE THAT YOU CAN TREAT ME LIKE A SLAVE?! YOU DARE THINK YOU CAN ORDER ME ABOUT?! I'LL NEVER HELP YOU! IF YOU TAKE ME TO YOUR FRIEND, I'LL KILL HIM! AND I'LL KILL YOU, AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THIS TOWN, FOR SUBJECTING ME TO SUCH HUMILIATION!"

Roaring, I gathered up all of the energy I'd managed to regain, snapped my wings out, breaking the nets, and jumped at Dib. He shielded himself with his hands, but not before I'd gotten my hands around his throat, yet he still bellowed, "DON'T HURT HIM!" at the guards when they rushed forward to intervene. Before I got to tear his throat out, he took me by the wrists and yanked my hands away, though I managed to leave some deep gouges in his skin.

Jumping into the air, I slammed my foot into his breastplate and pulled myself out of his grip. He stumbled backward, holding one arm over the large dent in his silvery armor, then straightened, wheezing, "Would you just calm down?!"

Charging at him again, I slashed my claws at his face, giving him five new slices on his left cheek, then turned and grabbed his shoulder guard, throwing him into the air. He extended his wings and righted himself before he hit any buildings, and immediately flew back. When he kicked his foot at my head, I ducked and rolled across the broken ground. Pausing when Dib circled back around, I quickly took the rope off my neck, slipped out of the chain, and stood. Leaping into the air, I chased after him, grabbing him in midair and slamming him into a nearby wall.

"I HATE YOU!" I screamed, pulling him forward to shove him back again, knocking his head against the wall over and over as hard as I could. Punching my jaw, he kicked me the same way I had him, making me fall to the ground. When he tried to pin me to the road, I punched him back, trying to stand up again, but he grabbed my ankle and yanked my feet out from under me. Flapping my wings, I managed to keep myself upright, but was unable to break free from his grip.

Letting myself drop to the ground, I punched him and scratched him and kicked him, trying my hardest to give him as many injuries as I could, although he kept blocking my hands with his. Shrieking curses at him, I grabbed one of his hands, twisted three of the fingers back until I felt them snap, and then grabbed him by the throat again, sinking in my claws.

Blinking hazily, I stared in slight bewilderment up at the dark starry sky, my mind slowly catching up to what was going on; I was in _Second Life_. But this definitely wasn't where I had logged out, last I'd played. Why was I laying on the ground? Why did my body hurt so much? Why were a bunch of city guards standing around me, staring?

…And where was my shirt?

Slowly sitting up, I looked around myself, taking in the sight of what I assumed was one of Infinite City's gates, although I wasn't quite sure about the exact location. Feeling even more confused, I looked up at the guards, who had all flinched and pointed weapons at me when I'd moved. They silently sent private messages to one another—at least, I assumed it was to one another—never taking their eyes off of me or relaxing their weapons. Wondering what the hell they were doing, I requested as calmly as I could, "Please lower your weapons."

They all flinched again, but they didn't reply and kept their weapons as they were.

Frowning in annoyance, I looked around again, my eyes traveling downward, and I stretched out my stiff and aching fingers. They were covered in something dark and sticky, but with the lack of light, I couldn't tell what it was. A lot of me was covered in it, now that I took a closer look…and the ground as well. Feeling somewhat disgusted that I was covered in an unknown filth, I shuddered slightly and murmured, "System," in a want to see if any of my teammates were online, and could come rescue me from these weirdos. I felt like I'd only just gone to sleep, so perhaps they weren't on, but although it was nighttime here in-game, I assumed it had been a bit longer than that a few seconds. For all I knew, it had already been several hours since I'd gone to sleep in the real world; I wasn't sure how long it would take to connect me completely to the game.

Nothing happened when I spoke.

"System," I repeated a bit more firmly, staring expectantly into the air in front of myself.

Still, no window popped up.

Alarmed, I attempted to send a message across the team chat, but couldn't connect. I looked up at the guards again. "Do any of you know if the game is glitching? I can't open the system window or use the messaging channels."

"It's not," one man answered, but was then elbowed by another, who hissed, "Don't talk to the prisoner!"

"Prisoner?" I repeated, even more confused. In annoyance, I slapped away a spear head and stood up, crossing my arms over my bare, sticky chest. "I haven't done anything to deserve imprisonment."

There was a large outburst of replies, which mostly consisted of variations of "Don't try to deny it!" while others pointed at the wrecked buildings surrounding us and snapped, "What do you call that?!"

I was about to tell them I'd only just logged in, but the flapping of wings made me look up in relief. A smile automatically turned my mouth upward when Dib came zooming down from the dark sky. "Dib!" I yelled. "They're trying to arrest me!"

"'COURSE THEY ARE, YOU ASSHOLE!" he screamed in reply. "YOU MADE ME LOSE A LEVEL!"

With extreme irritation, I shook my head and angrily retorted, "I JUST LOGGED IN, YOU BRAT! WHY THE HELL ARE ALL OF YOU ACCUSING ME OF SHIT, WHEN I WASN'T EVEN ONLINE?!"

He let out an enormous gasp. "YOU'RE YOU-U-U-U!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! OF COURSE I'M ME, YOU IDIOT!"

Dib landed outside of the circle of guards, coughed, and told them in a very important tone, "I'll take the prisoner to the dungeon. Alone. You guys can go back to whatever you were doing earlier. Thanks for your help!"

"But Dib," one of them cut in, waving a sword at me, "he'll kill you again if we're not here!"

"I'd never kill him!" I denied snappishly.

"You just did!" several of them yelled at me.

"Prisoner!" Dib sternly crossed his arms. "You won't misbehave anymore, will you?"

"…No?" I hesitantly replied.

"Well, that's that," he chirped, shoved the guards out of the way, and grabbed my arm, dragging me down the demolished road. Ignoring all of the guards' protests, he hurried us out of the wreckage and into the calm, lamp-lit streets.

When we'd been running for nearly a minute, I yanked on his hand, forcing him to stop, and snapped, "Tell me what the hell's going on! Why were they trying to arrest me?!"

Dib turned, a somewhat embarrassed look on his face, and sighed. "We-e-e-ell…"


	74. The Question

_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo__

_**Note –** Just in case some of you don't know, RDM in gamer terms means random death match (killing another player for no particular reason)._

* * *

><p>The past night was definitely one of the most embarrassing times of my entire life. There was simply no question about it. The things Dib said I had done—or, well, the things a NPC had done using my avatar made my whole body burn and shake, and I could hardly stand to look at Dib. I wanted to fly as far away from Infinite City as possible and hide somewhere until the day I'd be able to wake up again. And perhaps that would happen; after what "I" had done, I had no doubts that I would be exiled from the city. Did restraining orders exist in <em>Second Life<em>? If they did, people were probably in the process of getting some right now, banning me from coming anywhere near them. Especially Prince's best friends, Kekkaishi and Daoshi, whose bookstore had come close to burning down. Plus, apparently I had RDMed a woman at the castle, and she would probably want justice…And I'd stolen a loaf of bread and Prince's throne, and had damaged quite a few buildings near the southern gate.

Damn it all.

It had been a lie, of course, when Dib had told those guards he was going to take me to the dungeon, but I volunteered to go anyway, knowing everyone in the city would expect me to be there. However, Dib shot that down, saying that the Odd Squad would sort it out for me, although I had no idea at all how they would manage to do that. Many people in this city had proven themselves time and again to be complete morons, but they had also proven themselves time and again to be very unforgiving, even for things I hadn't done; I remained unconvinced when Dib assured me that everything would be fine.

So, with that problem temporarily shoved out of the way, Dib turned the conversation in a much lighter direction while we walked to the castle. I was extremely surprised to learn that it had not been minutes since I had gone to sleep, nor had it been hours; three weeks had already passed since that morning at _Second Life_'s headquarters. Things had apparently calmed down in the real world, and Heng and his brothers had been allowed to go home again. The boys had settled into the Lin house nicely, and their military guard had kept them safe thus far.

News about the progress being made on my new body, however, was vague and inconclusive. But then, I supposed that was to be expected, since the _Second __Life_ people were probably still working out how they were going to grow the body. I'd never heard of any way an entire person could be grown—not including the natural way—but perhaps there had been some sort of medical breakthrough that I hadn't heard about…or had I? There was a small, annoying feeling at the back of my mind, like I used to know something, but had forgotten. Sometimes I read medical articles, but I found that sort of thing to be extremely boring, and would immediately forget all about what I'd read, so perhaps that was the case.

Well, whatever. The _Second Life_ people said they knew how to grow me a body, so I'd take their word for it, and leave all of the science stuff to them.

While Dib went back to talking about the boys, my attention was suddenly caught by the loud chirping of a nearby cricket. My eyes drifted to the area where the high-pitched sound was coming from—a small patch of grass near the front door to a building—and I walked toward it, crouching down and looking around. It only took a moment to spot the large, shiny insect, and with little effort, I'd caught it in my hands, holding it carefully to avoid squashing it by accident.

"Al?" Dib called back from where he'd stopped several paces down the road. "What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" I looked up.

Dib's eyebrows furrowed in a confused way. "Are you eating something?"

I had a brief moment of horror and disgust when I realized that I was chewing, and that the cricket was no longer wiggling in my hands. Immediately, I stood and tried to spit, but my body wouldn't listen to me, and instead I swallowed. Gagging somewhat when I felt the pokey legs go down my throat, I began coughing and my eyes watered slightly. What the hell was I doing?

"What's wrong?" Dib asked, hurrying back over to me.

Wheezing, I looked up at him in bewilderment. "I ate a cricket!"

A few seconds passed by in silence, and then the quiet was filled with Dib's bubbly laughter. He smacked my shoulder a couple times, and then leaned forward, his whole body shaking. My face once again began to burn with embarrassment, and I wiggled my tongue around a bit, not enjoying being able to feel crunched-up pieces of exoskeleton in my mouth. The taste, though, wasn't bad at all, which was sort of odd; out of curiosity I had eaten several kinds of cooked insects in the past, and hadn't liked them much. However, for some reason this raw cricket had been extremely delicious and I was filled with an urge to go find another one.

Taking hold of Dib to keep myself from wandering away, I stared at him in annoyance as he continued to laugh. "I'm s—I'm sorry, I've—hahaha—I've failed as your master." Taking a deep breath, he laughed for a while longer, then added, "Shoulda bought that birdseed after all, huh? Hahaha-a-a-a…Didn't know you were so hungry you'd go picking through the grass for bugs. But hey, maybe eating crickets will make you extra lucky or something."

If this was how he was always going to react, I was definitely not going to eat another bug…at least, not when other people were around. The cricket had been so tasty, my mouth was watering somewhat at the thought of getting another. Perhaps I'd be able to sneak a few when everyone else was logged out.

Shoving his head, I snapped, "Stop laughing," and crossed my arms, clenching my jaw in pain when I accidentally scratched myself with my fingernails. While I supposed these claws would be useful in battle, it was going to take me a long time to become accustomed to them, and to not have to make a conscious effort to keep myself from getting cut on their sharp edges. I wasn't sure why I even had claws. Why hadn't the _Second__Life_ people simply used my original avatar, rather than making a new one? Well, the claws and my clothes—tight cloth pants, light-weight boots, a long cloak, and a mask that covered the top half of my face, all of which were black—seemed to be the only differences between my current avatar and my old one…but then, I hadn't looked in a mirror yet, so I wasn't sure just how much had been changed.

Out of habit, I dropped my right hand to my hip, groping about for a moment until I realized what I was looking for wasn't there. "My pouch is gone," I grumbled, looking down at my belt. Was it possible for NPCs to own pouches like the players did? I attempted to remember if I'd seen Kenshin or Sunshine with a pouch, but I hadn't ever interacted with either of them, other than to greet them in passing, so I couldn't recall.

Meatbun definitely didn't have a pouch, that much I knew for sure…

Dib let out several long noises of amusement, sounding like he was trying very hard to stop laughing, then took my hand again and continued down the quiet road. "Lolidragon stripped your old avatar of its items and stored it all in our room. Also, Wei Bo wanted me to give you this," he added, holding out the brass key which unlocked the door to our team chambers in the castle. "Since you'll be online all the time now…wouldn't wanna lock you out. Though I guess you could just go through the window, huh? Well, you'll have it just in case anyway."

The thought of not being able to log out like everyone else was extremely unsettling and made my hand tremble slightly as I lifted it to take the key. Sighing faintly, I automatically glanced at my hip again, then inwardly called myself an idiot for already forgetting I didn't have a pouch, and simply looped the key around one finger, tilting my head back to look up at the sky. "Shouldn't you be logging out?" I asked, glancing at Dib. The moon wasn't visible yet, so it was probably still relatively early in the morning in the real world, but usually he logged out around sunset.

He immediately frowned in the usual pouty Dib-ish way, with his bottom lip stuck out. "I don't wanna."

"You have work, don't you?"

"Yea-a-ah…but I still don't wanna." I gave him a frown of disagreement, and he looked away, squeezing my hand as he led us into a dark alley and stopped once we were out of sight of the road. "Don't gimme that look," he mumbled, pulling me against himself. "It might have felt like a second to you, but it's still been a month for me since I got to see you last."

Smiling, I slipped off my mask to get it out of the way and leaned forward, kissing him lightly. "I'm sorry I left you alone again." Dib let out a small hum and went in for another kiss, but I leaned back and quickly added, "However, us and your job are two separate things, and I will be very annoyed with you if you don't log out."

Giving me a grumpy look, he let out a huffing noise and plopped his head down on my shoulder. "You jerk."

Running one hand through his hair, taking great care not to hurt him with my fingernails, I hugged him with my other arm. "I'll still be here tonight. You could login and wake me up, and then we'll have all night to spend however we want…doing whatever we want."

"Like wha-a-at?" he asked, peeking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Maybe some of thi-i-is," I replied, moving his head slightly so I could kiss him again, and then continued in a suggestive tone, "and some other things, which require quite a bit more time and privacy than we have at the moment."

"I could make time," he offered, lowering his hands from my waist down to my butt, "and get us some privacy."

Smiling in amusement, I kissed him a third time, then shoved him off and turned to exit the alley. "We'll have plenty of both tonight, so wake up." Holding up a finger at him, I added, "And don't login too early. I'll be stuck in _Second__Life_ for I don't know how long; we have all the time in the world to enjoy ourselves, so don't neglect your life in the real world just so you can see me a bit sooner."

"Always so strict," he grumbled, crossing his arms. "Fi-i-i-ine, I'll log out." He said something under his breath that I couldn't quite understand, though it simply sounded like more complaints, then he hurried forward and hugged me tightly, gave me a much longer kiss, then stepped away. "See you tonight."

"Bye," I replied, smiling as cheerily as I could, but that vanished when he did. His absence left the alley looking far darker than it had before. Trying to ignore the loneliness welling up from being left alone in _Second Life_, I exited the alley and headed for the ever-deserted bathhouse, keeping to the alleys and smaller roads to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the city guards or anyone I might have done something to earlier. Other than a few guards here and there, I only saw three other people along the way—people who lived in other time zones, I assumed—and the city felt empty and lifeless without the usual bustle and energy it had during the day.

However, I had a brief respite from my feeling of abandonment when I got to the bathhouse and gave myself a proper look-over. It was an extreme shock to look into the mirror and see someone who wasn't me. I could still recognize myself, but there were many obvious changes, which I immediately blamed on Lolidragon. After hearing the sort of things she had made her teammates do for those portfolios the Odd Squad had made, I should have known the pervert would do something like this—beautifying me.

My eyebrows were thinner and more angled, my ears were pointed, my lips fuller and redder, my gold eyes slightly bigger, my eyelashes thicker, and my face sharper overall.

Although I never would admit it out loud, I had always thought of myself as very good-looking, but this level of beauty was absolutely ridiculous.

That stupid thief.

I should have known…

Frowning, I unclasped my cloak and dropped it on the floor, then went back to staring at myself in the mirror as I twisted around, attempting to look at my back. My original avatar had a small amount of feathers on the shoulder blades, but now the upper part of my back and my shoulders were almost entirely covered in shiny black feathers, which would probably make it impossible to wear a shirt, unless it was very loose and wouldn't squash and bend all of the plumage. It also seemed I couldn't retract my wings, which was annoying; they were bigger than they used to be, and I kept accidentally hitting them on things.

And to top it all off, I was unable to control the wind anymore, so my hair kept getting in my face.

Sighing deeply and attempting to hold in all the outrage toward Lolidragon, I turned and went to bathe myself. After washing off the bloody, gritty filth, I flew to the castle and went into Dib and my room, coming to a halt beside the bed. Although I hadn't been conscious, my body still felt exhausted and achy after that NPC's fight with Dib and the city guards, but I couldn't get myself to lay down. The bed looked so…so _flat_.

"…Well, of course it's flat; it's a bed," I mumbled aloud, furrowing my brows. I had laid in the bed many times before, and it had always been quite nice, but now it looked extremely uncomfortable. What in the world was wrong with me?

Blinking, I suddenly realized I was holding all the blankets in my hands. When had I picked them up? First eating crickets, and now tearing up a bed…Startled, I looked down and attempted to put them back, but yet again, my body wouldn't listen to me. Resigning myself to the fact that I couldn't do anything, I simply watched while my body used the blankets, sheets, and several pieces of clothing to make what I eventually identified as a nest.

Feeling like an idiot—I was a damned _bird_ now, thanks to that stupid thief, so I should have known I would want a nest—I sighed and stepped away from the bed, looking over my body's handiwork. The bowl-shaped mass sitting on top of the bare mattress looked much comfier than the bed had, so I attempted to shake the unsettled feeling and continued to let my body do as it pleased. First it opened the window, then it completely undressed itself, climbed into the nest, plucked out some downy feathers, arranged them on the blankets, then curled up and spread its wings over itself, fluffing out the feathers into a warm cover.

As the nighttime breeze quietly brushed through the room, I drowsily closed my eyes, making sure my knife-like fingernails were as far away as possible from anything I didn't want to be stabbed, mainly my crotch and my eyes. Trying to ignore the nagging loneliness, I curled up a bit tighter and went to sleep.

The next morning was hectic. Dib, much to my happiness, was there when I woke up, but before we could do anything, the Odd Squad called my team and I to the castle's throne room. After I had quickly dressed myself, using my old avatar's items to make me look more like _me_and less like King Aeolus, I put on one of Dib's spare shirts under my cloak, tied my hair back, forced Dib to stop trying to make me wear that stupid-looking mask, and then went with my team to the throne room, completely expecting them to tell me I'd been banished from the city.

Entering the spacious room, I attempted to keep the guilt off my face as we walked forward. Kekkaishi, Daoshi, quite a few people I didn't know, and the city's three military generals were present, as well as the entire Odd Squad, who were lined up at the end of the room where the stolen throne was supposed to be. Stopping once my team was standing next to everyone, I nervously glanced around the people's faces. Many looked angry. One, however—a woman I recognized from the bakery I frequented—was staring at me with an enamored smile, which made me extremely uncomfortable, and I moved backward a few centimeters, so she couldn't see me around Dib.

Stepping forward, Prince, with his City Lord face on, announced, "I have called you all here to discuss what happened yesterday. As you all know, there was a man in the city committing several acts of thievery, as well as damaging several buildings. However, our fine city guards, with the help of the Socks, captured the criminal last night, and he has been banished from the city."

"My Lord," a man said when Prince paused. One of the angry-looking players stepped out of the crowd and came to a halt by the steps leading up to where the Odd Squad stood. "You say you banished him, but isn't he standing _right over there_?" He pointed at me, and several people voiced their agreement.

"My brother isn't the criminal, so keep your accusations to yourself," Gui coldly denied, giving the man a glare.

"Right!" Doll piped in, crossing her small arms. "My servant would never do something so violent and dastardly! He's so peace-loving, he faints immediately at the sight of a fight!"

Good grief, they were never going to let me live that down…

Well, at least they weren't blaming me, which was extremely relieving.

"Aeolus had nothing to do with yesterday's incidents," Prince affirmed. "The criminal just happened to look like him."

"My Lord, he didn't just look like Aeolus," a woman snapped, coming to stand beside the man who had spoken before. "I saw him jump out of the castle windows, around where the Socks' team chambers are located! He RDMed me, and I want him to be punished!"

There was a loud ring of agreements again, but Prince raised his hand for silence and firmly ordered, "Aeolus is not the criminal, and will not be punished."

Lolidragon stepped forward to stand by Prince, and added, "I interrogated the criminal last night. He admitted that that he made himself look like Aeolus because he thinks Aeolus has a good fashion sense!"

Fashion? Oh my god. What the hell was she talking about?

Prince nodded, not seeming to notice how horrified I was. "The criminal committed his crimes in disguise, to pin the blame on Aeolus. The reason he was in the Socks' team chambers was because he was trying to steal some of Aeolus' clothing, to make his disguise more believable. However, the Socks found him and tried to stop him, but he jumped out the window, which is when he RDMed you, and then attempted to escape from the city."

There was no way these people were stupid enough to believe such a flimsy lie.

No way at all.

I managed to work up the courage to glance at the crowd, and I froze in utter disbelief when I saw them all nodding, with understanding expressions on their faces as they began murmuring to one another.

What the hell…

"I knew it wasn't him!" that bakery shop woman chirped over the buzz of conversation. "Aeolus often comes to my team's bakery to buy cookies, and he's always so kind and polite! I knew he couldn't be such a terrible criminal, like the one who stole my bread!"

In complete contrast to the people's tone from moments ago, the throne room was filled with apologies for their outrageous accusations, and confident comments about my innocence, and I was left torn between pitying these brainless people and feeling thankful that they were all so gullible.

Yu Lian then had the crowd line up single-file to receive monetary compensation for their damaged buildings, stolen property, and loss of levels, then they all left, looking much cheerier than they had before. Prince let out a long sigh, turning to his generals. "Wicked, Zui, Broken Sword, relay our explanation to the guards, so they don't try to arrest Aeolus." While they gave him replies of "Yes, my Lord," and bowed, Prince turned toward Kekkaishi and Daoshi. "Jing, Yun, the city will provide materials to repair your bookstore, and money to replace the damaged stock."

"Thanks, Prince," they both replied, smiling widely. Kekkaishi gave me a slap on the shoulder and said, "No hard feelings for what the crow did," before he and Daoshi followed the other three out of the throne room.

Just as I was beginning to relax, Yu Lian walked down the steps and stopped directly in front of me. "Glad to have you back, Aeolus," she greeted, smiling in her usual terrifying way. She and I passed a bit of small talk back and forth, and then came the inevitable. "As you can see, our coffers just took quite a large blow."

"Yes," I quietly mumbled.

"Since you're living inside of the game now, I assume you don't have any real-life responsibilities to take care of at the moment?"

"No…I don't have any."

"Good." Her smile stretched wider. "Since you have so much free time, I would like for you and your team to travel back to Ebonwood and collect the loot from Aeolus—I mean, the _other_ Aeolus' nest. While you're there, be sure to pick as many sidus berries as you can. It should be a much easier trip than the last I sent you guys on, since Lolidragon tells me the mobs there are still under your control."

"Oh, thank god," Wei Bo breathed.

"Where is the NPC now?" I quietly asked, looking toward Lolidragon. I'd had a worried moment, wondering if they had simply erased him after he had served his purpose, but after what had happened with the NPC rebellion, I hoped the employees of _Second__Life_ wouldn't take NPCs' lives so lightly anymore.

"We relocated him to Eastern," she answered. "We changed his name and appearance, reset his data to a few days ago so he doesn't remember what happened last night, and now he's lording over another forest."

Dib let out a faint sigh. "That's good." He smiled and hugged me around the shoulders. "He was a jerk, but he wasn't a bad guy, really. He just wanted to go home. I felt really bad for him."

I nodded a few times, feeling empathetic toward the NPC, then I looked back toward the Odd Squad and called, "Lolidragon?"

"Ye-e-e-es?" she replied, grinning.

"May I have my old avatar back?"

Much to my dismay, she shook her head, her grin never fading. "The coding for avatars is different between players and NPCs. We can't switch them."

"Well, can't you just change my appearance?"

She shook her head again. "Didn't you pay attention to the GM who helped create your avatar? You're not allowed to change your appearance. The character creation process was glitched for a while during the war and a lot of people remade their avatar, but that bug was fixed."

"I'm not asking to remake my avatar!" I snapped. "I'm asking you to put me back the way I was originally! You're the one who broke the rules and made me look like this!"

"Sorry, I can't help you!" she cheerily denied, waving a hand as she quickly ran for the door. "Gotta go! Urgent business!"

"Lolidr–!" I began again, but she disappeared in a bright pink blur around the corner, and I let out a growl. "Dammit." By force of habit, I attempted to PM her, but then remembered that, as a NPC pet, the only person I could now communicate with over the messaging system was my "master," Dib.

Damned thief. This was all so inconvenient.

"Cheer up, my servant!" Doll suggested with a bright smile. "This avatar is stronger than your other one! Plus it's really handsome, too!"

Several members of the Odd Squad gave their forced-sounding agreement, which then caused Gui to explode into his usual aggravating fretting when he noticed Prince had nodded as well. Turning away from the stupid couple as Prince started yelling at him to shut up, I began walking with my team toward the door.

"Oh, by the way!" Yu Lian called after us, and I paused to look back. "Before you guys leave for Ebonwood, look around for Prince's throne, would you? Witnesses say they saw Aeolus carrying it out of the city, in a southern direction, but we haven't been able to find it yet."

"Okay," several of us replied, then turned again to leave. Dib sent me many grumbly private messages about how he wanted to go back to our room, but obediently we started our assigned task of searching for Prince's throne. It took us over an hour to find the golden chair, which was wedged in the branches of an enormous oak tree and covered in leaves. We cleaned it as best we could and put it back in the throne room, then collected the team's horses and left the city again as fast as possible to avoid hearing any complaints about the chair's scuffed-up condition. Directing ourselves north-west, we began our short journey to Ebonwood.

Dib and I talked a little as we flew, but there was mostly silence and I allowed my mind to wander. Everything that had happened recently in real life once again flooded my thoughts. Things were so much different now than they were two years ago. It felt like a lifetime ago that I'd been standing in the middle of my office, wondering how I was supposed to spend my day off. Running the memories through my head, they were so unfamiliar, like that hadn't been me. Like that had been the life of someone else.

But perhaps it really had been someone else. I certainly was no longer the man whose small world revolved around hopeless wishes for his father's approval. He started to disappear the day he went to buy himself a new computer hard drive, I supposed.

The me back then never would have imagined that anything that had happened would have happened. If someone had warned me of the events to come, I would have thought such things were completely ridiculous. Everything I'd experienced, everyone I'd met, everywhere I'd been—I wouldn't have believed any of it.

But as unbelievable as it all sounded in hindsight, it still had happened. There was no point in pretending or wishing it hadn't. All I could do now was look to the future, and build a new life for myself once I woke up. However, it was almost impossible to imagine my life in a different way than it had been before, living hidden away in that silent mansion with my father looming over me every day. But now he was dead. There would be no one at home anymore…It was frightening. Regardless of the fact that my father had been so horrible to me, I had always seen him as a sort of support. Now that he was gone, I'd suddenly been thrown into an independent life, and I wasn't sure I was ready.

But ready or not, he was dead, and he'd never come back.

Sighing faintly, I reached into my pouch and pulled out a corner of that NPC's black cloak. Using my fingernails to stab through the thick fabric, I tore a strip off the bottom, then stuffed the cloak back into my pouch. With difficulty, I eventually managed to tie the strip of black cloth around my upper arm.

**"What are you doing?"** Dib messaged, giving me a somewhat confused look.

**"I don't have any sleeves,"** I explained, glancing down at myself. Although Dib hadn't liked the idea, I had decided to stay shirtless. It felt better like this, with the wind rushing through the feathers on my shoulders and back.

**"Slee—oh."** Dib looked away, a complicated look on his face. **"I didn't think you would mourn. Gui isn't."**

Several seconds ticked by while I attempted to come up with an explanation that would seem acceptable. I didn't expect him to understand, however; he had never agreed with me on anything when it concerned my father. **"Although it was reluctant, my father did a lot for me. He at least deserves this bit of cloth."**

**"I can tell you a lot of other things he deserves,"** Dib darkly added, frowning, **"and none of them are very nice. Ripped up a perfectly good cloak for that bastard…what a waste."**

Turning slightly, I flew closer to him and took his hand, giving it a kiss. **"I simply want some closure."**

His fingers slid between mine and clasped together. **"Yeah, I know."** Several long moments passed in silence as we stared at the greenery rolling by underneath us, and the large, white clouds floating by above us. A few small birds took flight out of a bush our team's horses were galloping past, and they shot up into the air, chirping.

**"I just wish getting over everything he did would be as easy as wearing that cloth,"** Dib added softly.

Smiling, I nodded in agreement, keeping my eyes on the fluttering birds. **"It's a start at least."**

Letting the topic drop, we refocused ourselves on the "quest" Yu Lian set for us. In less than an hour, we had reached the dark, fog-covered wood, and something inside me was immediately drawn to it. Although everyone else was extremely wary, hanging back just outside the tree line, I hurried into the darkness, the twisting, mossy trees looking welcoming as their branches arched over the rocky path.

"Twig, slow down!" Wei Bo ordered in a harsh whisper. I briefly glanced over my shoulder, watching as everyone slowly stepped into the wood, then I turned back around and continued trotting down the path.

"This place gives me the heebie-jeebies," Oli called from above, where Brushy had perched herself in one of the trees.

"And the creepie-crawlies!" Cay added, not sounding scared in the slightest.

"I've got the hippity-skippities!" Brushy piped in.

"You always have the hippity-skippities."

"Gu-u-u-uys, be quiet," Hai hissed in a terrified tone. "Use the team chat, so the monsters won't hear!"

"Then Al wouldn't be able to hear us!" Dib huffed, making an outrageous amount of noise as he ran after me.

"Yu Lian said that Lolidragon said that Gēge can control the monsters," Avila reminded.

"Doesn't make this place any less terrifying," Wei Bo mumbled. "Twig! Get back here and stop wandering off, or I'll put you on a leash!" Reluctantly stopping, I turned in annoyance and looked back at the rest of the team. "Let's split into two groups!" he suggested. "One group picks sidus berries while the other group goes to collect the loot! Where are the baskets?"

"They're in one of the saddlebags."

"I don't want to split up!" Hai immediately disagreed. "If Aeolus isn't here, the monsters will attack us, won't they?!"

"I'll tell them not to," I assured, turning back around. Drawing on my magic energy, I briefly paused, wondering how I was supposed to communicate with the mobs. From experience using my previous avatar, I knew how to transfer magic into the air or into equipment, but I hadn't ever used it to send messages before.

Well, I'd figure it out, I confidently thought, letting the magic spread out around me. Nothing happened at first, but after a few seconds my eyes widened slightly when I felt something in my mind, sort of like I had gotten a PM, except instead of words I received feelings and blurry images, and could locate the source. And there were a lot of sources.

Quite a lot.

And they were getting closer, quickly.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!" Wei Bo screamed when heavy footfalls, wing beats, and dry snaps began sounding out in the trees, signaling that the wolves and crows were heading in our direction. There was a lot of noise behind me as everyone began unsheathing their weapons, but I turned and glared at them all.

"Don't hurt them."

"Oh, I would _never_!" Wei Bo sarcastically snapped. "I'LL JUST LET THEM EAT ME!"

"They won't eat you," I quietly countered, walking forward. Even if everyone else was afraid, I didn't feel scared; their minds felt eager and joyful, not threatening. Smiling when they came into view, I broke into a run, warm affection from an unknown source filling me as I stopped to hug one of the huge, shaggy shadow wolves. Perhaps it was residual feelings left in me from that NPC, or perhaps it had been coded into me, but I felt like I knew all of them.

A long, wet, black tongue lolled out of the side of the wolf's mouth as it panted happily, sitting down and lowering its head so I could scratch behind its ears. Several crows landed nearby and hopped forward. Stretching out my other hand, I stopped breathing for a moment when one of the crows rubbed its head on my palm. The part of my mind that was still human was somewhat speechless at the moment; I hadn't ever been so close to a bird before, especially not one that was tall enough to peck my chin. It was intimidating.

The crow let out soft caws and coos as it snuggled with my hand. Confusion, loneliness, anger, and slightly contorted images of an empty nest were sent into my head. Feeling guilty for robbing them of their friend, I dragged my fingers over the bird's head, sending comforting thoughts back to it. After a few more moments of petting and patting and scratching and whatnot, I slowly backed away and spread my magic out again, connecting with as many of the monsters as possible. Gesturing toward my team, I firmly impressed into the creatures' minds that the others were no threat, and were not to be harmed. It was more difficult than I thought it would be to speak without using words, but eventually I made them understand. Faint pricks of disappointment met my orders, but none of them made any disagreement.

Sighing with relief, I turned back around. "They won't attack."

"You sure?" Wei Bo demanded, not lowering his broadsword and shield. "That crow over there won't stop staring at me."

Looking upward to the crow-filled trees, I let out a chirping noise I didn't know I could make. The birds all turned toward me instead, and I felt a brief moment of panic, not knowing what to do next, but once again my body took control and began talking to them. Moments later they took flight, disappearing into the fog, and all of the wolves ran off between the trees.

"Wow," Xiu Chen marveled, her green eyes widening. "I didn't know you could speak Bird."

"What'd you say to them?" Wei Bo asked, still looking around as if expecting an attack.

"They've gone to patrol for other intruders," I replied, feeling unsettled again. Reflexively ruffling out my feathers a bit, I turned around and prepared to continue deeper into the forest. "I'm going to the nest."

"Dib, you go with him," Wei Bo ordered. I looked back, watching as he slung his shield across his back again, but kept his sword out. "Everyone else, split into small groups, take some baskets, and go look for the berries. We'll meet back here in a couple hours, okay?"

Agreements sounded out in the humid air, then everyone began organizing themselves while Dib and I started down the path. Deciding it would be faster to fly, we climbed one of the trees and took to the air, heading toward the heart of the enormous forest. With knowledge I didn't know I had leading us, we flew as fast as we could and arrived at the middle within fifteen minutes. Even if I hadn't known already, it was obvious which nest, out of the hundreds that were there, was the king's. The round construct of dead branches and leaves sat high in the biggest tree I'd ever seen, and sparkled in the dim light. When we got close, the source of the winking lights became apparent; the whole nest was decorated with objects, some of which weren't even all that valuable—bits of broken glass, rocks, and common, inexpensive things like books, shoes, daggers, and cloak clasps were everywhere.

Dib said it looked like a trash bin had been dumped on the nest, but I thought it all looked beautiful and forced him to not touch any of it, for fear of him ruining the decorations. I doubted Yu Lian would have wanted any of this anyway. All of the items obviously had no monetary value, regardless of the fact that they were so nice-looking to me.

But to appease Yu Lian, Dib and I found a gem-encrusted chest of items inside the nest that made the trip more worthwhile. A high-level bow with a matching quiver of arrows, several expensive pieces of enchanted jewelry, and a nice amount of coins were all inside. Trying to ignore the guilty feeling, like I was stealing—technically, I supposed it didn't count as stealing, since it was _my_ nest now—I helped Dib lift the chest and we left to go help the others pick berries.

In two hours we managed to fill all of the baskets we'd brought, and the team gathered once again at the place where we had entered. It was very reluctant, and it took quite a bit of persuading, but I finally managed to get myself to follow the others out of the forest. I looked back many times as I flew, not wanting to leave, but Dib assured me we would come visit again every night, so I tried my hardest not to feel depressed.

After another hour, we had gotten back to the city, and everyone went their separate ways. As expected, Dib immediately dragged me to our room. Trying not to trip when he pushed me backward toward the bed, kissing me the whole way, I sat down and let him climb on me, his hands already busy taking off his armor. Although usually I would have been extremely excited about all this, staring at him and touching him as he undressed, my mind was still in Ebonwood somewhere. I didn't really know why, but I felt lonely, homesick almost. I didn't want to be here.

I took a breath when he leaned down to kiss me again, making me lay down. Part of my blanket nest got squashed underneath us, but I didn't particularly care about that either at the moment. "Could we do this later?" I quietly asked, looking away from him and pushing on one of his shoulders, trying to make him stop.

"Not in the mood anymore, huh?" He let out a small sigh through his nose, but obediently laid down, still snuggling up to me, his soft hand brushing hair away from my face. "You okay?"

"I've yet to decide," I replied, sighing as well as I stared up at the ceiling.

"We'll go back first thing tomorrow," he promised, giving me a one-armed hug as I nodded. Kissing me on the cheek, he drew away slightly. "I think I have something that could cheer you up," he announced, suddenly sounding excited. I was about to ask him what it was, but he ordered, "Close your eyes!"

I gave him a glance of suspicion. "You're not going to do something weird, are you?"

When he shook his head, I looked at him a moment longer, but eventually closed my eyes. There was a soft whooshing noise and a light breeze on my face, which told me Dib was waving his hand around, probably thinking I was peeking, then it stopped and I felt him stand up and hop to the floor. There was a lot of rustling and clanking noises, then he returned and put his hand on mine. A brief moment of silence passed as he spread the fingers of my left hand, then something cold and smooth slid down my finger.

"Okay!" he chirped. "You can look now!"

Cracking open my eyes, I stared down at my hand, taking in the sight of the silvery ring he had placed on my left ring finger. The surface of the metal, which had pretty little designs etched into it, was scuffed in a few places, but the piece of jewelry certainly didn't look cheap. It took me several seconds before I realized what he was doing, and then my heart started pounding with embarrassment and glee. "Is this your idea of a proposal?" I asked, trying to sound amused through the shaking in my voice.

He chuckled, his face turning pink. "I figured you wouldn't want a big production."

"You were right." I gave a nod, then used my thumb to slowly rotate the thin band. "Aren't you supposed to ask first and wait for a 'yes' before you put this on me?"

His face suddenly looked exaggeratedly sad. "You don't want to?"

I leaned to the left and put my head on his shoulder, unable to take my eyes off the ring. "I'm just…still having trouble believing that I'm good enough for you."

My head bounced up and down a little when his shoulder shook. "Good enough…You don't know how many times I've been worried that _I'm_ not good enough for _you_. I'm not good-looking, and I don't have much money, and…and I come in a package deal with three other people." He fell silent for a moment, then observed, "You don't get mad at me when the triplets get in the way of our plans."

Sitting up, I gave him a confused look. "Of course not, why–"

"You don't laugh at me for crying so easily."

"Wh–"

"You don't make fun of me for liking girly movies. You aren't disappointed when I behave like a kid. You tolerate me when I bug you on purpose. You don't whine when I get thrifty. I could keep going for hours. These might all seem like little things to you, but so many people I've dated have broken up with me because of that stuff, because I was just…being myself. But you aren't like that…Al, you…" A few seconds passed in silence, then he gave me a somewhat annoyed look. "You're really good at pissing me off, and sometimes you make me really sad…but…" The annoyance faded into a warm smile. "You also make me happier than I've been in…in a really, really long time." Raising a hand, he drew it over my cheek. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

My eyes, which had already started to burn, began to water, and I blinked rapidly several times, unable to stop smiling. Marriage hadn't ever seemed like a particularly happy thing to me before; it was an obligation, a duty; being happy was just an added bonus that may or may not eventually happen. But now, I felt happier than I'd ever been before. Of all the people on this planet, he had chosen to be with the mess that was me, even though he knew I had so many problems and had caused so much trouble. I had no idea what I'd done to deserve this, and for a brief moment I wondered if I was dreaming or something, but I shoved all incoming doubts out of my mind and simply focused on him—the man I loved, and the man who loved me.

Grinning like the idiot he was, he ran his hand over my cheeks again, brushing away the tears I couldn't hold back. "May I take this reaction as a 'yes'?"

I yanked him into my arms and huffed, "Of course it's a 'yes,' you moron." I would have had to have been insane to turn him down, to reject the first person who had ever truly valued me. It was indescribable, the feeling I had knowing that he would always be there for me, and through all of the laughter, the kisses, and the hugs, I felt as though I'd finally come back to the place where I belonged, here with him.

"So, cheered up now?" Dib asked, looking just as happy as I, and he twisted some of my hair in his fingers.

Chuckling, I murmured, "Yes," and darted forward to give him another kiss. Pushing him over, I snuggled up to him and nuzzled his neck, letting out little cooing noises of contentment, not unlike the ones that crow had been making earlier.

Several moments passed by in relative silence, then he softly asked, "Should we keep it a secret?" Feeling somewhat confused, I tilted my head back to stare up at him as he continued. "I know how important it'll be to keep your image…'clean' or whatever, once you take over the airline. Assuming you take over the airline. I mean, it's not like gay marriage is super uncommon these days, but if you think business partners are gonna look down on you for it, then…Well, I just don't wanna cause you any problems. I won't get in the way."

I quietly thought for a moment, feeling slightly impressed that he had actually taken this into consideration when usually he was so impulsive. It didn't take long, however, for me to come to a decision. "I've lived my whole life in hiding. I don't want to hide anymore, especially not when this is something so important to me. And besides, all of the people whose opinions matter to me already know. Let everyone else think whatever the hell they want. If people don't want to do business with me because of your gender, then that is their loss. There will always be other companies to approach."

Although he looked quite a bit happier at my answer, he still seemed somewhat hesitant. "You sure?"

"I'm sure," I replied, smiling and patting his face. "I want to be able to proudly stand by you and call myself your husband, not feel ashamed."

With an expression as bright as the afternoon sunlight pouring in through the open window, Dib let out a very relieved noise and fell over on top of me, hugging me tightly. Pressing his mouth to mine, he pushed my lips apart and slipped his tongue in. Exhaling softly, I kissed him back, pulling him as close to myself as possible and closing my eyes.

* * *

><p><em>Every time I hear the word "marriage," I can't help but repeat it to myself as "mawwage." lmao<em>

_"Mawwage is whot bwings togethaaahh to-day! Mawwage, that bwessed event, that dweam wiffin a dweam!"_

_Oh god, please tell me some of you know what that's from…xD That's one of the best movies ever._


	75. Expulsion

_**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo___

* * *

><p>Warm, steady breathing tickled at my ear as I slowly woke up, my brain groggily lifting itself out of the blackness it slid into at night. The brightness of the early morning sunshine made me squint as I opened my eyes a tiny bit, fighting back the urge to yawn as I glanced around the rumpled wall of my blanket nest, the tidy bedroom beyond, and the muscular arm on which my head was laying. Soft cloth, moving in time with the breathing by my ear, gently pushed against my bare back. Closing my eyes again, I took a deep breath and rolled over, wrapping myself around Dib, who at some point while I'd been sleeping had logged in for the night.<p>

Letting out a light hum, I gave Dib a squeeze and reopened my eyes, smiling up at him. He smiled back. "Good morning," he murmured, leaning down and giving me a brief kiss.

"Good…mor…ni…morning." The yawn I'd been trying to keep inside forced itself out. Breathing deeply again, I blinked a few times, then lifted a hand and very carefully picked the crusty stuff away from the corners of my eyes, awkwardly twisting my fingers to keep my claws out of the way.

"Sleep well?" he asked, pushing my messy hair out of my face and purposefully tangling his fingers in it.

I hummed again and nodded.

"Have lots of dreams about me?" he continued playfully.

Mumbling incoherently on purpose, I yawned a second time and stretched my legs and wings out as far as I could, squeezing him again with my arms in the process. I hadn't dreamed about him last night, or the night before last. I hadn't dreamed about anything, really, or I just didn't remember. I suspected it was the former. My mind simply blanked until I woke up; perhaps creating the ability to dream had been too difficult a task for the _Second_ _Life_ creators. Whatever the reason, I didn't care; I was very relieved to be free of the nightmares that had been plaguing me since Zhong Yu had killed Five.

"Why do you sleep naked?" Dib demanded, leaning over to pin me to the mattress. The familiar empty feeling of anger and loss pricked at me, but I lifted my arms and looped them around Dib's neck, forcing myself to ignore everything else.

"It's comfortable." I gave him an amused stare as his arm slipped out from underneath my head, one of his hands running down my left thigh and the other going between my legs.

He grinned and kissed me again. "You sure that's the only reason?"

My sleepiness quickly leaving me, I grabbed him by the shoulders and rolled us over, sitting myself down on top of him. "There might be some other reasons." Giving him the most seductive look I could, I slowly leaned toward him. Sticking my hands under his shirt, I ran them up his smooth stomach and kissed him deeply. We'd had lots and lots of sex yet again yesterday, from directly after our engagement all the way until he'd needed to wake up, but I had no problem whatsoever with doing it all over again today.

Anything to keep my mind busy.

"Wait, stop," he half-heartedly said after a long moment, regardless of the fact that his hands were still all over me and the beginning of an erection was poking through his cloth pants. I momentarily froze against my will, but forced off the aggravating urge to do as he said and kept going, assuming he simply wanted me to eat breakfast first or something. Breakfast could wait. And so could lunch, and dinner, and tomorrow's breakfast, and–

"Qui-i-i-it," he whined, lightly pushing my face away. I gave him a sulky look from between the fingers he'd planted over my nose and eyes. "Sorry, I shouldn't have started anything. I wanna, but we can't right now."

"Why not?"

"I told my brothers I'd train with them tonight. I only came to wake you up."

Disappointment and annoyance snapped through me. "I th–" I began, but quickly changed my mind, stopped and closed my mouth, smacking on a smile as I pulled back. "Okay." He must have forgotten his offer to go with me to Ebonwood. It wasn't a very nice place, from an outsider's perspective, so I supposed I wasn't very surprised at his lack of enthusiasm. Still, I'd been very much looking forward to a day alone with him, far away from other people. I felt somewhat silly for thinking I'd be allowed to monopolize him every night. He and I had been nearly inseparable since I'd been rescued, but I obviously shouldn't have gotten used to it.

"I'm sorry, Al," he gently added, making me even more annoyed when he took his hands back. His eyes kept wandering all over me, however. "I really do want to. But things have been super busy in real life, and here in-game we were questing across the continent for weeks trying to find that blood dagger, then the night before last we were babysitting His Most Fat-Headed Majesty, and then I–"

"You don't need to explain." Climbing off him and the bed, I walked over to the set of drawers we had near the window and slid them open, pulling out my clothing. It had been a while since I'd been jealous of other people getting between Dib and I. Not since we'd first started being friends, really, and my stupid self had come to the realization that I wasn't the only person with whom he liked to spend his time. I knew I was important to him, but I wasn't most important.

I never would be, not while he still had to take care of his brothers.

Annoyed with myself for feeling grouchy over this fact, something I very much admired about him, I shut the drawer a little too hard, then stomped into my pants.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"Your feathers get fluffy when you're mad."

Squishing my wings against my back in a futile attempt to smooth the feathers, which were, as he had observed, poofed outward, I gave him a sharp look. "I'm not mad at _you_. I'm just being stupid, so don't mind me and go." Wishing he would hurry up and leave, I sat down to put on my boots, wondering what I was supposed to do with myself while Dib was with his brothers. Other than a few short errands, my day was now completely full of nothing. I didn't like nothing; nothing would give me room to think, and there was a lot I didn't want to remember which I would definitely remember if I had nothing else to fill my mind.

Perhaps Yu Lian would…No, no, no. If I went to Yu Lian for something to do, I wouldn't have another free day for the rest of my life.

Gui would undoubtedly be busy with his city duties. Plus since he and the stupid elf, Prince, had only just recently started…whatever it is they had started, I didn't want to get in the way of their time together.

Well, the Lins probably wouldn't mind if I followed them around. Or I could just go to Ebonwood alone.

I paused while buckling up my boots, and locked my eyes on the silver ring Dib had given me yesterday afternoon. Would it be better to take it off or leave it on? I had several rings I wore as part of my gear, but what if the Lins noticed which finger I was wearing it on? Wei Bo may have been a clueless blockhead, but the girls were very sharp about this sort of thing. I assumed Dib wanted to be present for the announcement of our engagement, so I didn't want to give it away on my own, but I didn't want to take the ring off either.

I was still inwardly debating with myself when Dib came up behind me and started lightly pulling on my hair, scraping it together into a messy ponytail. "Wanna come with us?"

Tilting my head back in surprise, I put my smile on again. "I don't want to get in the way of your family time."

His bright blue eyes narrowed. "You know, yesterday when I proposed to you and you said 'yes,' I kinda thought that we had gotten _engaged_ and stuff…" The grumpy look he had faded when he laughed faintly. "You're allowed to join our 'family time.' Besides, since we're gonna get married, you and the triplets should hang out more. They need to get to know their new…um…brother…brother-dad…Brother-mom? Mom-dad?…What the hell are we supposed to call you?"

"For the record, I am no one's _mother_, and I think I'd like to continue being their _friend_. Alright, I'll come."

"Good." Pulling on my hair again to tilt my head farther back, he gave me a kiss.

"They won't mind, will they?" I hastily asked, turning myself around to watch while he strode across the room, picking his belt and pouch off the peg next to the door.

"Nope." As he buckled it on, he gave me a mischievous grin. "And if they do, I'll punch them 'til they don't. They've gotta buy stuff before we leave, so meet us in the market, okay?"

"…Okay." Attempting to decide if the punching was a joke or not—probably not—I waved at him as he hurried back across the room and stepped up onto the window sill, blowing me a kiss as he fell out of sight behind the fluttery red curtains. Sitting quietly on the floor for a moment, staring at my new ring, I let the happiness he always brought me fill me up, trying to use it to calm the rest of me. When I finally stood, I was still very much in the mood to have sex, and I could still feel the intentional push behind the thoughts going through my head, keeping myself from thinking about everything I didn't want to think about, but I locked my mind on training and busied myself with putting up my hair and grabbing my pouch.

Within moments I was following the path Dib took out the window. The slightly chilly morning breeze made my eyes water as I lifted myself over the castle walls and looped around east, toward the city's market. Taking in the sight of the steadily rising sun, pale blue sky and thin, trailing clouds, I slipped more into Gaming Mode and sped up slightly, glancing downward toward the people milling about on the streets below.

Once the market came into view, I dropped myself down into an alley, put up my hood, and folded my wings neatly against my back before leaving the small space, joining the early morning traffic. Entering the shopping district, I hurried along the cobblestone road until I came across a jewelry store. Looking around myself to make sure Dib and his brothers weren't in this area, I slipped inside and went to the counter, giving a polite greeting to the shopkeeper.

After a few minutes, I was leaving, having placed an order for a custom-made gold wedding band, with a feather design etched into it to match mine, and as many stat-boosting enchantments as I could get. Taking to the air again, I lifted myself above the roofs and flew a few blocks south. **"I'm in the market,"** I told Dib.

**"We're headed to the potion shop,"** he replied.

**"I want to buy some gloves, so would you get me the usual?"** I asked. **"Oh, and some mana potions?"**

**"Yep, I'll get them."**

**"Thank you."** Spotting the armor shop—Ugly Wolf had recommended it to me, as they specialized in beastmen equipment—I spiraled downward and dropped myself at the door. Quickly going inside, I roamed around the until I found the selection of hand gear. After trying on various types, I eventually selected a pair of soft leather gloves that had extensions on the ends of the fingers, for covering my claws. After also choosing a pair of armored gauntlets that left my fingers exposed for fighting, I paid the shopkeeper and left, flying off to meet the others.

Spotting the four—five, if I counted Brushy Butt—standing outside the archery shop, I began my descent. Softly landing next to Dib, I hesitated a moment outside their little bubble of activity, but at the triplets' friendly smiles and greetings, I stepped forward and looked down at the map of the continent they had stretched out between them. The voices of all four talking over one another, as well as Brushy's occasional squeaky comment, as they argued about where we were going to go made the conversation extremely hard to follow, so I stayed silent and waited for them to sort it out. As usual, I had no opinion on the matter.

Then again, even if I had an opinion, they probably wouldn't have noticed.

And even if I had an opinion, I wouldn't have shared it. Regardless of their amiable response to my presence, which eased my nervousness slightly, I still felt a bit like I was unwantedly intruding on their Brother Time. They had never seemed to dislike me, so perhaps my fears were groundless, but it had always been just the four of them. Would they be angry if they suddenly had to share him with my three children and I, or were they old enough now at fourteen to understand of this sort of thing? Had they been given enough time to get used to the idea of me being a permanent part of their lives? Would they be happy for us?

"–nk this place is okay, Al?"

"Yes," I replied without thinking, turning back to the group and smiling.

"Alright, we'll go there then." Dib gave a nod, then opened his pouch and stuck his hand in. "Got you ten of each potion. I hope that's enough."

"It probably is," I assured, taking the bottles of colorful liquid from him and putting them in my pouch. "I still have some from whenever I last trained with my old avatar."

"Need anything else?"

"No, I'm set."

"Everyone else ready?"

Brushy raised one front paw and squeaked, "No! Food first! Master forgot to buy me nuts yesterday!" as she used her other paw to shake Oli back and forth.

"I guess we-we're go-oing to the—ouch…the…grocer…" Oli announced, struggling to keep his footing while the squirrel continued to fling him around.

"O-o-o-oh," Dib breathed, slapping a hand onto my shoulder. I stiffened and gave him a glance of suspicion, expecting him to imitate Brushy and shove me. However, he turned me around and began walking me away from the archery shop. "I forgot—we've gotta get you some birdseed! Where's a pet supplies shop?"

"I don't need any birdseed," I huffed, offended at the thought of Dib taking me to a pet store.

"How about some bugs?"

"I am perfectly capable of getting those myself."

"But they're so tiny, it'd take forever to catch a whole meal," he pointed out, grabbing my other shoulder as well when I attempted to push him away.

"Then I will hunt something bigger!"

"Aw, come on. Don't pretend you don't want to buy a big bag of crickets. I bet the…um…" Dib's sentence trailed off as he and I both stopped, watching as the crowd in front of us parted and quite a few city guards came marching through the gap. I walked backward, trying to get out of their way, but they turned toward us.

When they halted, one stepped forward and tapped the end of his spear on the road. "Aeolus and Dib?"

"What do you want?" Dib cautiously asked, pulling me to his side.

"We're under orders to escort the two of you out of the city."

"Whose orders?" I demanded. Starlight and her crazed cult weren't trying to cause trouble again, were they? That group was the only one I could think of who would want me to leave. Although I had thought the city's three generals were completely loyal to Prince, perhaps Starlight had somehow managed to get some of the military under her control.

If that was the case, I had to go warn Prince…

"The orders are from the Odd Squad," the guard crisply replied, pulling a sealed scroll of paper from his pouch and holding it out to us. Feeling stunned, I slowly took the scroll, glanced at the wax seal—it did look like Prince's—and broke it open, unrolling it to read the inked words.

After two read-throughs, I looked up at him in disbelief. "They're expelling me from the city for inconveniencing the post office?! I haven't been to an in-game post office since last year, nor have I been expecting any packages! There has to be a mistake!"

"There's no mistake," he denied, and another guard stepped forward, holding out a large cloth bag. "These are all addressed to you. The post office has tried many times to contact you over the past several weeks, but haven't been able to, so the mail piled up until it got to be like this."

"That's nothing to banish me for!" I snapped, grabbing the bag and opening the top, pulling out a letter at random. After a glance at the sender's name, I gave the guard another fierce look. "Besides, I know no one by the name Shi! Someone's obviously attempting to harass me!"

Dib suddenly let out something that sounded like a stifled laugh. I gave him an angry glance for not taking this seriously. He took the letter from me and opened it. "It's from the twins, Al."

"Twins?" I had to think for a moment to figure it out, but eventually realized he meant Three and Six; they weren't twins, but whatever—well, perhaps since they were the only two left, they were allowed to be referred to as such.

"Why does it say 'Shi,' then?" I asked, taking the letter back and returning it to the bag.

"They named themselves couple days after you, um, went for treatment," Dib replied. "Three is Shi, and Six is Hu. They were watching a documentary about great cats on TV and thought they were cool."

"Who let them pick those names?" I huffed, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Hey, don't blame me! You said they could name themselves!" Dib huffed in return.

"I didn't mean you should let him pick any random thing to name themselves after! You should have given them a name book!" Thank goodness Jiao had helped me with Gao, or else he might have been named something stupid as well.

"I coulda named them like I did the triplets," Dib pointed out somewhat grouchily.

"Shi and Hu are fine," I immediately decided. Having a pair of animals was much better than having a pair of numbers. Good thing the boys had been watching a documentary about great cats, rather than one about history's most evil criminals, or a superhero movie or something…

"So, you admit to your crime?"

I looked back at the guard in surprise, having almost forgotten he was there. "Unless the city's rulers have decided to add some new, absurd laws since last I played, there is no law against receiving a lot of mail, thus I have committed no crime."

"But there is a law against purposefully obstructing a business's work!"

"It was not on purpose!"

"Yeah, yeah," he growled, pointing his spear at me. "It doesn't matter what you say—we've got our orders."

I shoved the Odd Squad's scroll at him. "How do I know the signatures on this haven't been forged?"

"I PMed Prince, Al," Dib softly cut in. "He said it's from them."

Several seconds passed by as this information sank in, filling me with a cold sense of realization. No wonder the charge against me had seemed so ridiculous; this wasn't about the mail at all. Prince must have been pressured by someone to expel me for what the "other Aeolus" had done, and had changed his mind. It had seemed far too simple when he'd pardoned me, and now my fears were being proven correct.

Well, perhaps being a city lord was more important to Prince than being a friend. If we could even be called friends. I had assumed the Odd Squad and I were on friendly terms, but obviously I was mistaken. The disappointment brought by this discovery hurt more than getting shot.

Lowering the scroll, I slowly inhaled and looked at Dib. "What does Gui Wen have to say of this matter? His signature, at least, is not on this."

"I PMed him too, but he's not replying."

"And our team?"

"They said to leave the city for now, and they'll talk to the Odd Squad."

Forcing my voice to stay level, I turned back to the guards. "May I speak to my brother before I leave?"

"We were told to escort you out immediately," he gruffly replied, narrowing his eyes. His armored gloves scraped against the wooden pole of his spear as he tightened his grip and poked the sharp tip a bit closer to my exposed torso. "In any way we need to."

"I assure you that impaling me will not be necessary," I coolly told him, slapping away the spearhead and turning east, toward the nearest gate. The guards let out several surprised noises at my abrupt action, but thankfully no one attempted to attack me from behind as I walked away. Dib, looking worried, trailed along at my side.

Somehow, I managed to keep my silence until we had made it out the gate, then I left the road for the grass and glanced back at the city, where the group of guards were still watching. The bitter anger made me feel hot and cold all over. "I should have known they weren't really going to let me stay after what happened."

"Al, that wasn't your fault, and they know it," Dib chided, gently taking my head in his hands and kissing my forehead. "If anyone should be thrown outta the city, it should be that idiot, Lolidragon."

"Politics," I sourly pointed out. "It would be much messier to banish a prominent city leader than a far lesser-known family member, who has been recently accused of terrorizing the city. They even had the gall to throw you out as well, though you did nothing! I suppose they justified it by labeling you as an accomplice to my dastardly crime against the post office."

"There has to be something else behind this; it's a stupid charge, even for those maniacs, and we both know them well enough to know they aren't the sort of people who'd do something like this for no good reason. Wei Bo and the others will talk to them, and everything will be fine again."

"And if it's not?"

Dib smiled and gave my forehead another kiss. "Then we'll live in the wilderness like we did when we first started playing together."

"Back then we were both able to logout at night. Now I'll be completely at the mercy of anyone or anything passing by while I sleep." Sighing, I turned away from the gate and continued through the long grass. Tying the top of that bag of mail shut, I squashed the whole thing into my misleadingly small pouch for safe keeping and easier travel. After removing my cloak and putting it away, I carefully closed the top of my pouch, jumping slightly when Brushy, complete with all three triplets on her back, bounded past Dib and I, squeaking excitedly.

"We're still going to train?"

"Yeah. We're headed to a foresty area, so we could build you a little tree house or something," Dib suggested brightly. "Just in case we'll be stuck out here for a while, it'd be good to have a base."

"I suppose." Longing surged through me as my nest in Ebonwood immediately entered my mind, but I tried to ignore the nagging want to go back there and instead followed Dib when he took flight, although I was aggravated enough to turn around and fight my way into the castle, to interrogate that double-crossing Prince and his team of morons.

We traveled east, quickly losing sight of Infinite City as we passed over long, bright green stretches of empty plains with splashes of colorful flowers dotting the long grass, gray rivers and creeks cutting through the ground, and the occasional forest, most too thick to see through. Many times we stopped to fight off various aggressive mobs that had caught sight of us as we went by, other times we made a game of escaping whatever was in pursuit.

After close to an hour and a quarter had gone by, we stopped at a forest of widely-spaced, dizzyingly tall beech trees, with a scattering of oaks, maples, birches, and infrequent pines. The uneven ground was covered in fallen dead wood, large clumps of dense underbrush, scraggly bits of grass, with a few huge, mossy boulders half-buried in the red dirt. Here and there, enormous brown bears—our prey, I assumed—loped clumsily through the tree trunks. Dib and I landed in one of the towering beeches and watched as Brushy nimbly skipped from branch to branch as she ascended toward us with the triplets on her back. Steadying myself as the tree swayed slightly from the wind and my teammates' movement, I scanned the ground, quickly spotting a game trail winding along on the ground far below. Making a mental note of its location, I straightened and turned back to the others.

The four had their map out again, and Cay was tapping his finger on different parts of the forest, which had been drawn on with red ink to divide it up into five pieces. While they discussed which monsters they wanted to fight—cougars to the north, eagles to the east, bears in the western area where we were currently located, wolves to the south, and giant ant tunnels in the center—I took a deep breath of the moist, earthy air and admired the scenery. Although I was still angry, being in a forest again was very soothing. Perhaps living out here wouldn't be so bad after all, I thought, smiling faintly as a sparrow darted past, chirping shrilly. The trees were tall and strong, and a small tree house would be easy to hide in one of the larger oaks or pines, and I had no doubt that insects and large game would be plentiful.

"CHA-A-A-ARGE!"

Jumping in surprise at the loud yell, I turned to see Cay, Dib, and Brushy throwing themselves off the tree branch and landing on a lower one. With a dry crack, it broke from the force of their combined impact. Sighing while they fell, screaming, to the ground—why did this idiotic situation feel so familiar?—I looked at Hai and Oli, who were both calmly getting out their weapons and laughing at our fallen teammates. After a loud landing, a somewhat weak call of "We're okay," floated up to us, quickly followed by a raw, harsh bellow of a bear.

"Why is barreling in head first always our battle strategy?" Oli wondered quietly, rolling his pale green eyes as he sat himself down on the branch and loaded a bolt into his crossbow. Trying to hide my smile of amusement, I sat down too and summoned my shadow bow. While the two warriors and Brushy romped around on the ground, filling a circular area below our tree with bear corpses, Hai, Oli and I, somewhat lazily, drew other bears into the fight.

Other than a few comments here and there, our silence wasn't broken until quite a while later. "Congrats on your engagement," Oli said, loading another bolt.

"Yeah, congrats," Hai echoed.

Startled, I glanced at them in slight fear. Neither of them seemed to be mad, so I looked away again. "Thank you…When did you find out?" I should have taken the ring off after all.

Both of them laughed. "Dàgē told us over and over and over this past year that he was gonna propose ASAP," Hai explained, shaking his head. "Last night when we got back from Ebonwood, he screamed at all of us over the team chat to leave you two alone for a while so he could finally pop the question."

Hearing this, my face began to grow hot; I was both embarrassed and a bit annoyed, having wanted to participate in making the announcement.

That loudmouthed, impatient brat.

"I see," I mumbled, pressing my lips together. Leaning forward, I waved a hand as Dib, who was singing something that sounded like "Skipping through the bears! La-la-la, la-la!" while waving both his swords at me, and, of course, skipping across the bloody ground. I thought about calling him an idiot over the messaging system, but was distracted by the arrival of a male cardinal on the tree branch. He cheeped a greeting at me, tilting his head from side to side, then he hopped closer and plopped himself down on my right leg. Carefully scratching him on the head with one of my claws, I looked back at the pair of brothers seated beside me.

"Perhaps this is an…odd question, but, um…" I took a deep breath, feeling my face warm again, and looked back at the cardinal, who had fluffed up his bright red feathers and had his eyes closed, looking like he was extremely comfortable. "Does it bother you?" I eventually managed to ask. "The marriage, I mean."

"No," Oli answered quickly. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but it had come a little too quickly. I glanced at him, wondering if that had been a lie. He kept his eyes locked on the ground, and Hai continued in his place. "We knew he'd get married eventually. Dàgē's been saying for years that he wants to marry you. We had a lot of time to get used to the idea."

"We used to really hate you," Oli admitted with a faint laugh, and my stomach abruptly dropped. Another bird landed nearby—this time a sparrow—but I attempted to ignore it as it hopped in my direction, chirping energetically. "Oh, but we don't now," he added, giving me a glance, one that turned somewhat confused when he noticed the pair of birds sitting on me. "It was a long time ago, when you guys were in college. Dàgē used to come home from class all depressed 'cause you ignored him, the big dope, and we'd get so-o-o mad at you."

"I—I'm sorry," I hesitantly replied, feeling extremely embarrassed for how coldly I'd behaved. "I was quite stupid back then." Still was, for that matter.

"Dàgē's happy now, so whatever. We forgive you."

"Yep," Hai agreed, smiling.

Something hit me on the head, scaring me slightly. I looked up and found myself staring at an upside-down bird face. Furrowing my eyebrows, I let go of my bow and it vanished, then I lifted my hand and gently took the bird off my head—another cardinal, this one a female, perhaps the male's mate—and set it on my lap with the other two, hoping none of them were going to poop on me, and wondering why I was attracting them in the first place.

"That's an enormous relief, thank you."

Hai let out an amused snort. "Thank _you _for taking the big doofus. I dunno how you put up with him, so good luck." Oli let out a laugh, and they both slipped into an argument over which of Dib's many stupid moments was his stupidest. Listening to story after story, I smiled and laughed along with them, all the while petting my new-found friends, who had been joined by three more sparrows.

I became increasingly relaxed as our training time continued, but the humorous conversation came to an abrupt halt when Oli gave me an annoyed frown. "I don't care if you wanna make yourself a bird posse, but could you do it somewhere else?"

Widening my eyes, I looked down. While we'd been talking, so many birds had arrived that they couldn't fit on my lap anymore, and had overflowed to my wings, head, shoulders, the branch, and even the boys. "Are they in your way?" I asked, very reluctant to make them leave. They were all so cute and fluffy, I wanted to keep sitting with them, preening their tiny feathers and scratching their tiny heads.

With a tired sigh, Oli held up his crossbow, which had a starling perched on the end. The bird flapped its wings irritably at the sudden movement. Sheepishly taking the bird off his weapon, I nodded. "I'll take them somewhere else. Sorry."

"Thanks," Hai mumbled, attempting to shrug a very fat pigeon off his cloak.

Chirping at the birds, I slowly, carefully stood up and spread my wings, waiting until all of the birds on me had taken flight. Since I didn't control these as I did Ebonwood's crows, it took quite a bit of persuasion, but I eventually managed to get them all to leave the tree, and I followed after them, letting myself drop to the ground, out of the area where Dib, Cay, and Brushy were killing bears. **"I'm going for a walk,"** I warned Dib, then set off down that game trail I'd spotted earlier. Some of the birds flew after me, several once again landing on my shoulders and head, playfully nipping at the points of my ears and tweeting loudly.

Barely hearing Dib's reply of **"Wait for me, I'm coming, too!"** I slowly strode down the narrow, twisty path, feeling a bit put-out for being ejected from the tree. However, I didn't want to interfere with their training—training wasn't even necessary for me now, as my new avatar's set of stats had been set to fixed numbers—and also taking a walk by myself through the woods sounded kind of nice. Another way to help me relax after what happened at the city. The bears had no interest in attacking me, so I was allowed to continue completely uninterrupted.

Until I walked by one of the enormous boulders and was roughly yanked sideways.

With indignant and slightly frightened cheeps, the birds fell off me as the world went dark. The earthy, moist air became somewhat cold, and was filled with the unexpected scents of people and…pizza. Quiet and gentle gusts of wind and animal noises were replaced by rock music, crashes, and countless voices. After a few moments of blinking, my eyes adjusted slightly to the dimness of the room, and I looked around in extreme bewilderment and fear. I was in some sort of restaurant. There was a rowdy crowd jumping up and down and singing on top of picnic tables and couches, people serving pizza and punch…an aurora twisting and glowing on the ceiling, not quite covering up the broken and haggard-looking stump where a light had obviously used to hang…

Where the hell…

"Why are you not wearing a shirt, Laoshi?"

Jumping in surprise, I quickly turned around. But the moment I saw who had yanked me into this crazy place, all of the bewilderment and fear disappeared into warm happiness. Letting the bright surge take over, I automatically smiled, quickly forgetting all of my anger and annoyance from what had happened at the city. None of that mattered now that she was here. Simply being in her presence filled me with unspeakable joy.

Windy stared up at me, a slightly confused look on her face. She was dressed in a beautiful moss-green hooded cloak, which matched the camouflaged military helmet on her head, with tree branches attached to either side. Horizontal stripes of black paint, one under each eye, completed her new outfit. She looked stunning, as always.

Suddenly remembering she had asked me a question, I inhaled and fluffed out my feathers. "I don't have one now," I answered, embarrassed to be seen by her in such an improper state, only wearing pants and boots; at least I had done my hair before leaving the city. As fast as I could, I pulled my cloak out of my pouch and wrapped it around myself, praying that none of the birds had pooped on me. "I apologize for my appearance."

She blinked slowly, then shrugged. "It's okay," she assured with a smile. Relief washed over me. "You seem to be in such a good mood. I'm glad." I smiled a bit wider, happy she was happy, especially since I was the reason. A loud crash interrupted my extreme delight. "Sorry about the mess."

I glanced behind myself, attempting to decide what was going on and who all of these people were. They all seemed to be having quite a good time. A very loud good time. Turning back to Windy, I felt the corners of my mouth go up again when she came into view. "I don't mind. What is this place?" The very unexpected arrival of Windy had distracted me for a moment, but it had finally occurred to me that there had been no giant party room in the forest.

A faint blush crept across her cheeks. "Oh, here? Well, this is…one of the many hidden locations in the game you can see and enter once you fulfill certain requirements."

My eyes widened slightly at her explanation. She must have done some sort of extremely difficult quest to gain access to such an exclusive feature of _Second Life_. She was a very high level, skilled with a sword, and was also highly intelligent, so she had probably already breezed through many of _Second Life_'s top level quests. How amazing.

Although sleeping in the forest seemed rather pleasant, a hidden place would be extremely beneficial as well. Not this particular place, which was far too rowdy to do anything remotely resembling sleeping, but perhaps Windy knew of somewhere else nearby in which I could stay during my hopefully temporary banishment.

I was about to ask when another crash from behind me cut me off. Stepping to one side of the door through which Windy had taken me, I turned around and pressed my back to the wall, to be able to keep an eye on the room, just in case someone threw something. "Have I interrupted a celebration?" I hesitantly inquired, then gave her a glance. A costume party, perhaps…?

"Something like that." She sighed in an annoyed way. "That over there"—she pointed at the crowd—"was my attempt at getting an army, to help me with…something. But it seems that bringing in guys from the band to help was not my best move." She gestured to her cloak. "We were supposed to engage in a low-profile operation, to attack the fangirls' base, thus the camouflage clothing."

"That's so brave," I breathed, surprised that she was planning such an attack. Knowing what Prince's fangirls were like, attacking an entire base of them sounded terrifyingly horrific. But she was courageous enough to stand up to them.

"I see that you have a lot of people already, but do you need any help?" I asked anxiously, eager to be of assistance. "Half my…my team…" I paused a moment, remembering I had left my teammates outside, and slowly realizing that Dib was PMing me, sounding worried. Ignoring him for the time being, I refocused my attention on Windy. "Half my team came with me to, um, train in the forest." I kept the main reason we were here to myself, too ashamed to admit I had been thrown out of Infinite City.

Windy began to laugh. I didn't know what was funny, but I smiled again at the happy sound. However, my smile faded somewhat when she shook her head. "I think you have already ruffled their feathers enough for a lifetime. After you stole Prince's throne, they looked like they were ready to corpse-camp you."

Having completely forgotten about that little incident, worry smacked me in the face. Were they going to track me down and kill me? Were they the ones behind my banishment after all? I had to warn my teammates.

"They won't attack you," Windy quickly added. I blinked and sighed faintly with relief. "I took care of it. I had to lie a little, but I managed to redirect their anger. I assure you they won't be bothering you or your teammates anymore."

My mood was once again dampened slightly at her refusal of my help, but I supposed she was right. The mere sight of me would only make the maniacs that much more riled up, and I'd had far more than my share of riled-up fangirls chasing after me with murderous intent. However, knowing that Windy had declined to keep me safe, and had also stopped them from coming after me already, I felt quite a bit better regardless.

With a swell of admiration for her, I smiled again. "Well, we will be staying here for several nights at least, so if you do need help, please tell us." Perhaps I would be able to convince some of the forest's birds to follow her and help, if possible.

"Laoshi," she said, then paused. I expectantly stared at her, waiting for her to continue. "Well, it's about why I pulled you in here. You see, I–" Abruptly halting, she looked away from me, her face becoming somewhat panicked as she ran her eyes over the room. Without an explanation, she dashed forward and forced her way through the people.

I watched as she disappeared behind the mass of bodies and wondered if something had happened. The raucous crowd hadn't calmed at all, so I wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest if someone had been hurt. Dib was still PMing me, so I took the lull in the conversation as opportunity to reply. **"Leave me alone, I'm busy,"** I huffed, cutting into his almost-ceaseless inquiries about my location, which had been growing more and more frantic. I slowly walked forward, just in case Windy needed my assistance.

**"GEEZE! WHY HAVEN'T YOU BEEN ANSWERING, STUPID?!"** he yelled, the anger in his voice not hiding his relief.

**"I said I'm busy!"** I repeated, but my irritation with him started to falter, as did my steps. Stopping by the edge of the crowd, I blinked, a somewhat confused feeling falling over me, as if I'd just woken up from a dream. Looking around the loud room, I attempted to remember why it was I hadn't left yet. Why the hell did I care what the crazed Windy and her army of idiots was doing?

**"Busy where? I can't find you!"**

**"I was…I don't know where I am,"** I told him, then turned around and walked back to the door. Although I very much wanted to leave, I didn't; it would be rude of me to go without telling Windy first. Dib could wait a few more minutes.

**"Did you leave the trail?"**

**"No. Well, yes…I don't know. I think I'm still in the forest. Maybe."** Drawing my eyebrows together in frustration, I looked over my shoulder. Windy was coming back. Giving a quick **"I'll tell you later. I'm busy right now,"** to Dib, I hurried forward to meet her, my smile automatically returning. "Is everything alright?" I asked, feeling somewhat anxious.

"It is now," she replied. In her cupped hands she held a tiny fairy, who looked like he'd just gone swimming in one of the bowls of punch. She pressed one finger to his chest, and he began to cough, streams of purple liquid dripping out of his mouth.

"What hit me?" he asked, wheezing somewhat as he pulled the smallest bottle I'd ever seen out of his pouch and uncorked it, talking a long gulp of the red health potion inside. His crumpled wings immediately straightened and the disoriented look on his face vanished. Putting the potion away, he tilted his head back to stare up at me, blinking in a confused way.

"This is Min Zian," Windy introduced. "He goes by Aeolus in-game, though."

The fairy waved and hand, amiably greeting, "Hi," as he shifted into a more comfortable position.

The smile on my face helped me mask my horror of meeting another of Windy's friends. After all of the trouble Starlight had brought me, I had become paranoid that everyone with whom Windy associated was insane in one way or another, this tiny fairy most likely being no different. Praying my voice was light and friendly, I gave a polite nod to the teeny-tiny, soggy person sitting on her palm. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Whoever he was…Most likely a player rather than an NPC pet, and someone she knew in real life; there would have been no point to giving him my real name if they weren't close.

"Puck," he replied, standing up. "You can call me that in-game. Although, obviously, my real name is not that." Chuckling for a moment, he held out one of his hands. "Long Lien, CEO of Lotus. I think it's a given that my daughter has mentioned you a couple times in the past, and, honestly, it is quite nice to finally meet you at last, Mr. Min…I would have preferred that we met when I was not drenched." He used his other hand to scratch the back of his neck. "I…sort of got hit by something and was sent flying into a bowl of punch. I'm not sure what hit me, though."

I didn't know how I was supposed to react to hearing that the itty bitty fairy dripping with purple punch was actually the highly-respected, calm, and over-protective Long Lien. Initially, I had been extremely surprised, but that had been very brief; if _Second Life_ had taught me one thing, it was that people were often quite different than how they behaved in real life. Still, this was one of the last places I would have expected to meet him.

So, regardless of my surprise, the businessman part of me kept my smile on. Raising a hand, I hesitated slightly as I wondered how I was supposed to shake the hand of a man who looked as though even a gentle grip would crush his minuscule bones, but managed to overcome my fear of squishing the fairy's fingers and shook his hand as carefully as I could. "It is a wonder and a relief that you weren't hurt," I replied, glad that he didn't wince when I touched him. He was important to Windy, therefore he was important to me as well. Quickly pulling my handkerchief out of my pouch, I held the clean white cloth out to him. "If you'd like, please use this to dry yourself."

"Oh, thanks. That's quite considerate of you." He took the handkerchief and began to dry himself. "When my daughter"—he gave her a reproachful glance—"dropped by your hospital room, Jiao seemed to have a good impression of you after that talk you had, which is a rare occurrence, since my daughter has a penchant for befriending troublesome people." He paused and looked over himself, no longer dripping punch, but still slightly stained purple.

"Jiao-jie doesn't like any of my friends. Except you, that is," Windy continued. "She was quite happy after she talked with you and demanded I stopped befriending weird people, since I seemingly had the ability to befriend normal ones." She laughed bitterly. "She doesn't approve of my boyfriend, either."

I was immediately struck with a feeling of guilt, as if I'd lied; Jiao had wanted her to stop befriending weird people, and yet she had befriended me. I couldn't think of even one normal thing about me. I was so messed up, I definitely didn't deserve to be her friend.

However, that guilt was abruptly gone and replaced by an extremely powerful wave of protectiveness. "She doesn't approve of your boyfriend?" I echoed. Jiao had seemed sane, so Windy's boyfriend must have some sort of reason for making Jiao uncomfortable.

"Why not? Did Starlight introduce you? Is he mean? He doesn't hit you, does he?! I know it's hard to talk about it, but if he's abusive then you need to stop him before it gets worse! WHERE IS HE?! I'LL STOP HIM!" At some point I had stepped forward and taken Windy by the shoulders, frantically wanting to help her, but then I realized she hadn't said _why_ Jiao didn't approve. "He isn't, is he?" I asked, suspicious. After having been trapped in an abusive relationship with my father for my whole life, I could think of nothing worse. And, as bad as it made me feel to think, Windy hadn't ever seemed to be all there in the head, so perhaps she thought aggression was a form of affection. If that was the case, I had to intervene. Even if she loved him, if he didn't treat her right then I was going to dismember him, chop him into tiny bits, and feed him to my crows.

Now that I was on the other end of this sort of situation, I felt somewhat stupid for thinking Dib had overreacted every time he'd gotten angry at my father. I would have to apologize to him later.

But not right now.

Windy's eyes had gone wide at my outburst, and her mouth wordlessly opened and closed.

Someone behind me roughly pulled me away from her. Looking behind myself in surprise, I lifted an eyebrow at the person who had interrupted. One of the Lin's maids—Erin was her name, if I was remembering correctly—stared angrily back at me. "Don't worry. If he were to try something like that, he would be dead already. Also, I would appreciate it if you took your hands off the kid before you get seriously hurt."

The whole room had gone completely silent as Erin spoke, making my ears ring. I had no idea whatsoever why she was so mad at me, but before I could ask, her face went pale. "Mr. Min!" she exclaimed, straightening herself and looking like she always had before, except for the camo gear she had donned. Windy looked much better in it, I thought, very annoyed that Erin had interrupted our conversation.

"Hello," I distractedly greeted, then turned back to Windy and bowed low, desperate to excuse myself for thinking such awful things about someone important to her. "I apologize for being so terribly impolite. I suppose your relationship with your boyfriend is none of my business."

Windy was silent for a moment, and prickly nervousness crawled over my skin, making me sweat slightly as I waited for her to say something. "It's okay," she finally assured, so I slowly straightened myself, but continued to keep on my apologetic expression. "I'm not particularly happy to hear people badmouth my future husband"—she glanced at Puck—"but…that's not important right now. I was actually wanting to invite you to my wedding, and I would have already if I hadn't needed to rescue my dad from the bowl of punch…Anyway, to answer your previous question, Jiao-jie doesn't like my boyfriend because he–"

"He is not worthy!" Puck hotly interrupted. "There is no man in the whole world worthy of my daughter's hand!"

"It's up to me to decide if he is worthy of me or not," Windy huffed. "But that's not the point. The point is that Jiao doesn't like him because she doesn't like many people, and let's leave it at that." I gave a few slow nods as she continued. "Oh, and…if you want to bring your boyfriend as your plus one to the wedding, you can do just so. Just let me know beforehand to add the name to the list of guests."

I came very close to happily blurting that Dib was my fiancée now, but I kept it secret; the big idiot may have told our entire team about our engagement without my knowing, but I supposed I'd let him be around for any future announcements. "I would love to come," I answered, smiling again. Dib, on the other hand…He had gone silent at some point, which was probably not a good sign. "As for Dib, I suppose I should be getting back to him. If you'd like to invite him yourself, he should be right outside."

"I didn't know he was around…" Windy's voice trailed off, and she looked down at herself.

**"I'm coming back now,"** I informed Dib. **"Go to the first boulder you see on the game trail by where we were training."**

He sent me a very sulky **"Hmph."**

Assuming he'd be there, I looked back to Windy as she announced, "I'm getting married as Long Zhuo Xia, not as Alice. Don't mix that up." She began to remove the camouflage gear for some reason, revealing a pale blue dress she'd been wearing underneath, and I nodded, remembering Jiao's warning during that phone call in the hospital, that Alice Meng was a secret. A secret I would keep forever and ever.

"Let's go," Windy said, after she'd finished wiping the black stripes off her face. "It would be highly impolite to make the br—your boyfriend wait any longer," she quickly corrected herself, though I'd still noticed what she'd been about to say.

I nodded again and opened my mouth to agree, but a faint, muffled yell came from somewhere on the floor. Looking down, I searched about for a moment, wondering what had made the noise, and soon noticed that Windy's green cloak, which she had thrown at the wall, was wiggling. Quickly glancing up at Windy, I felt my face warm with amusement as I saw Puck had disappeared. He eventually forced his way out of the thick fabric, looking indignant as he flew up and landed on Windy's shoulder. "I'm coming, too!" he declared. "I'm not letting you go out in the open with the enemy so close by."

Oh, right. The fangirls. I'd forgotten about them.

Windy nodded, had one of her usual space-out moments I was so used to seeing, was snapped out of it when Puck poked her neck, then she gestured toward the door. "After you."

Feeling horrified at the thought of being ungentlemanly and going through a door before a lady, especially such an important lady, I hastily stepped forward and held it open for her. Blindingly bright sunlight poured in through the opening, splashing a large yellow rectangle onto the dark floor. "No, please, after you."

Obviously annoyed, she pointed out, "Don't you think your boyfriend would be happier if you came out first instead of someone he doesn't know? 'Specially if that someone is me, of all people?"

I glanced between her, the hand she had lifted to shoo me out, and the open door. I didn't even want to leave, really, but doing so in a rude manner was worse. All of the times my father had told me to be on my best behavior around important people were screaming in my head. I had an urge to ask her if she was quite sure if it was okay that I went first, simply to stall for more time, but finally went through the door, wincing as the sunlight once again beat down on me.

Dib was sitting in the dirt several paces to the right of the magical boulder, his arms crossed and an extremely pouty frown on his face.

Perhaps I should have come back out sooner…

He looked slightly startled to see all of us come out of a rock, but quickly returned to looking as grumpy as could be.

"I'm back," I meekly announced, trying to smile apologetically.

"Have a nice walk?" he growled, narrowing his eyes. I was about to tell him I hadn't even gone on a walk yet, but he looked at Windy and demanded, "Who're you?"

"Windy," she answered impassively. "And you are…?"

Dib's face went from pouty to surprised to annoyed in less than a second, and he shoved himself off the ground. "Don't play dumb," he ordered, stomping forward and grabbing my arm. "You know who I am."

"Stop being so rude!" I scolded, yanking my arm out of his grip and feeling horrified by his embarrassing behavior.

"Rude?!" he angrily repeated. "Says the person who just ignored all my messages!"

"I told you that I was busy!" I reminded hotly. "Windy and I were having a very important conversation!"

"Oh yeah?! What was so important about it?!"

"None of your business!" I childishly retorted simply in a want to get on his nerves, and crossed my arms.

"Bu-bu—You!" He halted in his sputtery words and took hold of my arm again, loudly telling Windy and Puck in an exaggeratedly polite tone, "Excuse us for a moment, PUH-LEEZE! **Now, get over here, you jerk!"** Dib snapped over the messaging system, forcefully dragging me further down the game trail, away from Windy. Leaving her side was the last thing I ever wanted to do, so I dug the heels of my boots into the ground and fought to go back, yelling at him to let go immediately. But he was stronger and continued to take me farther and farther away. **"What the hell is wrong with you?!"**

**"Nothing!"** I huffed, still fighting against his grip.

**"Since when does talking to ****_her_**** mean you're too busy to do anything else?!"**

**"Since always!"**

Dib stopped us once we were behind a large tree, and gave me a hurt, disbelieving expression. **"This trip was really, really important to me…I hoped you and my brothers would hang out and get to know each other, but we'd been here barely ten minutes before you ran off with **_**Windy**_**! And dammit, with how much you always complain about her, why the fuck would you want to be with her instead of us?!"**

That dizzy, just-woke-up feeling filled me again. Blinking in confusion, I shook my head and answered honestly. **"I don't know."** I had no idea at all why I'd wanted so badly to spend time with her.

The expression on his face became worse. **"If you didn't wanna come with us, you shoulda just told me."**

**"I wanted to come! Tonight was important to me, too! And I really don't know!"** I denied, shaking my head again. Quickly grabbing his hand, afraid he was going to walk away, I tried to come up with some sort of explanation for my bizarre, stupid behavior. **"It…it was like,"** I weakly began, **"when you were small and could make people do whatever you wanted. I…I don't…I only meant to go for a walk…to find a tree to build a nest in…and I don't know what happened!"**

**"She used a special attack on you?"** he demanded, looking even angrier.

**"I don't know!"** I repeated for what felt like the millionth time. **"I was just walking, and then she pulled me into a rock, and…and then I didn't care about anything else. I'm sorry,"** I pleaded, stepping closer so I could hug him. His cold armor dug into my skin. **"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry."**

**"Okay, okay, I get it,"** he huffed, hugging me in return. **"Sorry for getting mad. Shoulda known Windy was doing something weird again."**

With a very annoyed frown, he said, **"Stay behind me,"** and turned around, stomping down the path, back to where we'd left Windy and Puck. Cautiously following him, I kept my eyes locked on the exposed patch of his feathery shoulder, afraid even looking at Windy would trigger the Stupid again. Dib let out a "Hey!" and stopped what I hoped was a safe distance away from the pair. "Whatever kinda hocus-pocus you're using on Al, quit it!"

"Huh?" came Windy's reply. "I don't know what this 'hocus-pocus' or whatever you are talking about might be, so if you would be so kind to explain what I'm being accused of?" Her tone was dripping with feigned courtesy.

"Don't 'huh' me!" he snapped. "I dunno why you're doing it, and I don't wanna know, so take your stupid fairy and go back in your stupid rock and leave him alone!"

I was absolutely sure my mind was clear, but I still felt utterly mortified by how rude he was being. I had no idea how I was going to apologize, not to Windy and Puck, but to Long Zhuo Xia and Long Lien. Whatever had happened, this was no way to treat such important people.

"Dib," I shakily began, hoping to stop him before he could make them any angrier, but I was interrupted when a very familiar flash of gray fuzziness bounced past, squealing happily. Dib let out a scared-sounding cry and stumbled to one side, watching with me as Brushy Butt hopped toward Windy and Puck.

Irritated yells of "Come back!" and three pairs of loud footsteps ran up behind us.

Cold dread filled my stomach when I imagined Brushy grabbing Windy just like she always had Dib when he had been small, affectionately licking her all over and most likely eating Puck by accident in the process. Shoving Dib out of my way, I ran forward to stop the giant squirrel. Leaping into the air, I jumped onto Brushy's back and yanked on her round little ears in an attempt to steer her away from Windy. "Run! She's going to hug you!" I anxiously yelled over Brushy's happy squeaks of "What a pretty la-a-a-ady!"

My heart almost stopped when she gave one last leap, sailing right toward Windy. A sudden cloud of golden dust blasted at us, and Brushy froze in midair, floating in place.

"Nobody lays a hand on my daughter on my watch!" Puck exclaimed, pointing a tiny needle of a sword in our direction.

Windy stared indifferently up at me. "You were saying?"

Sliding off the squirrel's back, I hurried up to Windy, relieved. "I'm so sorry for her behavior!" I hastily told her, bowing anxiously. "Brushy is very…cuddly. I was afraid she might hurt you both. Are you alright?"

"He-e-e-elp!" Brushy squawked, and I looked up at her. She was waving all four of her legs back and forth, as if attempting to swim, but regardless of her efforts she wasn't going anywhere. "I can't get down! MASTER, HELP ME! I'M STUCK!"

While she continued to wail about how much she wanted to get down and hug Windy, the triplets finally caught up, breathing heavily from their run down the trail. They began asking inquiries about what was going on, but Dib drowned them out with a huffy order of "Get back here, Al! Right now!" as he stomped toward me.

"WATCH OUT!"

I let out a surprised yelp when Windy abruptly shoved me. The back of my head slammed into Dib's chest, and all three of us fell down just as a red couch came out of nowhere and went zooming past overhead, nearly hitting Brushy. There was a loud, splintery sound, then the couch landed nearby with many thuds and crunches and snaps. Brushy was still begging for help. The triplets were all talking. Windy was yelling something. A headache began pounding through my skull. I vaguely noticed that Windy had jumped to her feet and was hurrying out of sight while Dib scrambled out from under me, grabbed me by the arms, and dragged me back to where we'd been standing before.

Yanking me upright, Dib began unhelpfully shaking me back and forth. "AL, ARE YOU OKAY?! SPEAK TO ME! DON'T DIE, YOU JERK!"

"I just need a health potion," I weakly informed, too dizzy to make him quit. Thankfully, he gave me a potion rather than continuing to panic, and I took a drink, sighing with relief when the pain in my head disappeared. Handing the remainder back to him, I automatically turned to look at Windy—she was by the fallen couch, which had been thrown so hard that it had broken a tree—but then forced myself to look away, not wanting to be trapped by the Stupid again.

"Thank you for pushing me out of the way, Windy," I told her, staring in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, thanks," Dib gruffly echoed.

"Are you and your father okay?"

"I'm fine," Windy replied.

"That hurt," Puck complained.

Windy mumbled something I couldn't understand, but, feeling all too ready to escape from this forest—and her—I didn't ask her to repeat herself. I wouldn't have had a chance anyway; not two seconds afterward, some man in filthy camouflage clothing had appeared by the boulder. "I found the couch!" he cheered, then his gaze moved slightly to one side. "Babe!"

Babe?

My eyes widened.

This couch-throwing, smudgy-faced hooligan with a slice of pizza stuck to his helmet was Windy's fiancée?

I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before, but couldn't remember where.

All at once, Dib and the triplets let out a collective "O-o-o-oh!" sound of awe and surprise.

"Huan Dayfyd Huan!" Cay yelled, excitedly punching both of the other triplets on their shoulders.

**"Who's that?"** I mumbled at Dib through a PM, raising an eyebrow. Where had I heard that name…?

**"He's a super-famous rock star, stupid!"**

The man's identity finally clicked into place—he was one of many musicians who decorated the walls of Mei Rong's bedroom. I hadn't cared much about her extensive band poster collection before, although Delun had always been quite vocal about how he didn't approve of his little sister sticking flashy-looking men all over the place, but the thought that she had Windy the Maniac's husband-to-be hanging on her wall felt somewhat weird.

Then again, my own brother was on her wall, posing flamboyantly with the rest of the Infinite City Band, which probably should have been even weirder…

Cay ran forward. "May I have your autograph?!"

"Who are those other people, Dàgē?" Hai asked, inching toward Dib and I.

"Will someone please get my squirrel down?" Oli looked very annoyed and pointed a hand at Brushy, who was still floating above our heads. She had given up on trying to swim to the ground, and her feet and tail dangled limply downward. Large, miserable tears were streaming from her bulging, black eyes.

Dib was no longer paying attention to any of us. "Windy, I said quit doing weird stuff to Al!" he commanded, pulling me around behind himself again.

"As I said already," Windy replied, "I didn't do anything to him. Besides, I think you still owe me an introduction, since I don't know who you are." After she shot a glare at Dib, she turned to Hai and extended one hand. "Long Zhuo Xia, and this"—she gestured toward Puck—"is my father, Long Lien."

Hai nodded and smiled politely, reaching out his own hand to shake hers. "Oh. I'm Shi San, nice to meet–"

Dib abruptly leaned forward and karate-chopped their hands apart. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!" he yelled, then grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me toward Windy, keeping his grip tight. "AND IF YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO HIM, WHY'S HE ACTING STUPID?!"

Being near Windy made a huge grin of happiness sprout on my face, and I wanted nothing more than to be near her forever and ever. However, all that disappeared when Dib yanked me backward, out of range of the Stupid. As always, I was left feeling light-headed and confused.

"My squirrel is still floating," Oli reminded, looking from person to person.

"How should I know?" Windy asked irritably. "Mr. Whoever, I don't know why you assume I would have even the fainted interest in making him act like he is right now." Suddenly, Windy stepped closer to us, and I accidentally looked at her again. I smiled happily yet again and was filled with the urge to shove Dib away, so I could hurry forward and stand by her, and introduce myself to that Huan fellow, and perhaps catch some delicious crickets to give them, and then–

Windy jumped backward and my mind slowly cleared of the Stupid.

…And then she moved forward again. And back…and forward…and back…

My head was starting to ache from the roller coaster of emotions uncontrollably swooping through me. Thankfully, Dib snapped, "Stop that!" and pulled me behind himself again, blocking her from view and keeping the Stupid from effecting me anymore. Unsettled by the situation, I desperately wanted to fly away and never get anywhere near her again, but forced myself to stay put until I'd had the chance to excuse myself.

"Well, that's odd," Windy observed, sounding amused at my bizarre behavior. "Seems like I am making him act strange, but I still don't know why…Maybe it's a bug?"

"I don't care what it is!" Dib growled. "Just quit it!"

"QUIT ARGUING AND GET MY SQUIRREL DOWN!" Oli bellowed. Brushy let out a whimper and began struggling again, pleading for Oli to help her back to the ground.

Dib turned to look at him, but then paused, looked at Hai, then began wildly turning his head this way and that as if searching for something. "WHERE'S YI?! THEY KIDNAPPED YI! YI-I-I-I, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

My eyes widened and I carefully peeked over Dib's shoulder guard. Cay had indeed disappeared somewhere…as had that couch-throwing, pizza-hatted rock star. They must have gone to get some paper for an autograph. "I think he–" I began, but was cut off by Dib's yell of "GIVE BACK MY BROTHER, YOU MANIACS!" as he stomped forward, glaring down at Windy and Puck.

"FORGET HIM! GET BRUSHY DOWN!" Oli yelled in return, running around to Brushy's head. He began to pull on her front paws, assuring, "I'll getcha down soon! Don't worry! San, help me!"

Hai gave a nod and hurried over to help pull on the floating squirrel, but their efforts didn't move her at all.

"I'll get down the squirrel if you can promise to keep it far from my daughter," Puck offered, crossing his tiny arms.

Leaving Brushy's plight in the hands of the fairy, I took Dib by the shoulder and dragged him several meters away, giving him a glare. **"Stop insulting Windy and Puck, or I swear I will tear your feathers out and stuff them up your nose."**

Dib gave me a bewildered frown, then wordlessly pushed me back a few more steps.

I slapped his hands off and snapped, **"Stop that! I'm already out of range of whatever the hell she's doing!"**

**"Then why are you defending her after she kidnapped Yi?!"** he demanded, his hands clenched into fists.

**"He went to get an autograph from that man."** I sighed and tried to stay patient. **"Have you been paying no attention at all to the news this past year?"**

**"What's that got to do with anything?"**

**"You would know if you had been."**

**"No, I haven't; this past year, I was kinda preoccupied,"** he replied angrily. **"With you being **_**kidnapped**_** and stuff. Pardon me for not paying much attention to the parts of the news that weren't about the search for you."**

**"Then have you forgotten whose New Years dinner party you sneaked into?"** I snapped. He still looked like he had no idea what I was talking about, so I turned him around to face the others, keeping my eyes as far away from Windy as I could. **"Allow me to reintroduce you to the dinner's host and hostess, the owners of Lotus, Long Lien and his daughter Long Zhuo Xia, who are two very important acquaintances of mine."**

Dib's face went blank, then his bright blue eyes slowly began to widen into a look of extreme surprise. After a moment of silence, he let out a faint **"Oops."**

Yanking him back around to face me, I gave him one more angry look and warned, **"Keep all future oops's to yourself. With my family's reputation in such a horrible state, I cannot afford to offend anyone, regardless of how annoying they are."**

With a small frown, Dib nodded and took my hand. **"Sorry. I'll try to be nice."**

Sighing again, I gave his hand a squeeze. **"Please try, for your own sake as much as mine. Since you and I will be married, you will be attending social events with me whenever possible, therefore you will most likely be seeing these two for years to come. Even if it's just pretend, I expect you to treat them with respect and courtesy."**

**"Yeah, okay. Do any more of your fancy-pants friends play ****_Second Life_****?"**

**"Other than the Lins?"**

Dib's eyes went wide and his mouth opened.** "The Lins play ****_Second Life_****?!" **he wonderingly asked. **"No way!"**

**"Oh, be quiet," **I huffed, lightly smacking his arm.** "I don't know of any others, although I wouldn't be surprised if there are some. They seem to be good at popping up at all the wrong times. And don't you dare call them 'fancy-pants' to their faces."**

**"Yeah, yeah. Geeze…So, is it too rude to go back over there and tell them we've gotta go?" **he asked, sounding somewhat grumpy again. **"I don't wanna play with them."**

**"Neither do I,"** I agreed, **"but Windy invited you and I to her wedding, so I need to get the details before we go, and we should invite them to our wedding as well. After that, I'd be very happy to get away from them."**

**"Someone wants to marry **_**that**_**?"** he wondered, making a face. **"Poor guy."**

**"I think it's that musician who's marrying her."**

Dib opened his mouth, inhaled, then closed it again and looked down at our hands, his eyebrows drawn together. **"Sometimes I feel so out of place. All you fancy people, famous, and rich, and talented…then there's me."**

**"You're going to be famous and rich soon enough, after we get married, and you are already very, very talented at many things,"** I pointed out, lifting myself up a bit to kiss him on the cheek. Smiling at him when he gave me a glance, I added, **"You don't need to be like them. Just be like you, and that is enough for me."**

I managed to pull a small smile out of him, and he nodded, giving me a brief kiss on the lips. **"Well, I'm me every day, so I guess there's no problem there…Over **_**there**_**, though…" **He turned and sent very annoyed look back to the others. Brushy was still floating, but she seemed to be a lot happier than she had earlier. Windy was standing near her, with her back to us. Puck was hovering nearby, his tiny wings flashing in the sunlight as they flapped rapidly to keep him afloat. Oli and Hai, who had stopped pulling on Brushy, were both smiling and blushing. **"Big problem. Big, big, big, whopping problem." **Stepping away from me, he broke into a jog and yelled, "HEY!" Sliding to a stop next to his brothers, he looked from person to person. I prayed he wasn't about to let loose an angry interrogation on Windy in the name of protecting his brothers. Thankfully, he remained calm. "What're you guys talking about?" he asked suspiciously.

"Cookies!" Brushy answered cheerily.

I followed Dib indirectly, making a wide circle around Windy. Every time I felt even the slightest bit happy, I quickly moved a little bit farther away from her and my head would clear again. I eventually stopped at the tree that had been broken by that couch, warily observing the group and trying very hard to keep myself from looking at Windy. Her blue dress was so inconveniently eye-catching in this environment of dark, earthy colors.

"Why? Suddenly sprouted an interest in a maniac's conversation?" she challenged sarcastically.

"Yes, I have an interest in it! Talking about cookies doesn't make people blush!" he growled, crossing his arms and giving his brothers stern frowns. They both looked a bit embarrassed to have been caught. "You already made Al act stupid! Quit doing it to them too!"

"The only person I have seen acting stupid here is you!" she declared. In my peripheral vision, I could see her glance at me. "And Zian," she continued. "At least Zian is not being rude in his mental lapse…But I'm pretty sure he must have them frequently; he wouldn't be dating such a rude prick otherwise!"

I was at a loss as to who I was supposed to be placating in this situation.

My fiancée? He was indeed being rude, as Windy had pointed out. However, hearing her call him a prick made me very angry.

Windy? She had every right to be angry after Dib had blurted all of those insults earlier, but she did seem to be doing something to Oli and Hai, and they certainly had no business blushing over her.

Puck? He looked very mad, probably for the same reason Windy was.

Brushy? She was still floating…

While I was still floundering around in my attempts at deciding what I was supposed to say to fix this mess, Dib ordered Oli and Hai, "You two, go back to the bears," in a steady but angry voice.

"But what about Brushy?" Oli replied quietly.

"Go," he repeated firmly, pointing a hand down the trail.

Looking very reluctant, and somewhat scared, they gave Windy and Puck small bows and murmured, "Bye," before obediently returning to where we'd been training.

"Puck," Dib called, turning toward the fairy. His blank facial expression looked very tight, as if he was fighting to keep it in place. "My teammates and I have stuff to do, so please get Brushy down."

"You are not the boss of me." Puck crossed his arms in defiance. "I don't take orders from pricks either."

"And why did you tell them to go?" Windy questioned. "Wanna stop them from seeing me kick your butt? 'Cause I'm pretty sure if we keep at it, you're going to get beaten by a girl."

"I told them to leave so you'd quit flirting with them!" Dib snapped. "Which is great behavior for a girl who's about to get married, by the way! Over here giggling away with two boys while your fiancée isn't around! I won't let your stupidity rub off on them! As for fighting, since Al thinks you two jerks are important, NO, I WON'T FIGHT YOU AGAIN! AND I DON'T WANNA GO TO YOUR WEDDING, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, AND YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT INVITED TO MINE! AND GET BRUSHY DOWN, DAMMIT, OR ELSE I'M GONNA TELL EVERYONE THAT LONG LIEN IS A SADISTIC WEIRDO WHO HAS A PERVY FETISH FOR HOLDING SQUIRRELS HOSTAGE!"

"Hostage?!" Brushy exclaimed in horror, and began struggling against Puck's spell again. "I DON'T WANNA BE A HOSTAGE! MA-A-ASTER! SAVE ME!"

"FINE!" Windy yelled. "Dad, get Brushy Butt down."

There was a brief pause, then the panicky squirrel dropped to the ground with a loud thud, her feet carrying her away with amazing speed as she screamed for Oli to wait for her. I relaxed slightly, thankful that the rodent had been able to escape at last. That made one fewer thing I had to worry about in this screwed-up situation.

I was about to thank Puck for letting her go, but Windy began talking. "So, this is all it amounts to in the end, huh?" she asked. "It seems that I was the only one thinking we were friends, eh, Mr. Min?"

I nearly looked up at her to deny her assumption, but managed to keep my eyes on the ground; it wouldn't do to have my mind clouded right now. But before I could tell her she was wrong, she continued. "You know, it seems that from the beginning it was only me who thought I meant more to you than a business partner. I decided not to act too personal, which could make you uncomfortable or make you feel like you had to share something you didn't want to…When I heard the news you had gone away I was so worried you wouldn't make it back alive, but knew that we were not close enough for me to meddle, or informed enough, so I could not put you in even more danger by being reckless. In the end I did the next best thing I could, which was to help with the airline, because I thought feeling guilty over it collapsing was not something you should be handling right after you came back. I was certain that my being there could keep at bay the enemies your father had gotten over the years, that my experience could be of help to your uncle who was taking the lead of a whole company…"

She paused for breath, the silence thick and uncomfortable, but once again it was not long enough for me to speak. "Do you know how much time I had to spend growing my own business so I had the strength to support your airline? My company, as successful as it might be, has only being around for a bit over seven years; the amount of funds that were needed was something we didn't have. Still, I went all out and focused solely on business, because helping a friend like you with all I have is the way I do things…Hell, I even had to talk with Starlight's brainwashed minions so they didn't try to kill you as soon as you got back. But, apparently I'm not worthy of anything beyond 'Don't mess with her because she has a fancy job.'"

My heart was pounding furiously as I struggled to come up with something to say to her. Certainly, business was a big part of why I hadn't wanted Dib to be his usual stupid self around her, but in no way was that the only reason. After reading all of those news articles at home, I knew how much she had helped me, and I was grateful beyond words to have a friend who would do something so risky for me. But with everything that had happened, I hadn't gotten a chance to thank her. It seemed I had an opportunity now, but I couldn't think of a way to phrase it that wouldn't give her the impression that I was saying it just to keep the peace.

"If you're trying to make us feel sorry for you, quit it!" Dib ordered, much to my horror. "We aren't–"

"Stop!" I angrily interrupted, giving him a glare. Sighing, I closed my eyes for a moment to erase the urge to look at Windy. "Windy, that's not what I meant." I slowly began to piece together an explanation.

"I don't have time for this!" she declared after a pause, sounding offended. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm taking my fairy and going back to my stupid rock!"

"Windy, wait!" I pleaded when she turned and strode away. Right in front of the boulder, Windy came to an abrupt halt and lifted her hands. Thinking she had started crying, I slowly stepped forward a few paces, wanting to clear up this misunderstanding before it was too late, but suddenly a person appeared out of nowhere right beside Windy. I looked up without meaning to, and inspected the new arrival. I drew my eyebrows together in confusion when I identified the person as Cay, who had traded his black armor for the same bizarre camouflage clothing as the people inside the rock wore.

I could hardly stifle my horrified gasp.

Cay had been brainwashed by the rock full of partying weirdos, and had joined their army.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Dib demanded, giving Cay many puzzled look-overs.

"Huan Dayfyd Huan gave it to me!" Cay excitedly explained, rushing over to his brother. "Isn't it awesome?!"

"No," Dib immediately replied, but Cay continued as if he hadn't heard.

"And I got to take a picture with the band! Look! They all signed it!" He happily held up the picture in front of Dib's face.

Relieved that the clothing was just a gift, I ignored them for the time being and continued on toward Windy, once again staring determinedly at the ground. "Windy, please wait. Let me explain."

She turned toward me, but for the millionth time, I was interrupted. A man I didn't know had appeared where Cay had just been. He was tall, wearing glasses, had black hair and eyes, and was clothed in the same camouflage gear as everyone else. He gave an energetic greeting to Puck. "Hey, Mr. L! What are you doing here? Doing some patrolling? You are totally missing the party!"

"You hit my daughter with the door, you doofus," Puck admonished, moving himself close to Windy's face. "See? You made her forehead lumpy!"

Oh. That was why she stopped. She hadn't been crying after all.

The man held out a health potion to Windy. "My bad. Here you go, Babe."

Babe…?

While Windy drank the potion, I stared in confusion at the man, wondering who the hell he thought he was, calling someone else's fiancée such a name…Wait. Or was _he_ the fiancée, and the other guy with pizza on his helmet was the one doing the improper flirting? Or were they all involved in a polygamous relationship?

Why did everything about Windy have to be so complicated…

I accidentally glanced at her. That one glance was all it took to suck me back into the Stupid. Although part of my mind was screaming at me to run away, I ignored it and moved closer to her. "Windy, please listen," I desperately requested, worried out of my mind that she hated me now. "You've got it all wrong!"

A flash of sparkling golden light made me flinch, and I felt myself being lifted into the air. "Hands off my daughter!" Puck huffed, and I slowly opened my eyes, only to find myself floating several centimeters off the ground. My wings flapped by themselves to lower me back down, but I remained where I was regardless.

**"Don't you dare say anything!"** I ordered Dib, hearing him begin to speak behind me. "I never had my hands on your daughter!" I pointed out to Puck, fighting to keep myself from yelling at him to put me down.

"Yeah, 'cause I stopped you!"

"Nor was I planning to put them on her! I just want to talk to her! I know you must be very angry with me, and I don't blame you, but I need to clear this up now or I probably won't be able to at all!" I took a breath to refill my lungs, then gave a helpless look to Windy. "And I'm not doing it for the sake of keeping good business relations."

Unfortunately, Windy looked like the last thing in the world she wanted to do was listen to me. "Let's skip the part where you lie to my face. I don't believe you, and you repeat yourself over and over," she angrily replied, gesturing with her hands. "Look. You helped me out a couple times, I helped you some others…We can call it even, so you don't have to worry that I'll try to chop your head off or something. However"—she shot a glare past me, toward Dib—"I think it is a given that you two are no longer invited to my party. After all, I was planning to only invite my friends, and outsiders are not welcome."

"Yeah! What my daughter said!" Puck added, flying up toward my face and pointing a tiny sword at my nose. "And, I don't like you!"

"What in the world are you even angry with _me_ for?!" I demanded in bewilderment, attempting to lean away from the sharp point of the blade. I hadn't done anything wrong. It was all Dib and his overflowing stupidity that had caused this problem. Just a while ago, we'd been conversing so nicely together, and yet now it was the complete opposite. I wanted to tell them both that they were being very silly and childish about all this, but since that would do nothing but offend them further, I didn't say it.

Why couldn't Dib have that sort of self-control? I wondered furiously. Always blurting out whatever the hell he wanted, not caring at all about the feelings of other people…That damn moron.

"You know very well why!" Puck declared, moving himself back a bit. It was nice to not have his sword pointed at my nose any longer, but overall I wasn't much happier about all this. "From now on you are forbidden to get close to my daughter! And, I warn you, if you do, I will attack you!" He threateningly swung his sword twice, the tiny blade swishing to and fro. He then turned to Windy. "And you, Little Flower, are forbidden to talk to him too! Xiu, take my daughter back to safety!"

"Mr. L, I don't think…" that man began, but his voice faded out.

Puck, looking annoyed that his order wasn't being followed, darted back to Windy, grabbed her sleeve, and they both disappeared into the boulder. Now that Windy was gone, I could feel her effects on me fade, but the anger and anxiety over this fight continued to rage through me. "You're both being completely unreasonable!" I snapped, hoping they hadn't closed the door yet so they'd be able to hear me.

"Give it up. They're not worth it, Al," Dib growled.

If I had the ability to move, I would have hit him. But since I didn't, I could only bellow "SHUT UP!" and fail at attempting to turn around.

Puck suddenly reappeared. Hope swelled within me, and I almost smiled, thinking he'd come back to hear me out. But then I was blinded by a flash of golden light, even brighter than when he'd made me float. I felt something tug on my right arm, and heard Puck say, "Here, for easy transportation!" as he flew past me, then went back to where he'd been before. The last thing I heard out of him was the noise of him blowing a raspberry, then the forest went silent.

I blinked several times, but a bright splotchy afterimage covered my whole field of vision. Something tugged on my arm again, and I felt myself float backward. "What're you still doing out here?" Dib asked, his voice sharp and full of suspicion.

"Someone's still here?" I pointlessly looked in the direction in which I assumed the boulder was located. "Who is it?"

"Sorry." It was the man who'd come out of the rock with Cay. "I just…kind of can't see the door of the rock. Got myself stuck out here, it seems," he sheepishly admitted.

"Well, good luck," Dib huffed, and I heard his boots thud over the dirt path as he began walking away. There was a small jerk on my arm, and I began floating after him. In confusion, I looked down and touched the spot that was getting pulled. Something that felt like a string was tied around my upper arm, and judging by the direction it was pointing, Dib had the other end.

"Dàgē, wait!" Cay exclaimed. "If...if he's stranded out here...Couldn't he come with us?" I could hear the star-struck excitement in his voice.

"No way!" Dib immediately denied. "He can just PM those jerks and they'll let him in! The last thing we need is that crazy fairy accusing us of kidnapping him!"

"He definitely would do that," I agreed, frowning in annoyance.

Cay let out a noise of disappointment. "Well, bye. Thanks for the photo."

"Sure, you are welcome…Wait!" he called after us. "I know this is none of my business, but…the spell will wear off if you get far away from the caster, but it will wear off a lot faster if you get him wet. Also, the farther you get, the more you can move. Don't bother waiting for it to wear off on its own, since the spell's duration is annoyingly long." His voice was irritated. Perhaps he'd been blasted with it before.

"Thank you for the information," I replied, forcing a polite smile onto my face, although I wasn't sure if I was facing the right way for him to be able to see it.

"Wait!" he called again. I felt my knees bump into something—Dib, maybe. "Don't go _that_ way! Down that path there is one of the _Protect Prince from_…Damn, I forgot. Whatever, just don't go north. I…heard about the stuff Starlight did to your team, so I don't think you wanna meet her again after that, 'specially now that Babe is mad at you. If you guys get stuck in the crossfire, it would be very bad! Plus Lee Jiaxue is in the other army; she is very protective of Windy, so you don't wanna meet her either!"

"Those creeps are in this forest?!" Dib's voice was frightened. "This night just can't get any better!" he snapped, and tugged hard on the string. "Come on, Cay! Hurry up!"

"Thank you," I repeated loudly, hoping the man could hear me over Dib and Cay's footsteps.

"You should leave for a while!" the man shouted. "They might be anywhere! But they won't be in the city!"

The city. Perfect. The only place we weren't allowed to be was the only place the fangirls weren't.

I stayed quiet as the other two talked, discussing what to do next. I didn't care what they were going to do, nor did I want to participate. I had to fly to the nearest city I was still allowed to enter and send a letter to Gui, telling him what happened and asking him to warn our uncle. The Long family hadn't been the only one helping us keep the airline afloat, but they had been our biggest support. Without them, at worst, the airline would go under, at best, it would have to be vastly downsized. I felt sick at the thought of either of those scenarios; whichever way I did things, thousands of people were going to lose their jobs.

There was a chance that I would lose mine too.

Why couldn't Dib have kept his damn mouth shut?

Why could he never keep it shut…

"Get down here!" Dib suddenly bellowed, scaring me. I slowly looked up, staring at the dark blurs I could finally see through the white splotch clouding my vision. "We've gotta leave!"

"We only just got here," one of the triplets—judging by the tone, it was Oli—complained.

"I don't wanna go down there!" Brushy squalled. The biggest blur squashed itself together with one of the smaller blurs. "That evil fairy will hold me hostage again! I'm so sorry, Master! I just wanted to hug that lady so much! But I love you most again! I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE–"

"I get it," he cut in, sounding embarrassed. "I love you, too, you big goof ball."

"He's gone and won't be coming back," Dib told her, sounding annoyed. "I scared him off for you."

I really wanted to punch him for making it sound as though what he'd done was heroic.

"OH NO!" Brushy gasped loudly, and jumped out of the tree. She landed with a crash beside me. "THE EVIL FAIRY HOSTAGED HIM!"

"We need to find a pond or something," Dib said, sighing. "The bassist said the spell will wear off faster if we get him wet."

One of the triplets in the tree began to speak, but the world abruptly went dark and I couldn't hear him over the unexpected dribbly sound that filled my ears. Yelling in terror, I attempted to shove the squirrel away and remove my head from her mouth, but she hugged me tight in her little arms and licked the side of my face over and over. My nose was filled with an overwhelmingly strong smell of peanuts. Feeling her enormous teeth scrape against the side of my neck, I suddenly realized just why Dib had been so frightened when Brushy had put him inside her cheek pouch.

"SHE'S EATING AL'S HEAD!" Dib shrieked, and began yanking hard on my arm's string. Someone nearby—I assumed it was Cay—started laughing hysterically.

"BRUSHY, STOP!"

"QUIT LICKING ME!"

"LET GO OF HIM!"

"I MUSH SHAVE HIM FOM TEH EVIL FEH-EE!"

"LET GO-O-O-O!"

After a few moments of confusion while we continued to scream, and Cay continued to laugh, my poor head was released from Brushy's mouth with a wet pop. I couldn't help but let out a disgusted noise as I felt her warm, thick drool run down my face.

"YOU CRAZY SQUIRREL!" Dib yelled, pulling me somewhere.

"You said he needed to get wet!" Brushy reminded, sounding like her feelings had been hurt.

"I wou–" I began, then gagged when I felt some of the slobber go in my mouth. Spitting it out, I took a heaving breath and continued. "I would have preferred using water…but thank you for trying to help."

"Good job, Brushy. I think he went down a little," Cay observed, still giggling.

"He did?!" The giant blur flattened herself to the ground, as if wanting to measure the distance. "He did!"

"Great," Dib snapped and began pulling me again. "Now let's get out of here before the maniacs find us!"

"What maniacs?" Hai called down to us.

"That army of fangirls I told you guys about. They're here in the forest somewhere."

"An army of women…" one of the triplets breathed, sounding like he wouldn't mind seeing something like that.

"Insane women!" Dib corrected. "Get your mind outta the gutter and hurry up!"

"Prince is so lucky."

"COME ON!" Dib screamed.

"Okay, okay, geeze! We're coming! Brushy, hold still."

"By the way, Dàgē!" another called after us. Loud thuds signaled Brushy's pursuit. "Windy told Hai and I her avatar has some sort of weird effect on NPCs that make them love her if she's nearby. It'd be a good idea to keep Birdy away from her."

"Is that what it was? That weirdo," Dib grumbled.

"Don't call me Birdy," I irritably ordered.

"But you're a birdy," Brushy pointed out.

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but then realized I really had no way of denying that accusation. Inwardly fuming, I gave up and sighed harshly out my nose. My face felt stiff and gross, but my handkerchief had gotten lost during the confusion at the boulder, so I had nothing with which I could clean myself. I tried to ignore my discomfort and watched the blurry trees flash past as Dib continued to run, pulling me like a balloon behind him. Eventually, we left the forest and Brushy and the triplets bounded ahead of Dib and I. Once I was sure they were far enough away that they wouldn't be able to hear me, I grabbed hold of the golden string and tugged on it. "Let go."

"Why?" Dib asked, slowing down slightly and turning to look over his shoulder at me.

"Let go," I repeated.

"No."

I gathered up all of my magic energy and cast the spell to shift myself into shadow, intending to slip out of the string. Blinking in bewilderment after a moment, I looked down at myself. I was still solid; Puck's spell must have prevented that method of escape. Taking one of my daggers off my belt, I put it to the string and attempted to cut it. Other than making a scraping noise, nothing happened. In annoyance, I looked up. "Let go."

"No!"

Pulling myself closer to him, I smacked his exposed fingers with the flat of my dagger's blade. "Let go," I angrily ordered when he let out a yelp of pain.

"Why?!" he asked again, coming to a halt.

"I don't want to be around you right now."

"Al, come on. I didn't mean to make them so mad." He put on that hurt face again, but I wasn't buying it.

"I have no idea what you meant to do, you damned idiot," I snapped, my temper taking over, "but I hope you're satisfied now that you've ruined my career. You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, could you? Why the hell can you never keep your mouth shut when it matters? Just like last year with my father, you can't stop yourself, and I'm tired of dealing with the consequences of the fact that you have no tact whatsoever. Just how do you expect me to take care of my children now that you have caused my company to collapse?"

"I didn't mean to!" he weakly repeated. "But…but I'm sure there's some way to–"

"I don't want to hear it," I interrupted, yanking as hard as I could on the string. "Let go."

"But where're you gonna go?!" he wailed, abruptly bursting into tears.

"Please tell your brothers and Brushy that I'm sorry I can't stay," I told him as calmly as I could, giving one last yank on the string. He finally released his hold and let the end fall. I put my dagger back in its sheath. "I am far too upset with you right now, and will do nothing productive for your training."

"Al, don't go!" he begged.

"Leave me alone," I snapped, then looked up to see the position of the sun, turning myself north-east, toward the corner of the continent where Sun City was located. I probably looked like an idiot, but I began flapping my wings in a circular motion to propel myself along, ignoring Dib's continued pleas for me to stay. It was better for me to leave; I was too angry to care about what he had to say, and knew I'd only yell and make things worse if he tried to calm me down.

Wrapping that string around my arm so it wouldn't snag on anything as I floated over the ground, I felt my eyes start to sting with tears, both angry and frightened. What the hell was I going to do now that I didn't have a job? I had savings, yes, but how long would they last? Due to my father's actions, my family name had probably been blacklisted from every company known to man, and it would only be worse now that I had been unofficially named CEO for less than a month before my airline had crumbled into nothing. How would I find a new job in this mess? Since my father had guaranteed a job for me after graduation, I didn't even have a résumé, nor could I think of any references I could use if I wrote one.

Swearing furiously under my breath at Dib, I continued to float a few centimeters over the grass as I searched for a water source. After what felt like a year, I finally found a waterfall crashing into a small lake. Swimming hastily through the air, I placed myself underneath the cold downpour and sighed with relief as I used my cloak to scrub the dried drool off my face. It took a very long time, but that golden string eventually disappeared, and I was able to move freely again.

Quickly refilling my canteen, I hopped out of the lake and into the air, flying as fast and high as I could, water droplets spraying out behind me. Hoping I was headed in the correct direction, I took a deep breath and stared miserably at the ground below, watching closely for familiar landmarks and trying very hard to keep my mind away from my newest disaster.

Dib sent me a few messages, but I ignored all of them as I continued to fly. As the hours passed, the golden light of day faded into purple evening, and then into black night. On I flew, drinking stamina potions whenever I began to feel weak. It wasn't until the moon had reached the middle of the sky that I stopped in a small wooded area to rest for the remainder of the night.

As soon as the sun rose, I woke up, feeling unsettled for a moment when I ran my eyes over the unfamiliar environment, but quickly got myself together. After once again refilling my canteen in a nearby stream, I took some time to catch myself some breakfast—four fish—then continued my flight.

By the time I arrived at the bright Sun City, it was already evening again, and I was more than ready to collapse. Barely managing to land properly in an alley next to an inn, I staggered on my feet and leaned against the inn wall, fighting to catch my breath. Blinking away the dizziness, I put up my hood and left the alley. Entering the inn, I rented a small room for the night, locked myself in, and immediately went to sleep, my mind going blissfully blank before I could even consider dismantling the bed to make a nest.

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><p><em>A huge, huge, huge thank you goes to Chicaalterego for her help on this chapter (she is especially amazing for putting up with all of my procrastination and clashing schedules)! :) It was another very fun crossover to write. If you haven't already, please check out her story, <em>Lukewarm Ice_!_


	76. Resignation and Apologies

_**_**_****Disclaimer **–** ****_**_**__½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo___

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><p>I sighed deeply, staring blankly into the thick puffs of steam curling and waving here and there in front of my face, slowly rising from the surface of the hot bath in which I was sitting. Poking a drop of water sitting on the side of the large tub, I sighed again, letting my wings float around on either side of me. The letter to my brother I was putting together in my head didn't quite block out all of the stares that were pressing in behind me. Perhaps it would have been better to bathe in a river outside the city rather than the inn's attached bath house, which was, sadly, not deserted as the one in Infinite City always was, but lounging in piping hot water for a while sounded nice after my two-day-long flight. It felt wonderful, regardless of my annoying bathmates. For some unknown reason, everyone else had gradually moved to the other side of the bath, giving me lots of room to stretch out in the enormous tub.<p>

I frowned and poked the drop of water again, completely at a loss as to how I should begin to tell Gui about what Dib had done. Gui had never wanted to inherit, but I assumed that, in some way or another, he cared about the airline, so I doubted he'd be happy to hear that the company our great-great-grandfather started was about to go out of business.

Five generations, including me…it had lasted for so long, only to be wrecked by Dib's inability to shut his face.

Though, it wasn't all his fault; I had been too incompetent to stop it from happening; and, of course, my father also had a large part of the blame for making the company's foundation so weak to begin with.

But still, Dib…That brainless idiot.

I would write a letter to Gui, and then write a letter to Doll, regardless of the fact that she had put her signature on Prince's expulsion orders. I'd heard she was a princess, so obviously she'd had training on how to behave properly in front of people more important than anyone I had ever met. She definitely knew all about keeping a straight face and a closed mouth, and since she and Dib had always been so competitive, perhaps some rigorous training under her would help. If there was no improvement, I would never allow Dib to go with me anywhere.

And that was simply unacceptable.

A behavior shift was absolutely necessary if he actually wanted to be a part of the life I led.

A letter to Gui, a letter to Doll, and then…I had no idea if it would actually reach them, but I wanted to write one to Windy and Puck. I would write everything I had wanted to say. However, knowing now that they were hiding in a place only they could access, I had little hope that they would receive it. I also had little hope they would actually read it. But I would try anyway. I couldn't leave things the way they were.

A letter to Gui, a letter to Doll, a letter to Windy and Puck, and _then_ I could actually do something I was very much looking forward to doing—reading and replying to all of the letters I had received from my sons. I missed all three of them so much. It had been nice at first to have some Me Time, but after having been locked up with Three and Six for so long, it felt weird to be separated. I was starting to get lonely without them hogging my bed every evening, and nagging me to play with them, and telling me they were hungry a million times a day. Of course, I was missing spending time with Gao too, though mostly all he did was eat and sleep and cry and poop, and often at very inconvenient times. But regardless, I still loved the little guy.

My little baby, and my slightly-less-little other babies. Dammit, I wanted to see them so bad.

Quickly standing up, I flicked my wings a bit to get off the excess water and stepped out of the tub, tuning out the murmurs behind me as I went to dry myself. After dressing, I left my room and went downstairs. I felt somewhat uncomfortable walking through the inn's common room; people were staring at me and whispering again. I didn't know why, but they didn't look like they wanted me to be there. I paid the innkeeper to rent my room for another night, then I pulled up my hood and went outside, walking quickly through the sunny, crowded streets.

I made a brief stop in the market to buy myself food—a basket of fresh fruit and a slab of smoked ham—and some stamina potions, then headed to the city's post office. Right down the street from the large, gray building, a wooden news stand slowed my steps nearly to a stop as my eyes went wide. A photograph of my hearing from the other morning was displayed in full color across half the front page, with my nervous, guilty-looking face right in the middle. In huge, bold letters, the paper's headline screamed,

**DANGEROUS CRIMINAL UNLEASHED**

Underneath that was a smaller headline reading,

_**Odd Squad runs Guileastos impostor out of Infinite City: Where will he strike next?**_

Oh, for the love of god…Give me a break already.

I accidentally met the gaze of the newspaper salesman standing behind the stacks of papers. Having obviously spotted me, he had the unmistakable look of a story-hungry reporter, but I quickly turned and walked as fast as I could down the street. An unfamiliar voice was raised over the buzz of the crowd. Praying it was unrelated to me, I ducked into the safety of the post office and heaved a sigh of relief. As fast as I could, I scanned through their selection of stationery and chose some with bright primary colors, and some that was plain white. Placing myself at the back of the line and tightly clutching my paper and envelopes, I wished I had that feathered mask with me, but I had left it in Dib's and my bedroom in Infinite City.

When I reached the front of the line, I smacked stationery down on the counter and yanked out my money pouch. "Would you–" the NPC clerk began, but I quickly interrupted, "I want a book of stamps as well. How much do I owe you?" and anxiously pushed it all toward him.

He looked down at the stationery, then looked back up at me, his eyes narrowing. "Say, aren't you–"

"I'm in somewhat of a hurry," I urged.

There was a pause, but he then nodded and took the paper in hand. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other while he rang me up. "Your total is one silver, and eight copper."

As fast as I could, I counted out the payment and handed it over, once again sighing with relief as I watched him stick the stationery and some stamps into a bag for me. "Thank you." Taking the bag, I hurried outside. Joining the flow of people, I headed back to the inn, pulled my hood closer to my face, and quickened my steps when I went past that news stand again.

Someone called, "Hey!" from across the road and I inadvertently broke into a panicky jog. Inhaling sharply, I increased my speed, weaving in and out of the streams of people when I heard the sound of feet behind me and the voice continued. "Wait! Stop!"

Racing into the inn, I slammed the door shut behind me, frantically yelled, "SOMEONE'S CHASING ME!" at the innkeeper while I ran across the common room, and went upstairs, once again locking myself in my room. Breathing heavily, I hurried to the window, closed and locked the shutters, pulled the curtains together, and then sank down on the bed, hoping the innkeeper would care enough to stop anyone from barging in here. Lowering my hood now that I was alone, I took several deep breaths in an attempt to slow my heart, and listened hard for the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. I could faintly hear the hum of conversation from the common room below, but I heard no sign that the person was still coming after me.

If anyone had been coming after me in the first place…

I hoped it was simply paranoia making me jumpy.

I hoped the person on the street had been talking to someone else.

I hoped I wasn't about to get chased out of yet another city.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hope away that lying newspaper article.

"Guileastos impostor, my ass," I growled in annoyance, sighing and rubbing my face. I had been targeted by reporters before in the real world, mostly because of something my "friends" had done, but I had always thought of _Second_ _Life_ as a place where I could relax and not have to worry about being harassed by the media. Stupid Gui…Why'd he have to be so famous?

I kind of wanted to sneak out and buy a newspaper just to see how twisted the story of that hearing had become, but instead sat down at the room's tiny writing desk and unpacked my new stationery, and the set of quill pens and ink I'd bought years ago. Neatly laying a single sheet of paper in front of myself, I stared hard at the blank whiteness. Everything I had planned to tell Gui suddenly became jumbled inside my head. I didn't want to tell him what happened. I hated telling him of all people about my failures. As if my father were standing right beside me, I could hear his voice saying, "If Gui Wen had been leading the airline, he never would have let this happen."

I hadn't even taken control yet and somehow I'd already ruined it all.

I was good-for-nothing, and Gui was–

Biting my upper lip, I forced myself to stop before I could make myself feel worse. Some things were out of my control, no matter what I did. Taking a slow breath to steady myself, I moved to write, but abruptly changed my mind and stuck my pen back in the ink. I needed time to work up to this, I told myself, trying to pretend as though I wasn't simply avoiding the problem. Looking away from the paper, I moved my hand to grab an apple out of the basket I had bought, but changed my mind. All of the worry and nervousness was making me feel far too nauseated to want to eat anything.

Sighing deeply, I leaned over the desk and pressed my forehead to my palms, staring down at the paper again. After a lifetime of being groomed for one single job…I didn't have it anymore. The terrifying question of what I was supposed to do from here on ate away at my insides. What was I supposed to do? What…Everything I had worked for until now had been for nothing…

"What do I do?" I asked aloud, wanting to scream and break something. Letting out a bit of the anger, I snatched up that piece of blank paper and crumpled it up, tore it apart, crumpled it up again, and threw it at the wall as hard as I could. I felt like somewhat of an idiot afterward, having succeeded in nothing more than beating up some innocent paper, but I felt a tiny bit better anyway.

Relocating myself to the bed, I got out my bag full of mail and dumped it out on the blankets, desperately wanting a distraction. Picking up one envelope off the top of the mountain, I read the sent time and date printed on the front, and placed it on my leg, then picked up another. It took nearly half an hour, but I eventually got all of it arranged in the order in which it had been sent. My hand shook a bit with eagerness when I picked up the pile sent to me on the eleventh of February, the day after I had gone to sleep in the real world.

Opening the letter on top, I pulled out the tiny piece of paper and read the short message, typed all in capitalized letters.

"_HI 7 THIS IS 6. IM ON A COMPUTER AND ITS FUN. I WAS PLAYING GAMES AND THEY WERE FUN TOO BUT I WANTED TO WRITE THIS SO HENG SHOWED ME HOW TO USE EMAIL. HENG SAYS I SHOULD SAY DADDY INSTEAD OF 7 SINCE YOURE OUR DAD NOW SO HI DADDY. AND NOW HES LAUGHING. THIS MOR_"

Frowning faintly, I turned the paper over, but the letter ended there. Wondering if there had been a problem when it had gotten sent, I slid the paper back into the envelope and opened the next one.

"_3 PRESSED SEND BEFORE I WAS DONE._"

"Oh," I mumbled, smiling in amusement as I read on.

"_HES MEAN. NOW HENG IS TICKLING HIM. THEY ARE SILLY HEADS. THIS MORNING WE GOT TO EAT PANCAKES AGAIN. PANCAKES ARE MY FAVORITE FOR BREAKFAST. BUT HENG DIDNT COOK THEM BECAUSE HE WASNT HERE. BUT THEY WERE STILL GOOD AND HAD BIG STRAWBERRIES. 3 WANTS TO WRITE A LETTER NOW. BYE DADDY_"

"Bye," I told the paper, put it back in its envelope, and quickly opened the next.

"_HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_" was all it said. My face was starting to hurt from smiling so much. Laughing, I put the "letter" back and opened the next, feeling less lonely and more lonely at the same time.

An unknown amount of time went by in a flash as I continued reading letter after letter. There were a few from Chen, giving me much more useful updates than stuff about pancakes, but the vast majority were from the boys, who had written me several times apiece every single day, telling me all about what was going on, what the Lins were like, what they'd been eating, the games their "sister-cousin" Shuang—I had a suspicion Dib had told them to call her that—had taught them, how many times they had heard Gao fart, what movies they had watched—they went on for five whole pages telling me about the great cat documentary after which they had named themselves—and on and on.

I was extremely happy to hear how well they were, but felt painful stabs of sadness and guilt whenever they asked if I was coming back yet, and that they missed me. I put another letter I'd finished reading back in its envelope and stared down at it, wishing I knew when I would wake up. It made me uneasy, not having heard anything about my new body yet. I'd have to ask Dib if he'd heard anything. That _Second_ _Life_ employee had told me that he would give me frequent updates…What was his name?

Frowning, I put the letter down and lifted my gaze to the wall, thinking hard. It was strange. I couldn't remember the man's name. I had asked for it, hadn't I…? Why wouldn't I? Of course I had. I must have…I couldn't even remember what he looked like, now that I thought about it. He must have had a very unremarkable face and name to have been forgotten so easily.

Well, perhaps I'd lost some things in the process of being inserted into the game. Everything from the days before I went to sleep were kind of jumbled, probably due to all the stress, so perhaps I had simply forgotten.

Being unable to remember something so important was unsettling, whatever had happened.

Mentally shrugging away all of that, I reached out to pick up a thick parcel that had been with the letters, but jumped in surprise when someone knocked on my door. Holding my breath, I stood and shifted into shadow. Reforming myself to one side of the door, I listened through the crack, afraid it was that man from the newspaper stall. Or perhaps the fangirls had come to murder me now that the whole of Central thought I was a criminal. My heart was pounding so loudly, I felt somewhat afraid whoever was outside would be able to hear it. The person on the other side moved around a bit, sighed, then knocked again.

"Who is it?" I demanded, trying to sound scary and tough. I put one hand on the hilt of my dagger, prepared to fight my way out of the inn if necessary.

"Me," the very miserable voice of Dib replied.

Immediately becoming very angry—and a bit relieved—I almost told him to go away, but instead unlocked the door, opened it as little as I could, yanked him inside, then shut and locked it again. "There was no one else out there, was there?"

He slowly shook his head, staring down at the wood floor.

"How did you find me?" I asked, crossing my arms and staring hard at him.

"Followed you," he mumbled, almost too quiet for me to hear. Was he the…No, whoever had been yelling outside earlier, they had a different voice.

"I told you I want to be alone for a while."

"You weren't answering me, so I _had_ to come," he weakly replied, looking like he was going to start crying again at any moment.

"I don't want to discuss anything with you right now."

"It's not…that stuff. Prince wants to talk to us. The triplets already left through the teleporter here."

"What, is he expecting me to grovel at his feet, begging for the privilege of living in his wonderful city? I'm tired of getting pushed around by that team's stupid whims. I'm not going," I decided, crossing my arms even tighter and sitting back down on the bed.

"Gui also said he wants to talk to you," he added, and my stomach dropped in fear. Now I wanted to go back even less than before. I had no doubt that Gui had heard of what happened; the collapse of my company was probably all over the news. He would be so disappointed in me. I didn't know how I could possibly face him.

But I would have to do it sooner or later.

"You should have said that first," I grumbled, quickly gathering together all of my belongings. Once I'd packed everything, I headed for the door. Dib's hand closed around my right arm. I wanted to shake him off, but reluctantly let him stop me and gave him a tired, questioning stare. He continued to keep his eyes on the floor.

"Are…are you still…really mad?" he asked.

Of course I was.

I doubted I would ever be able to completely forgive him for this.

Pulling out of his loose grip, I wordlessly opened the door and left him standing there. Raising my hood again, I went downstairs, briefly stopped to tell the innkeeper I was checking out early, then went outside, heading for the city's teleportation platform. Infrequent glances behind myself assured me that Dib was following, though he hadn't said a word since before. It was a relief not to have him hanging all over me, crying and begging for my forgiveness.

When I had gotten close to the area in which the teleporter was located at the center of the city, I suddenly decided to buy a newspaper before going back to Moron City. "I'll be back in a few minutes," I quietly told Dib, then quickly turned down a different road, heading back to the market. Pulling out a silver coin as I approached the wooden newsstand, I channeled all of my anger onto my face as I stared down that reporter. He didn't notice me until I was already standing in front of him, but soon enough he had that eager expression on again, regardless of the fact that I was attempting to intimidate him. "I'm buying one," I announced, smacking down the coin. I took a paper and glanced at the front page. The same infuriating words yelled false accusations at me.

"You're _him_, aren't you?" the man breathlessly inquired.

Looking up, I pointed at the photograph of me. "Him, yes." Then I pointed at the headline. "A dangerous criminal and an impostor of my brother, no. Get your damn facts straight before writing these articles."

"A-a-ah! Wait!" he called, scrambling out from behind the stacks of papers when I turned to leave. Several people nearby watched us with wide, interested eyes. "Lemme have an interview! I'll get the facts straight if you tell me what they are!"

"I tell you and you twist it around—that's what you reporters always do. I'm not interested in being the topic of your exaggerations."

"Aw, come on," he whined. "I've gotta sell papers somehow…I'll make it worth your while!"

Without a word, I gave him one last glare before launching myself into the air, taking care to hit him with as much wind as possible. Quickly flying back to the platform, I looked around for Dib, and spotted him sitting on a bench, still looking just as miserable as before. Landing nearby, I announced, "I'm ready to go," and strode away, stuffing the newspaper into my pouch and taking out my money.

Dib still said nothing while we waited in line until the platform operators were ready to send a group to Infinite City. After paying, I stepped up onto the jade teleporter, and moved myself to one side, staring down at the little carvings on the surface. I had never used these teleporters before, so I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do. A glance at the other passengers, who all looked very laid-back, assured me a bit that I didn't have to do anything but stand still.

The operator called "All clear!" and I looked up toward him. Abruptly, the whole world went black and I felt as though I was being forcefully squished from all sides. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I could hardly think. All the sudden, air whooshed back into my lungs and I nearly fell over when the platform in Infinite City materialized underneath my boots. Breathing heavily after the horrible sensation, I unsteadily stumbled to the road, bumping into several people, and looked around for Dib. He was standing right next to me still, not seeming anywhere near as disoriented as I.

That was the single most horrible experience I'd ever had in _Second Life_. Even dying wasn't as bad as that.

Vowing never to use a teleporter again, I attempted to straighten myself and began walking shakily in the direction of the castle. "Where did Prince say to go?" I asked, trying to keep my voice from being too sharp.

Dib flinched anyway. "Um…One of the ground-level conference rooms on the northern side. I told him we're on our way."

I had a very strong urge to loiter in my bedroom and make that asshole wait for a few hours…But I wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible so I could talk to my brother instead, so I quickened my pace along the cobblestone road. Within ten minutes Dib and I had entered the castle, wandered to the northern wing, and gotten to the door of what he said was the correct room.

"In here?" I asked, putting my hand on the large, cold metal ring that served as a knob. Dib nodded, but I gave an uncertain look up and down the hall. There were no windows here and the hall was unlit, making it quite dark. No sounds could be heard except Dib and my breathing and very faint noises from the castle's other floors. Nothing close by. Nothing in the room.

I opened the door anyway and squinted into the darkness within. "Are you sure?" I pressed, giving Dib a skeptical frown.

"Prince said here," he insisted.

Sighing, I stepped inside and looked around, still seeing nothing. "Well, where the hell is he then?"

"How am I supposed to know?!" Dib snapped.

"I wasn't expecting you to!" I snapped back.

"FINE! SORRY FOR TALKING! I WON'T DO IT ANYMORE!"

"GOOD! PERHAPS NOW YOU WON'T RUIN ANY MORE OF MY BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS! NOT THAT IT EVEN MATTERS, NOW THAT MY COMPANY IS GOING UNDER!"

"It isn't."

Dib and I both jumped very hard and let out surprised noises when a third voice joined the angry conversation. Suddenly, lights flared up all around and I automatically closed my eyes against the harsh glare. Dull orange-red continued to press against my eyes, sending faint spikes of pain into my head. After a few seconds, I carefully opened my eyes a little, glancing around the brightness. Both my team and the Odd Squad were standing in the middle of the room, next to a large table. Opening my eyes a bit more, I took in the banner hanging from the ceiling. Red letters neatly spelled out "CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT," on white cloth.

Silence filled the room.

My face started to burn with anger and embarrassment.

A secret engagement party…This was why Prince had sent Dib and I out of the city. That idiot could think of no other way to keep us out of the castle than to _exile_ us?

That stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID elf.

"Surprise," Avila weakly said, giving Dib and I a brief smile.

"Y-you guys…are all…big jerks!" Dib yelled, abruptly bursting into tears for the millionth time.

Ignoring him and everyone else, I rushed forward, my eyes locked on Gui. "What did you say?" I demanded frantically.

"I said it isn't," he repeated, smiling.

I grabbed his shoulders. "You're sure?!"

"Dib told me what happened, so I called Uncle, and he called Lotus, and they say they're not going to break the contract."

"You're really, really sure?" I pressed, hardly even daring to consider to think it was true. "Windy can be extremely difficult to understand. Perhaps Uncle took something she said the wrong way."

Gui let out a small sigh and briefly looked up. "Definitely difficult…But yes, I'm one-hundred-percent positive that Lotus is going to honor their end of the contract, regardless of any stupid things Dib did."

I felt a small piece of satisfaction at the fact that Gui had raised his voice slightly as he spoke those last four words, but I didn't look to see if Dib had heard him. Receiving this news, I felt at least a million kilograms lighter than I had the past few days, living under the assumption that I was about to lose the only job I'd ever had. However, I was still employed. I still had a company…or at least, what was left of one. But I didn't care about the state in which that man had left it at his death; it was more than good enough for me.

I yanked Gui forward into a hug and let out a huge, happy sigh. "Oh, thank god she's not going to take revenge." Well, she hadn't _yet_ at least. For all I knew, at this very moment she was cooking up some horrible plan for Dib and I. But that suspicion wasn't enough to dampen my mood.

He laughed faintly, gave me a few pats on the back, and said, "Congratulations. And on your engagement, too."

Oh, right…engagement…My engagement to the blockheadedest blockhead on the planet. Regardless of the fact that everything was, presumably, okay, I was still angry with him. He had risked our family's financial future for the sake of winning a stupid argument, and that was not something that I would forget about just because the other party didn't retaliate.

Attempting to hide my extreme agitation, I drew away from Gui and smiled. "Thank you." The bright look on Gui's face faded somewhat when I turned my head toward Prince and let my smile grow cold. Stepping toward the elf, I stuck my hand in my pouch and withdrew that newspaper. "Next time you deem it necessary to keep something secret from me," I quietly said, "be less imaginative, please."

Looking uncomfortable, his red eyes flashed toward Gui, as if he hoped he would step in. But Gui stayed where he was, and I felt a swell of superiority that Gui had chosen me over him at last. Seeming to realize that his meat shield wasn't going to come save him, he lifted a hand and pointed toward Lolidragon. "It was all her idea," he tattled.

"She knocked me unconscious and locked me in a closet to stop me from interfering with the guards," Gui huffed.

"It was just a joke, sheesh," she added from her seat. "They were only exiled for a couple days, anyway."

Not bothering to look at her, I pressed the newspaper to Prince's armored chest until he took it from me. "I honestly could not care less about which one of you did it. Consider the contents of this newspaper to be my resignation from the city ranks. I assume by now your city has plenty of other people you may make the entire continent hate and fear."

"You can't quit!" Yu Lian exclaimed in a disappointed tone.

"I just did," I announced very unapologetically. "I refuse to stay anywhere near a heavily populated area now that you made everyone think that I'm a 'dangerous criminal.' I only came here to speak to my brother and collect my things."

"Aeolus," she began in that firm tone of hers, but Ugly Wolf raised his huge paws and waved them in a calming gesture.

"Okay, okay, let's all stop arguing. There will be time to have this conversation later. For now, let's just enjoy ourselves while we celebrate the engagement of our good friends." He came and took me by the arm, pulling me around to the other side of the table and sitting me on a large, padded chair right in the middle, right where I most certainly did not want to sit. "You sit here, and Dib, you sit here." He patted the chair to my left.

Dib gave me a brief look of terror, then very, very slowly began moseying his way over to his assigned seat. It took him nearly a minute, but finally was sitting stiffly in the chair, his moist-looking eyes locked on the table. With a faint relieved noise, Ugly Wolf went back to the seat in which he'd been when Dib and I had arrived. Conversations I had no desire to join were started on either side of me as both teams seated themselves and Prince called for food and drinks to be brought in.

Perhaps I was meant to be touched by this party they had planned, happy they had done it, wallowing in a ridiculous amount of ooey-gooey feelings for Dib, but at the moment I was feeling none of those things. I despised surprises, and my mood had been ruined already several times over in the past few days. I wanted to leave, go get my things, and fly to Ebonwood where no one could read newspapers and no one would attack me without a good reason. I just wanted to be by myself.

But I stayed, if only to be polite to Avila, Chen, and Jiū who told me after everyone had started to eat that they had come up with the idea of having a party in the first place, although their idea hadn't included exile; they had asked the Odd Squad for some help to make the party more grand. That had obviously been the wrong decision.

I sat silently and uncomfortably in my seat as the party went on around me. I picked at a bit of the food, but wasn't feeling hungry, regardless of the fact that I hadn't eaten at all that day. I tried to think of other things, like my sons' letters, to keep myself entertained enough not to fall asleep. Then again, with as loud as the Odd Squad was being to my right, sleeping would have been quite difficult.

I really wasn't sure when it happened, but at some point the food had begun to be replaced by alcohol, and the loudness was getting louder as a result. Prince called in random people I barely knew, yelling happily that they were his "drinking buddies," and soon there were even more drunk people at the other end of the table. When the stupid elf started challenging people to duels, I decided that I'd had quite enough of the party, and slid my chair back, giving annoyed looks to my teammates.

"Just whose party does he think this is?" Avila huffed, giving many reproving glances to the elf she had always seemed to like.

"That's the Odd Squad for you," I quietly said, standing up. "They always manage to steal the show."

A raw yell burst out behind me. In confusion, I turned around, only to see Prince dashing at me, sword held aloft. Several people were laying unconscious on the floor back where he'd before, with tankards all around them. I wasn't sure if they'd been beaten up or if they had simply passed out from too much drinking.

"A NEW CHALLENGER!"

Sighing, I moved out of his way. "I do not want to fight you."

With a fierce smile on his face, he twisted around and changed course, continuing to run directly at me. It was somewhat alarming to see how much control over his body he still had. Every bit of his elvish grace had been retained, regardless of the numerous empty tankards he had left in his wake. "FIGHT ME-E-E!" he yelled. I stepped out of his way again, giving a look to Ugly Wolf in the hopes that he would come save me from his idiotic teammate. However, looking somewhere besides Prince was a mistake—he hit me over the head with the flat of his sword and let out a triumphant chortle.

Blinking away the little lights that had burst out in my eyes, I gave him a glare and snapped, "Stop!"

"Thissis a duel!" he slurred. "We're fighting!"

When he raised his sword again, I decided to simply do as he wanted. A part of me felt a bit bad for fighting a woman—but then, at the moment he wasn't a woman. Plus I had wanted to beat him to a pulp since the day we had met. Using one of my daggers, I knocked his sword out of the way, then knocked him over. Hoping this counted as my win, I sheathed my dagger, gave him a frown, and attempted to walk away.

It was a failed attempt.

He had latched onto my leg and was glaring up at me. "Since when've you been so strong?"

"Let go," I begged, fighting to free myself.

"Have you been doing secret training?!" he demanded, using my arm to pull himself to his feet.

"No."

Much to my continued dismay, he was completely pressed up against me, his arms snaking their way around my neck. His red face was way too close, and I held my breath against the smell of alcohol. "You've overpowered me again, huh?" he wondered, smiling. "Just like when you kissed me."

"WHAT?! THAT NEVER HAPPENED!" I yelled, squirming around to escape. "GUI WEN! GUI WE-E-E-EN!" Thankfully, Gui and Dib both hurried to my rescue before the drunk moron could assault me any further.

"I wanna remash!" Prince declared as he stumbled away with Gui, who simply nodded and said, "Yes, Your Highness, of course we'll have a rematch."

"I won't go easy on you this time!"

"Of course not."

The part of me that was still mad at Dib was completely ignored as I clutched him as tightly as I could, breathing heavily in relief. After taking a moment to recover, I leaned back a bit to look up at Dib and weakly told him, "I want to leave."

"Yeah, me too," he murmured. The look of slight annoyance he wore faded when he met my eyes briefly, then let go of me and walked back to the table. Feeling somewhat awkward, I stayed where I was, watching as he and the others spoke through the messaging system. A small piece of paper was passed from Xiu Chen to Dib, and he gestured for me to follow him. Giving a goodbye to the others, Dib and I left the rowdy party, heading back through the quiet, dark hallways through which we'd arrived earlier.

I didn't ask him where we were going, nor did he tell me. I didn't care, really; nearly anywhere was better than the surprise drinkfest. We left the castle and headed through the lively streets, going around the market and into an area I'd never been to which contained various inns. He led me up to the entrance of a nice-looking one and quietly explained, "Wei Bo and the others got us a room for a week."

Running my eyes over the three-story building of wood and stone, I nodded once, feeling relieved; it seemed somewhat wrong to stay in my team's chambers after declaring I no longer wanted to be part of the city's ranks. However, I'd been hoping to be allowed to go back to Ebonwood now, rather than staying in the city as a guest. But still, I followed Dib inside. He passed the paper from Xiu Chen to the clerk at the front desk, who gave him a key in exchange. In silence we walked through the long, wide hallways, to a numbered door on the ground floor.

Using the key, Dib opened the door and stepped inside, looking around. I stayed behind in the hall, feeling myself cringe as a million different unpleasant feelings appeared, manifesting physically in a cold shudder up my spine.

"This is a nice room," Dib quietly commented, turning back to me.

Making a small, noncommittal noise, I nervously ran my eyes over what I could see of the room through the somewhat narrow doorway. It was big, spacious, and decorated nicely with large plants and small paintings. A large, doorless arch lit up the room and opened into a small garden. Other than a bed and a chest of drawers, there were few pieces of furniture—a couple chairs and tables. I would have used to think the same as Dib, that it was a nice room. But the walls and ceiling were painted white, and all I could think of was that little white room in which I'd been kept for a year. The locked doors I hadn't been able to escape through. The cold, uncaring faces of the men who had kidnapped me. The murdered children I'd never see again. The agonizingly slow seconds always spent wondering when they were going to put me out of my misery.

"You coming in?" Dib broke into the flashes of that nightmare, sending me a tiny, bemused smile.

I slowly opened my mouth and inhaled, almost telling him that of course I didn't want to, but I had a strong feeling he would take that the wrong way. Not wanting to upset him yet again, instead I followed him inside, reluctantly closing and locking the door. My shaky, sweaty hands made the simple task very difficult. I wanted to leave it unlocked and wide open, to assure myself I'd be able to leave again whenever I wanted. But I doubted Dib would agree to sacrifice our privacy, so I contented myself with fixing the garden beyond the room as an escape route, if I needed one.

Trying to avoid looking around myself, I kept my eyes on the floor while Dib wandered over to look at one of the paintings hanging on the wall. "This is nice," Dib said again. "The, um…the picture over here."

I gave a nod, not that I'd looked at it.

He sighed.

Neither of us did anything for several long, awkward moments. Eventually Dib turned back toward me. "Should I go somewhere else? I mean, it'd be kinda rude to leave after everyone arranged this room for us, but I doubt they're keeping an eye on the door or anything. So, well, if you don't want me here…I'll just go…find something else to do. Somewhere no one will see, since I guess they'd wonder why we're not together. Or maybe they wouldn't, after what…Well, anyway, if–"

"You don't have to," I interrupted quietly, moving further into the room to sit on the edge of the bed. I leaned forward and carefully unbuckled my boots, sliding my feet out one by one. I was still mad at him, but I could put up with him for a while. Regardless of the fight, I had still missed him the past few days. And I didn't want to be left alone in this room.

"Really?" he asked, his voice gaining a harsh edge. "'Cause you look like the last place you want to be right now is here, and the fact that you're still not saying anything to me is just adding to that. So, if you want me to leave, just say so."

"You don't have to," I repeated, pushing my boots off to one side.

"Then would you say something?! Or even fucking _look_ at me?!"

Feeling annoyed, I forced myself to do as he asked. "What do you want me to say?"

"Just talk to me!" he pleaded, throwing his hands in the air. "Yell at me! Whatever the hell you want! Say anything!"

I looked at him for a long while, wondering just what it was he was expecting of me. "I have already said all I wanted to say, and your actions made it quite clear that you don't care, so what is the point?"

"I _do_ care!" he retorted, looking hurt at my accusation.

Slowly shaking my head, I involuntarily smiled briefly in utter exasperation, softly asking, "Then how could you do that to me?"

"I di—I didn't do it to _you_!"

"I almost died trying to protect your job when my father fired you. And now, when it's _my_ career on the line, and the only thing you had to do was not speak…I asked you over and over to stop, but you were willing to throw away everything I've worked for."

"Al, I…" The tears started running down his face again, leaving me slightly surprised that he still had any moisture left in his body. Looking down, he took a deep, shaking breath, wiping his palms across his cheeks. The childlike movement made me feel tired and guilty. This wasn't how I had pictured our engagement to be like, and yet thus far this was all it had been. If this was all it was ever going to be…No, I wouldn't let this be all there was. I clenched my arm almost involuntarily and the ragged strip of cloth I had tied around it in mourning squeezed back. My family had always been a mess of shouting and fights and tears. I had always hated it.

But that was how _that_ _man_ had made _his_ family. I was not going to do the same with mine. I was not going to be like _him_.

"Is that it, then?" Dib demanded after a moment spent crying. Glancing up at me, he smiled and half-heartedly waved an arm. "Is it over? Have I wrecked everything again?" Turning, he took a few steps toward the door, then whirled around and headed for the breezy doorway that led to the garden. "Well, sorry," he said, sounding calm all of the sudden. "Shoulda known that I'd…" He stopped in the doorway, placing his left hand on the frame. Feeling somewhat frightened, I watched and waited for a continuation. When it came, I jumped in surprise; he balled his hand into a fist, slammed it into the wall, and screamed several curse words at the top of his lungs. Sinking down into a crouch, he curled up on himself and once again started to cry.

Sighing faintly, I stood and cautiously stepped over to him, leaning against the other side of the archway. "Do I have no say in the matter of whether or not you've 'wrecked everything'?"

He blubbered something that sounded like "I bow wa boo gah alsay!"

Having no idea what that meant, I stared down at him and attempted to translate it. Coming up with nothing, I sat beside him. "I'm very angry with you, Heng…but…well, we fight all the time. We've made it through all the other ones, haven't we?"

"We haven't fought like _this_," he weakly retorted, thankfully in a coherent manner.

"Do you really trust me so little that you would think I would change my mind?"

"You have tons of times before already!"

I opened my mouth, took a breath, then let it out and nodded. "Yes, I suppose I have. But I made a promise to you, and I'm not going to break it."

"I DON'T WANT YOUR FUCKING PROMISE!" he abruptly bellowed, shooting into an upright position and glaring at me. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO STAY WITH ME JUST 'CAUSE YOU DON'T WANT TO PUT A MARK ON YOUR REPUTATION WITH A BROKEN PROMISE, THEN GIVE ME THE RING BACK AND FORGET THE WHOLE THING!" He thrust a hand out and grabbed my left wrist, and I involuntarily shrank away from him out of fear. Taking hurried breaths, I stared up at his red face, trying to hide my trembling. After a long moment of silence, the anger on his face softened a little, although his grip never loosened. "I want you to stay with me because you _want_ to." With a shudder, he clenched his teeth together. "…If I made you change your mind, tell me now. Don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Just say what you want. And if you don't want me anymore…" His hand tightened around my wrist even more as he let out a choked sound. "If that's what's coming, I'm leaving. For good. I'm gonna move to Holland and never come back! So tell me!"

Silently, I stared into his red-rimmed, very wet eyes as he unwaveringly stared back, apparently expecting an immediate reply. Regardless of the obvious seriousness of this declaration and the utterly humorless mood, there was a brief moment in which I struggled to keep myself from laughing and demanding why the hell he wanted to move to Holland. Did he even know how to speak Dutch? But that blip of amusement was gone at once at the thought of him really going through with it, leaving and never coming back ever again. I didn't want to know what my little world would be like if he left, everything falling apart and disappearing into the gap he'd leave behind. He was priceless, undeniably irreplaceable. He was the one who pulled me out of the deep, dark hole I'd been laying in my whole life. _Second Life_ may have shown me a world beyond my own tiny existence, but he had actually led me inside. He was my first real friend. He was the first person I'd completely trusted. He was the first person who completely trusted me. He taught me so many things and gave me so much…and now he was threatening to leave.

But I was not going to let him.

Trying to stop imagining the nightmare my life would be without him, I put my right hand on the one he had clasped around my wrist, and pulled him toward myself. Scraping together all the confidence I could ever hope to muster, I told him quietly, "I already knew you were a tactless idiot _before_ I said I'd marry you."

Something inside him seemed to collapse. His face looked like it was caving in, and he started shaking, taking deep, gasping breaths as he toppled forward. Feeling thankful that he wasn't wearing his armor, I let him squish me between his body and the doorway, his head on my shoulder and his arms tight around me. Eyes wandering into the garden outside, I gently ran my hand over his head, draping my other arm across his back. Regardless of his new size, it felt as though we had traveled back in time to when he was no taller than my thigh and would always sit on my lap, curled up against my chest, falling asleep with his head tucked in the dip of collar. My fingers absently looped themselves into the golden curls rolling to and fro in the warm, late afternoon breeze.

"I almost didn't come back," I admitted after a while. "When they asked me if I wanted to come back to Taiwan I said no." I paused, but Dib said nothing and didn't move at all. Perhaps he had fallen asleep, exhausted by all the crying. I continued anyway. "I thought it would be better, not forcing you to go through saying goodbye all over again." Looking away from the flowers and trees outside, I lowered my cheek onto his head and slowed my breathing. "I can scarcely begin to count how many times I have pushed you away from myself, convinced it was for the best. But I won't do it again." Putting my mouth to his hair, I repeated in a murmur, "I won't do it again. Okay?"

Dib's hair tickled at my nose when he nodded in reply, his chest swelling as he inhaled deeply.

"I promise I won't. Okay?"

"'Kay," he whispered, with another nod.

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

Silence came over us again, and I went back to staring at the garden. It was closed in on all sides with walls covered in ivy and flowered vines. Soft grass was parted by a narrow brick pathway leading to a steaming open-air bath. To one side was a small wooden table with matching chairs and some potted plants, to the other was a very round, short tree. I very much wanted to relocate us out of the white room and into the nice-looking grass, but forced myself to stay still.

"I really am sorry," he added, his voice thick and raspy. I loosened my hold on him briefly when I felt him shift against me, moving slightly closer and pressing his closed eyes to my neck.

Exhaling slowly, I set my jaw and stared at the top of a puffy white cloud I could see above the wall. Some part of me wanted to lie and tell him I forgave him in hope that we would somehow be able to go back to how we were before all this happened. But there was no going backwards. No amount of apologies could fix what he'd done, no more than being released from that white room could fix all the damage that had been dealt to me while I'd been inside. So, all that came out of my mouth was "I know."


End file.
